Amplitude Calculations for 3-D Gaussian Beam

Migration using Complex-valued Traveltimes

Norman Bleistein∗ and Samuel H. Gray†
June 14, 2010

Abstract
Gaussian beams are often used to represent Green’s functions in three-dimensional
Kirchhoff-type true-amplitude migrations because such migrations made using Gaus-
sian beams yield superior images to similar migrations using classical ray-theoretic
Green’s functions. Typically, the integrand of a migration formula consists of two
Green’s functions, each describing propagation to the image point—one from the source
position and the other from the receiver position.
The use of Gaussian beams to represent each of these Green’s functions in 3D intro-
duces two additional double integrals when compared to a Kirchhoff migration using
ray-theoretic Green’s functions, thereby adding a significant computational burden.
Hill [2001] proposed a method for reducing those four integrals to two, compromising
slightly on the full potential quality of the Gaussian beam representations for the sake
of more efficient computation. That approach requires a two-dimensional steepest de-
scent analysis for the asymptotic evaluation of a double integral. The method requires
evaluation of the complex traveltimes of the Gaussian beams as well as the amplitudes
of the integrands at the determined saddle points. In addition, it is necessary to evalu-
ate the determinant of a certain (Hessian) matrix of second derivatives. Hill [2001] did
not report on this last part; thus, his proposed migration formula is kinematically cor-
rect but lacks correct amplitude behavior. In this paper, we derive a formula for that
Hessian matrix in terms of dynamic ray tracing quantities. We also show in a simple
example how the integral that we analyze here arises in a true amplitude migration
formula.

∗
Center for Wave Phenomena, Dept. of Geophysics, Colo. Sch. of Mines, Golden, CO 80401-1887, USA
([email protected])
†
CGGVeritas Inc., 715 5th Avenue SW, Calgary, AB T2P 5A2 Canada ([email protected]).

1
Second derivatives, complex traveltime. 2

Contents
1 Introduction 3
1.1 Kirchhoff migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2 Gaussian beam migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3 The Hessian and the method of steepest descent for integrals . . . . . . . . 4
1.4 Two Hessians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.5 The 2D problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.6 Returning to the 3D problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.7 Content of the sections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

2 Preliminaries 8
2.1 The kinematic and dynamic equations governing propagation on paraxial rays
in ray-centered coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.2 The dynamic quantities of the propagator matrix. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.3 Gaussian beams and the complex traveltimes T . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

3 The Hessian matrix T 16

3.1 Transformation to a Hessian with respect to p0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.2 Transformation to a Hessian with respect to q . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.2.1 Analysis of Tq . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

4 The approximation of Ψ 24
4.1 Special case: V = 0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

5 Common-shot inversion with Gaussian beams; an example 27

6 A numerical example in 2D 28

7 Summary and conclusions 28

References 29

Acknowledgements 31

A Iterated Method of Steepest Descent in Two Variables 32

A.1 Steepest descent in one dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
A.2 Iterated steepest descent in two dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Second derivatives, complex traveltime. 3

1 Introduction
In oil and gas exploration, a seismic reflection experiment consists of an exploding or vi-
brating source of energy near the Earth’s surface sending elastic waves into the Earth. The
seismic waves propagate inside the Earth, and waves reflected from interfaces where material
properties change return to the Earth’s surface to be recorded by an array of receivers. A
seismic survey consists of hundreds or thousands of such experiments in close proximity to
one another, each producing a seismic record that gives a distorted picture of the Earth’s
subsurface. Although reflectors are visible on the records, they tend to be misplaced laterally
and obscured by diffracted energy. Further, the records are recorded in time, so they do not
provide an image of the Earth’s subsurface in depth.
The goal of seismic migration is to undistort the data recorded by the seismic survey,
producing accurate maps of reflector locations. The basis for migration is wave propagation
theory: given a reasonably accurate profile of seismic wave velocities inside the Earth, the
physical waves are simulated by numerical wavefields propagating from the source and re-
ceiver locations, and the occurrence of reflection at locations inside the Earth is simulated by
an imaging condition involving the wavefields at those locations. There is a vast geophysical
literature on migration and associated problems, including problems of analyzing migrated
amplitudes and estimating the wave velocities. Some of these problems are treated by Claer-
bout [1985]. The problem of interest in this paper is true-amplitude migration, which aims
to preserve reflection amplitudes to the point where amplitudes of migration data provide
accurate estimates of reflection coefficients as a function of source-receiver offset or incidence
angle at reflector locations.

