Rays, multipoles, and caustics

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• Professor C. John Chapman, Keele University
• Wednesday 12 November 2025, 16:00-18:00
• Centre for Mathematical Sciences MR5, CMS.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Dr Matthew Nethercote.

It is shown that the familiar three-dimensional multipole in acoustics (`Hankel function times associated Legendre function’) has a ray structure of greater interest than might be supposed, and this structure makes possible a new theory of near-field scattering. The key idea is that in constructing ray fields one must include subsonic rays as being just as important as ordinary rays, even though the governing wave equation contains just a single parameter, `the speed of sound’.

This talk is part of the Waves group seminar series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• Centre for Mathematical Sciences MR5, CMS
• Waves group seminar

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