Quantitative comparison of rooftop and RWG basis functions

Integral-equation solvers of computational electromagnetics rely on the representation of the unknown function in terms of some known basis functions (BFs). Among various possible entire-domain and subdomain BFs, the piecewise linear function defined on rectangular subdomains (referred to as "rooftops" or RTs) and triangular subdomains (due to Rao, Wilton, and Glisson (1982), and referred to as RWGs) are commonly used in the numerical solution of the surface integral equations. A quantitative method of comparison these functions, using the EM wave scattering problem, is presented.