Unified Construction of Green's functions for Poisson's equation in inhomogeneous media with diffuse interfaces

Abstract Green’s functions for Poisson’s equation in inhomogeneous media with material interfaces have many practical applications. In the present work, we focus on Green’s functions for Poisson’s equation in inhomogeneous media with diffuse material interfaces where a gradual and continuous transition in the material constant is assumed in a small region around the interfaces between different materials. We present a unified general framework for calculating Green’s functions for Poisson’s equation in such inhomogeneous media and the framework can apply to all eleven orthogonal coordinate systems in which the three-dimensional Laplace equation is separable. Within this framework, the idea on how to design the so-called quasi-harmonic diffuse interface is discussed, formulations for building Green’s function for Poisson’s equation in an inhomogeneous medium with such a diffuse interface is elaborated, and a robust numerical method for calculating Green’s functions for Poisson’s equation in inhomogeneous media with general diffuse interfaces is developed. Several practically relevant separable coordinate systems are briefly surveyed at the level of definition and basic facts relevant for implementing the unified framework in these coordinate systems.

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