Abstract
The time domain combined field integral equation (TD-CFIE), which is constructed from a weighted sum of the time domain electric and magnetic field integral equations (TD-EFIE and TD-MFIE) for analyzing transient scattering from closed perfect electrically conducting bodies, is free from spurious resonances. The standard marching-on-in-time technique for discretizing the TD-CFIE uses Galerkin and collocation schemes in space and time, respectively. Unfortunately, the standard scheme is theoretically not well understood: stability and convergence have been proven for only one class of space-time Galerkin discretizations. Moreover, existing discretization schemes are nonconforming, i.e., the TD-MFIE contribution is tested with divergence conforming functions instead of curl conforming functions. We therefore introduce a novel space-time mixed Galerkin discretization for the TD-CFIE. A family of temporal basis and testing functions with arbitrary order is introduced. It is explained how the corresponding interactions can be computed efficiently by existing collocation-in-time codes. The spatial mixed discretization is made fully conforming and consistent by leveraging both Rao-Wilton-Glisson and Buffa-Christiansen basis functions and by applying the appropriate bi-orthogonalization procedures. The combination of both techniques is essential when high accuracy over a broad frequency band is required.