A Fast Multipole Method for axisymmetric domains

Abstract: The Fast Multipole Method (FMM) for the Poisson equation is extended to the case of non-axisymmetric problems in an axisymmetric domain, described by cylindrical coordinates. The method is based on a Fourier decomposition of the source into a modal expansion and the evaluation of the corresponding modes of the field using a two-dimensional tree decomposition in the radial and axial coordinate. The field coefficients are evaluated using a modal Green's function which can be evaluated using well-known recursions for the Legendre function of the second kind, and whose derivatives can be found recursively using the Laplace equation in cylindrical coordinates. The principal difference between the cylindrical and Cartesian problems is the lack of translation invariance in the evaluation of local interactions, leading to an increase in computational effort for the axisymmetric domain. Results are presented for solution accuracy and convergence and for computation time compared to direct evaluation. The method is found to converge well, with ten digit accuracy being achieved for the test cases presented. Computation time is controlled by the balance between initialization and the evaluation of local interactions between source and field points, and is about two orders of magnitude less than that required for direct evaluation, depending on expansion order.