Source-to-far-field operator at fixed frequency ($T_k:L^2(A)\to L^2(S_1)$)

For $(\Delta +k^2)\psi =Q$, the outgoing Green function for the three-dimensional Helmholtz equation yields the far-field patternThe sign corresponds to the Green function satisfying $(\Delta +k^2)G=-\delta$. This Hilbert-Schmidt operator samples the source Fourier transform on the sphere $|\mathbf{\xi }|=k$; for a ball of radius $r_0$, its squared Hilbert-Schmidt norm is $r_0^3/3$.

The adjoint source-to-far-field operator composed with the source-to-far-field operator at fixed frequency has volume kernel $K(\mathbf{r},{\mathbf{r}}^{\prime })=(4\pi {)}^{-1}\mathrm{sinc}(k|\mathbf{r}-{\mathbf{r}}^{\prime }|)$, where $\mathrm{sinc}(s)=\sin (s)/s$ and $\mathrm{sinc}(0)=1$. This follows from ${\int }_{S_1}{e}^{ik\mathbf{\theta }\cdot \mathbf{d}}dS=4\pi \mathrm{sinc}(k|\mathbf{d}|)$. Its smoothing action helps explain the unstable normal equation for a linear inverse problem.

With complex inner products linear in the first argument, the adjoint operator of the source-to-far-field operator at fixed frequency isIt is a normalized Herglotz wave function. Complex conjugation reverses the phase sign, while retaining the real factor $-1/(4\pi )$.