Orthogonal Helmholtz decomposition in arbitrary dimension using divergence-free and curl-free wavelets

Abstract

We present tensor-product divergence-free and curl-free wavelets, and define associated projectors. These projectors enable the construction of an iterative algorithm to compute the Helmholtz decomposition of any vector field, in wavelet domain. This decomposition is localized in space, in contrast to the Helmholtz decomposition calculated by Fourier transform. Then we prove the convergence of the algorithm in dimension two for any kind of wavelets, and in larger dimension for the particular case of Shannon wavelets. We also present a modification of the algorithm by using quasi-isotropic divergence-free and curl-free wavelets. Finally, numerical tests show the validity of this approach for a large class of wavelets.