1.1 Kirchhoff migration

As with all migration methods, true-amplitude Kirchhoff migration requires downward prop-
agation of the source wavefield and downward propagation of the observed data to image
points in the subsurface. The downward propagations are accomplished using Green’s iden-
tity, operating on data evaluated along one surface to obtain data at a deeper surface via
a convolution-type integral of the data with a Green’s function. We would also downward
propagate sources other than point sources as a convolution-type integral. This is Kirch-
hoff migration [Schneider, 1978]. Each of these propagation processes requires evaluation of
Green’s functions at the image point, one from a source, one from a receiver. When Gaus-
sian beam representations of these Green’s functions are used, it is necessary to generate
the Gaussian beams themselves in neighborhoods of the image points. Then, to obtain the
Gaussian beam representation of each Greens function in 3D, it is necessary to carry out a
2D integration of Gaussian beams over all takeoff angles where rays are in the vicinity of the
image point. By contrast, the Greens functions for standard Kirchhoff migration, derived
from classical asymptotic ray theory, require only a complex function evaluation with no
additional integrations.
Second derivatives, complex traveltime. 4

1.2 Gaussian beam migration

Multiplying the Green’s functions together, as required by migration theory, results in the
need to evaluate four nested integrals for Gaussian beam migration, as opposed to the mul-
tiplication of two complex numbers for classical ray-theoretic Green’s functions. Hill [2001]
suggested a method for reducing those four additional integrals to two. Hill’s method first
replaces integrals over source and receiver ray parameters with integrals over midpoint and
offset ray parameters. He then applies the method of steepest descent for integrals with com-
plex exponents to the (innermost) integrals over offset parameters, leaving the (outermost)
integrals over midpoint parameters to be computed numerically. He provides a technique for
determining the critical (saddle) points and evaluating the complex traveltime and amplitude
in the Kirchhoff integral formula. However, for true amplitude integrity, the steepest descent
approximation of the integral also requires including the determinant of the Hessian matrix
of second derivatives of the complex traveltime with respect to the two offset ray parameters
as an additional adjustment factor in the amplitude of the asymptotic approximation. Hill
did not evaluate that determinant; thus his method suffers a slight amplitude and phase
fidelity. That is, its peak amplitude on reflectors cannot be guaranteed to be proportional
to a specular reflection coefficient.

1.3 The Hessian and the method of steepest descent for integrals

The Hessian we seek is a sum of two other Hessians, one with respect to initial transverse
ray parameters for the rays from the source to the image point, the other, the same for the
rays from the receiver. Those matrices are needed to compute the sum of matrices before
evaluating the needed determinant. Červený and Pšenčik [1983] and Červený [2001], Section
5.8, provide the tools for determining those matrices as well as other details of Gaussian
beams which come from the dynamic equations using ray tracing, complex-valued traveltime
and complex-valued ray amplitude.
The steepest descent method needs the evaluation of the Hessians in offset ray parameters
for each choice of the midpoint point ray parameters over which the numerical integration is
yet to be done. It is important to note that at those saddle points for which one and/or the
other of the central rays from source and receiver misses the image point, the imaginary part
of the complex traveltime is positive, and the integrand has exponential decay. Only when
both rays from source and receiver pass through the saddle point is the imaginary part of
the traveltime equal to zero. Thus, the remaining outermost integrations are dominated by
the region of midpoint ray parameters for which central rays pass nearby the image point.

1.4 Two Hessians

We can exploit this observation to simplify the evaluation of the two Hessians at the saddle
points in offset ray parameters. Those Hessians contain terms linear in the offset variables—
the q’s of ray-centered coordinates. When central rays from both source and receiver pass
through the image point, those q’s are all zero, producing the zero of the imaginary travel-
time. Directly evaluating the coefficients of the terms linear in the q’s would require finite
Second derivatives, complex traveltime. 5

difference approximations to derivative operators. This evaluation would be compromised

by numerical artifacts arising from differencing quantities that are only moderately well
behaved. As an alternative, we propose an approximate evaluation of the two Hessian ma-
trices. In our approximation, we neglect those contributions that are linear in the q’s. Near
the regions of dominant contribution to the integral, this causes insignificant error because
the q’s are small; elsewhere the error is limited by the exponential decay of the integrand.
The resulting approximation of the Hessians can then be evaluated in terms of dynamic ray
quantities. Our approximation has been empirically shown to be adequate for estimating
reflection coefficients in 2D [Gray and Bleistein, 2009].

