Preconditioning of wire simulations in the presence of junctions

Scattering of time-harmonic electromagnetic waves by perfect electrical conductors (PECs) can be modelled by electric field integral equations (EFIEs). If the If the scatterer is wire-like, the EFIE often is constructed using the thin wirescatterer is wire-like, the EFIE often is constructed using the thin wire approximation. The systems of linear equations resulting upon discretization of the EFIE can be of very high dimension. The time of matrix-vector multiplications can be reduced by using multilevel multipole algorithms. To reduce the number of matrix-vector multiplications necessary, the system needs to be preconditioned. In this paper, a physically inspired preconditioner for systems that originate from the discretization of scattering by wire structures is presented. The method used here is more efficient than algebraic preconditioning techniques, and applies to structures containing wire-wire junctions.