Weakly dispersive spectral theory of transients, part I: Formulation and interpretation

Dispersive effects in transient propagation and scattering are usually negligible over the high frequency portion of the signal spectrum, and for certain configurations, they may be neglected altogether. The source-excited field may then be expressed as a continuous spatial spectrum of nondispersive time-harmonic local plane waves, which can be inverted in closed form into the time domain to yield a fundamental field representation in terms of a spatial spectrum of transient local plane waves. By exploiting its analytic properties, one may evaluate the basic spectral integral in terms of its singularities-real and complex, time dependent and time independent-in the complex spectral plane. These singularities describe distinct features of the propagation and scattering process appropriate to a given environment. The theory is developed in detail for the generic local plane wave spectra representative of a broad class of two-dimensional propagation and diffraction problems, with emphasis on physical interpretation of the various spectral contributions. Moreover, the theory is compared with a similar approach that restricts all spectra to be real, thereby forcing certain wave processes into a spectral mold less natural than that admitting complex spectra. Finally, application of the theory is illustrated by specific examples. The presentation is divided into three parts. Part I, in this paper, deals with the formulation of the theory and the classification of the singularities. Parts II and III, to appear subsequently, contain the evaluation and interpretation of the spectral integral and the applications, respectively.