Department of Mathematics - Seminar on Applied Mathematics - Local Robustness of Bound States in the Continuum through Scattering-Matrix Eigenvector Continuation

We consider the diffraction of time-harmonic plane waves by a periodic structure governed by the Helmholtz equation. Bound states in the continuum (BICs) are quasi-periodic fields that remain bounded over one period and occur at frequencies embedded in the continuous spectrum. Perturbations that break a BIC can lead to ultra-strong resonances, enabling various applications in photonics. Employing the implicit function theorem, we demonstrate how a simple BIC continuously deforms into a propagating field as system parameters vary in a neighbourhood, with the frequency adjusting accordingly. In this setting, the incident coefficients of the field persist as an eigenvector of the scattering matrix with a fixed eigenvalue. By introducing a mapping P from the parameters to these coefficients, the zeros of P correspond precisely to BICs. When such a zero is isolated and the dimensions of the domain and codomain coincide, the BIC can be related to the mapping degree of P in a small neighbourhood. This perspective clarifies the phase singularity associated with BICs and provides a general topological interpretation of their local robustness with respect to the given parameters. Moreover, it yields a practical numerical criterion for detecting and verifying BICs via computation of the mapping degree of P.