Solving integral equations on piecewise smooth boundaries using the RCIP method: a tutorial

Recursively compressed inverse preconditioning (RCIP) is a numerical method for obtaining highly accurate solutions to integral equations on piecewise smooth surfaces. The method originated in 2008 as a technique within a scheme for solving Laplace’s equation in two-dimensional domains with corners. In a series of subsequent papers, the technique was then refined and extended as to apply to integral equation formulations of a broad range of boundary value problems in physics and engineering. The purpose of the present paper is threefold: first, to review the RCIP method in a simple setting; second, to show how easily the method can be implemented in MATLAB; third, to present new applications of RCIP to integral equations of scattering theory on planar curves with corners.