Comparison of discrete exterior calculus and discrete-dipole approximation for electromagnetic scattering

•We compare two methods for solving the electromagnetic scattering problems numerically.•Both of the approaches have their own strengths and weaknesses depending on the shape of the obstacle.•The spatial discretization based on the discrete differential forms gives promising results.

In this study, we perform numerical computations of electromagnetic fields including applications such as light scattering. We present two methods for discretizing the computational domain. One is the discrete-dipole approximation (DDA), which is a well-known technique in the context of light scattering. The other approach is the discrete exterior calculus (DEC) providing the properties and the calculus of differential forms in a natural way at the discretization stage. Numerical experiments show that the DEC provides a promising alternative for solving the general Maxwell equations.