Complex surface rays associated with inhomogeneous skimming and Rayleigh waves

The Rayleigh wave, that propagates at the free surface of semi-infinite anisotropic medium, is composed of three inhomogeneous partial waves, each propagating along the surface with a different attenuation along the depth. Since this wave does not exhibit an attenuation on the surface, let us call it the homogeneous Rayleigh wave. The associated slowness corresponds to the real solution of the Rayleigh dispersion equation. Besides this classical solution, an infinite number of complex solutions of the Rayleigh dispersion equation exits. For such particular Rayleigh waves, the slowness vector, i.e. the identical component on the surface of the slowness of each partial waves, is taken to be complex. Thus, these Rayleigh waves are attenuated on the surface and as shown here, their attenuation is normal to the ray direction (or the energy velocity direction). Similarly to the infinite inhomogeneous plane waves which can be associated with complex rays, we call these waves, inhomogeneous Rayleigh waves. We use the inhomogeneous skimming waves, which are inhomogeneous plane waves, and the inhomogeneous Rayleigh waves to explain differently the usual diffraction phenomena on the free surface which cannot be explained by the real ray theory. For example, the arrival time of the wave packet observed beyond the cusp is in perfect accordance with the arrival time of some specific inhomogeneous Rayleigh waves. We show that these results are in agreement with the computation of the Green function. They apply to the theory of surface waves in linear elastodynamics with intrinsic anisotropy as well as to the theory of surface waves in linearised (incremental) elastodynamics with strain-induced anisotropy (also known as small-amplitude waves superimposed on the large static homogeneous deformation of a non-linear solid).