The paper deals with the Galerkin method for the discretisation of the boundary integral equations appearing in the numerical simulation of electromagnetic scattering in the frequency domain. The method is based on variational formulations in suitable trace spaces, which allows using powerful tools from functional analysis applied to the development of rigorous and comprehensive convergence theory. The emphasis is made on the difference between acoustic and electromagnetic scattering. The plan of the paper closely follows the canonical approach to the construction and theoretical examination of Galerkin boundary methods, whereas issues of implementation and efficient solution of the resulting linear systems of equations are not considered in the paper.
For the entire collection see [Zbl 1018.00017].