Renormalized scattering series for frequency-domain waveform modelling of strong velocity contrasts

Abstract

An improved description of scattering and inverse scattering processes in reflection seismology may be obtained on the basis of a scattering series solution to the Helmoltz equation, which allows one to separately model primary and multiple reflections. However, the popular scattering series of Born is of limited seismic modelling value, since it is only guaranteed to converge if the global contrast is relatively small. For frequency-domain waveform modelling of realistic contrasts, some kind of renormalization may be required. The concept of renormalization is normally associated with quantum field theory, where it is absolutely essential for the treatment of infinities in connection with observable quantities. However, the renormalization program is also highly relevant for classical systems, especially when there are interaction effects that act across different length scales. In the scattering series of De Wolf, a renormalization of the Green's functions is achieved by a split of the scattering potential operator into fore- and backscattering parts; which leads to an effective reorganization and partially re-summation of the different terms in the Born series, so that their order better reflects the physics of reflection seismology. It has been demonstrated that the leading (single return) term in the De Wolf series (DWS) gives much more accurate results than the corresponding Born approximation, especially for models with high contrasts that lead to a large accumulation of phase changes in the forward direction. However, the higher order terms in the DWS that are associated with internal multiples have not been studied numerically before. In this paper, we report from a systematic numerical investigation of the convergence properties of the DWS which is based on two new operator representations of the DWS. The first operator representation is relatively similar to the original scattering potential formulation, but more global and explicit in nature. The second representation is based on the T-operator formalism from quantum scattering theory, that offers a different perspective on the interaction between up- and downgoing waves, as well as significant computational advantages (e.g. domain decomposition and fast recursive methods for one-way propagators). Our numerical results demonstrate the convergence properties of the DWS are indeed superior to those of the Born series.