Near peak scattering and the corrected Kirchhoff approximation for a convex obstacle

Abstract

The uniform asympotic behavior of the scattering amplitude near the forward peak, in the case of classical scattering of waves by a convex obstacle, is derived. A microlocal model is obtained for the scattering operator. This is achieved by use of a parametrix for diffractive boundary problems and by a new study of a class of Fourier integral operators, those with folding canonical relations. A crucial ingredient consists of putting a Fourier integral operator with folding canonical relation into a normal form. The analysis also gives the asymptotic behavior of the normal derivative of the scattered wave on a neighbourhood of the shadow boundary, thus providing a corrected version of the Kirchhoff approximation.