The energy method for constructing time-harmonic solutions to the maxwell equations

We propose some minimum principle for an energy functional in an elliptic boundary value problem that arises in constructing time-harmonic solutions to the Maxwell equations. We suggest the potentials other than the vector and scalar potentials, used in the mathematical modeling of electromagnetic fields since the operators of traditional problems are not sign definite, which complicates constructions of iterative solution methods. We consider the problem in a parallelepiped whose boundary is ideally conducting. For nonresonant frequencies we prove that the operator of the boundary value problem is positive definite, propose a minimum principle for a quadratic energy functional, and prove the existence and uniqueness of generalized solutions. © 2011 Pleiades Publishing, Ltd.