A note on the equivalence of three major propagator algorithms for computational stability and efficiency

Abstract

It is shown in this note that the three methods, the orthonormalization method, the minor matrix method and the recursive reflection-transmission matrix method are closely related and solve the numerical instability in the original Thomson-Haskell propagator matrix method equally well. Another stable and efficient method based on the orthonormalization and the Langer block-diagonal decomposition is presented to calculate the response of a horizontal stratified model to a plane, spectral wave. It is a numerically robust Thomson-Haskell matrix method for high frequencies, large layer thicknesses and horizontal slownesses. The technique is applied to calculate reflection-transmission coefficients, body wave receiver functions and Rayleigh wave dispersion.