Collocation boundary element methods for integral equations are easier to implement than Galerkin methods because the elements of the discretization matrix are given by lower-dimensional integrals. For that same reason, the matrix assembly also requires fewer computations. However, collocation methods typically yield slower convergence rates and less robustness, compared to Galerkin methods. We explore the extent to which oversampled collocation can improve both robustness and convergence rates. We show that in some cases convergence rates can actually be higher than the corresponding Galerkin method, although this requires oversampling at a faster than linear rate. In most cases of practical interest, oversampling at least lowers the error by a constant factor. This can still be a substantial improvement: we analyze an example where linear oversampling by a constant factor $J$ (leading to a rectangular system of size $JN times N$) improves the error at a cubic rate in the constant $J$. Furthermore, the oversampled collocation method is much less affected by a poor choice of collocation points, as we show how oversampling can lead to guaranteed convergence. Numerical experiments are included for the two-dimensional Helmholtz equation.
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