Acquiring the Lefschetz thimbles: efficient evaluation of the diffraction integral for lensing in wave optics

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteur principal: Shi, Xun
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2024
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author Shi, Xun
author_facet Shi, Xun
contents Evaluating the Kirchhoff-Fresnel diffraction integral is essential in studying wave effects in astrophysical lensing, but is often intractable because of the highly oscillatory integrated. A recent breakthrough was made by exploiting the Picard-Lefschetz theory: the integral can be performed along the `Lefschetz thimbles' in the complex domain where the integrand is not oscillatory but rapidly converging. The application of this method, however, has been limited by both the unfamiliar concepts involved and the low numerical efficiency of the method used to find the Lefschetz thimbles. In this paper, we give simple examples of the Lefschetz thimbles and define the `flow lines' that facilitate the understanding of the concepts. Based on this, we propose new ways to obtain the Lefschetz thimbles with high numerical efficiency, which provide an effective tool for studying wave effects in astrophysical lensing.
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id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2409_12991
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
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spellingShingle Acquiring the Lefschetz thimbles: efficient evaluation of the diffraction integral for lensing in wave optics
Shi, Xun
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Evaluating the Kirchhoff-Fresnel diffraction integral is essential in studying wave effects in astrophysical lensing, but is often intractable because of the highly oscillatory integrated. A recent breakthrough was made by exploiting the Picard-Lefschetz theory: the integral can be performed along the `Lefschetz thimbles' in the complex domain where the integrand is not oscillatory but rapidly converging. The application of this method, however, has been limited by both the unfamiliar concepts involved and the low numerical efficiency of the method used to find the Lefschetz thimbles. In this paper, we give simple examples of the Lefschetz thimbles and define the `flow lines' that facilitate the understanding of the concepts. Based on this, we propose new ways to obtain the Lefschetz thimbles with high numerical efficiency, which provide an effective tool for studying wave effects in astrophysical lensing.
title Acquiring the Lefschetz thimbles: efficient evaluation of the diffraction integral for lensing in wave optics
topic Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.12991