On the existence of transmission eigenvalues

Abstract

The investigation of the far field operator and the Factorization Method in inverse scattering theory leads naturally to the study of corresponding interior transmission eigenvalue problems. In contrast to the classical Dirichlet-or Neumann eigenvalue problem for −∆ in bounded domains these interior transmiision eigenvalue problem fail to be selfadjoint. In general, existence of eigenvalues is an open problem. In this paper we prove existence of eigenvalues for the scalar Helmholtz equation (isotropic and anisotropic cases) and Maxwell’s equations under the condition that the contrast of the scattering medium is large enough.