Perfectly matched discrete layers for modeling unbounded domains

The method of perfectly matched layers (PML) is based on the elegant idea of introducing attenuation while keeping impedance unaltered, thus resulting in effective absorption of waves without spurious reflections. Due to its simplicity and effectiveness, PML has been widely used over the past 25 years to model wave propagation in unbounded domains. However, an acknowledged challenge is that PML no longer preserves impedance once the domain and the PML region are discretized, leading to spurious reflection at the interface. This issue has been fixed with the help of so-called impedance preserving discretization, leading to the method of perfectly matched discrete layers (PMDL), developed more than a decade ago. The idea is based on the observation that midpoint integration completely eliminates the discretization error in impedance that arises from linear finite element discretization. Beyond eliminating reflections at the interface, impedance preserving discretization is shown to be crucial to achieving stability of absorbing boundary conditions in situations with differing signs of phase and group velocities, e.g., anisotropic media. This talk will be an exposition of the development of the PMDL by the author and his collaborators, staring with fundamental ideas impedance preserving discretization followed by more advanced ABCs for anisotropic and periodic media.