High-frequency estimates on boundary integral operators for the Helmholtz exterior Neumann problem

We study a commonly-used second-kind boundary-integral equation for solving the Helmholtz exterior Neumann problem at high frequency, where, writing $Gamma$ for the boundary of the obstacle, the relevant integral operators map $L^2(Gamma)$ to itself. We prove new frequency-explicit bounds on the norms of both the integral operator and its inverse. The bounds on the norm are valid for piecewise-smooth $Gamma$ and are sharp, and the bounds on the norm of the inverse are valid for smooth $Gamma$ and are observed to be sharp at least when $Gamma$ is curved. Together, these results give bounds on the condition number of the operator on $L^2(Gamma)$; this is the first time $L^2(Gamma)$ condition-number bounds have been proved for this operator for obstacles other than balls.