Spectral properties of the Neumann-Poincaré operator in 3D elasticity

Abstract: We consider the double layer potential (Neumann-Poincar\'e) operator appearing in 3-dimensional elasticity. We show that the recent result about the polynomial compactness of this operator for the case of a homogeneous media follows without additional calculations from previous considerations by Agranovich et.al., based upon pseudodifferential operators. Further on, we define the NP operator for the case of a nonhomogeneous isotropic media and show that its properties depend crucially on the character of non-homogeneity. If the Lam\'e parameters are constant along the boundary, the NP operator is still polynomially compact. On the other hand, if these parameters are not constant, two or more intervals of continuous spectrum may appear, so the NP operator ceases to be polynomially compact. However, after a certain modification, it becomes polynomially compact again. Finally, we evaluate the rate of convergence of discrete eigenvalues of the NP operator to the tips of the essential spectrum.