A quasi-periodic boundary value problem for the Laplacian and the continuation of its resolvent

Abstract

SynopsisA quasi-periodic boundary value problem for the Helmholtz equation in an unbounded domain is considered. This problem arises from scattering of plane waves by periodic structures.Existence and uniqueness theorems are proved, and the continuation of the resolvent of this problem to a Riemannian surface is constructed. This construction makes no use of the continuation of the resolvent kernel but runs along the following lines:First a family of differential operators is defined, which is holomorphic in a generalized sense. Then, using a result from analytic perturbation theory about families of operators with compact resolvent, it is shown that the family of inverses of these differential operators gives the desired continuation.