Spectrum of the Maxwell Equations for a Flat Interface Between Homogeneous Dispersive Media

The paper determines and classifies the spectrum of a non-self-adjoint operator pencil generated by the time-harmonic Maxwell problem with a nonlinear dependence on the frequency for the case of two homogeneous materials joined at a planar interface. We study spatially one-dimensional and two-dimensional reductions in the whole space \({\mathbb {R}}\) $\mathbb{R}$ and \({\mathbb {R}}^2\) ${\mathbb{R}}^2$ . The dependence on the spectral parameter, i.e. the frequency, is in the dielectric function and we make no assumptions on its form. These function values determine the spectral sets. In order to allow also for non-conservative media, the dielectric function is allowed to be complex, yielding a non-self-adjoint problem. The whole spectrum consists of eigenvalues and the essential spectrum, but the various standard types of essential spectra do not coincide in all cases. The main tool for determining the essential spectra are Weyl sequences.