Diffractive Behavior of the Wave Equation in Periodic Media: Weak Convergence Analysis

Abstract. We study the homogenization and singular perturbation of the wave equation in a periodic media for long times of the order of the inverse of the period. We consider inital data that are Bloch wave packets, i.e., that are the product of a fast oscillating Bloch wave and of a smooth envelope function. We prove that the solution is approximately equal to two waves propagating in opposite directions at a high group velocity with envelope functions which obey a Schrödinger type equation. Our analysis extends the usual WKB approximation by adding a dispersive, or diffractive, effect due to the non uniformity of the group velocity which yields the dispersion tensor of the homogenized Schrödinger equation.