Elastic scattering by locally rough interfaces

In this paper, we present the first well-posedness result for elastic scattering by locally rough interfaces in both two and three dimensions. Inspired by the Helmholtz decomposition, we discover a fundamental identity for the stress vector, revealing an intrinsic relationship among the generalized stress vector, the Lame constants and certain tangential differential operators. This identity leads to two key limits for surface integrals involving scattered solutions, from which we deduce the first uniqueness result of direct problem for all frequencies. Through a detailed analysis, applying the steepest descent method, subsequently we derive the existence and uniqueness of the corresponding two-layered Green’s tensor along with its explicit expression when the transmission coefficient equals 1. Finally, by leveraging properties of the Green’s tensor, we establish the existence of solutions via the variational method and the boundary integral equation, thereby achieving the first well-posedness result for elastic scattering by rough interfaces.