1.5 The 2D problem

The problem in 2D requires the reduction of two single integrals of Gaussian beams over
takeoff angles representing the two Green’s functions, one from the source, one from the
receiver. In 2D the there is only one orthogonal variable, say q, and the dynamic variables
are also scalars, Q and P . The second derivative we need is a scalar given by the sum of two
other known scalars. That case is discussed by Gray and Bleistein [2009] who present a true
amplitude Gaussian beam migration in 2D. They derived the second derivative indirectly
by a method that did not expose the approximation we introduce here, although the same
approximation is implicit in the final formula. Numerical examples confirm the claim of true
amplitude migration. We show one of those examples in Section 6. The second derivatives
we need are the derivatives of the complex traveltimes with respect to the initial transverse
ray parameters—for rays from source and receiver—of rays in a Cartesian coordinate system.
We do not have direct knowledge about how those derivatives propagate. On the other hand,
we know about the second derivatives of complex traveltime with respect to the orthogonal
coordinate q for rays from source and receiver; these derivatives are expressible in terms
of Q and P . Thus, we need to connect the two second derivatives—one for rays from the
source, the other for rays from the receiver—through changes of variables and the derivatives
of those transformations. This is the key to determining the desired second derivatives of
complex traveltime in terms of computed quantities of dynamic ray tracing.
As a first step, we need to transform the underlying Cartesian coordinate system to a
Cartesian system defined by the initial direction of the ray from a source or receiver to the
image point; eventually, we will not need to know that ray which might not be one of the
discrete central rays of Gaussian beams used to compute the Green’s function at x. In Figure
1, that initial point for all rays is denoted by x0 , which can be the source point xs or the
receiver point xr . The angle of the initial direction of this ray is denoted by β and the initial
direction along the ray from x0 through x is denoted by the initial slowness vector px in
the figure. This transformation is completely geometric, defined by a matrix of rotation of
coordinates.
The vector p0x depicts the initial direction of the ray from x0 through x0 along a central
ray of a Gaussian beam.. The integration variable in Hill’s [2001] method in 2D is the initial
ray parameter p0x , the x-component of p0 in the Cartesian coordinate system (x, z). The
method of steepest descent of a single integral, such as the integral over directions of the
rays of the Gaussian beams, requires the second derivative with respect to this integration
variable p0x . The 3D depiction is more complicated because there are two transverse slowness
Second derivatives, complex traveltime. 6

x’

x0 x
β
p
p’x
p’ p10 x’
z’ q
z
x
Figure 1: Rotation of Cartesian coordinates in 2D to the direction of the ray
from the initial point x0 to the image point x. The initial slowness vector of this
ray is px The rotation angle with respect to the vertical is β. The vector p0 is the
initial direction of the central ray of a Gaussian beam through a point x0 which is
connected to the image point x by the vector q. p0x is the transverse coordinate of
p0 in the unrotated coordinate system; this is the variable of integration over an
ensemble of Gaussian beams used to compute the Green’s function at the point
x. The direction of q is orthogonal to the tangent to the central ray at x0 .

coordinates to deal with.

The ray equations in ray-centered coordinates describe the propagation of the orthogonal
displacement q between the point x0 and x. The traveltime at the image point x is approx-
imated to quadratic order in q, as differential equations in the arc length s along the central
ray through x0 . The differential equation for q is coupled with a differential equation for the
propagation of p1 = ∂τ /∂q. The initial value of p1 is the orthogonal projection of p0 on to
the initial direction defined by px .
The dynamic quantities in 2D, scalars Q and P , are described by differential equations
in s along the ray through x0 . The second derivatives of traveltimes with respect to q are
given by the quotient P Q−1 for appropriate initial conditions on these dynamic variables.
For classical asymptotic ray theory with real traveltimes, the initial conditions for Q and P
are real; for Gaussian beams with complex traveltimes, the initial conditions for Q and P are
complex. Thus, once the second derivative of traveltime with respect to px is transformed to
a second derivative with respect to q, we can write that second derivative with respect to px
in terms of the dynamic quantities Q and P . This latter second derivative is exactly the one
Second derivatives, complex traveltime. 7

that we need to complete the amplitude formula in the method of steepest descent; this was
done in Gray and Bleistein [2009], although we used an indirect method to compute that
scalar second derivative—simpler to determine than the determinant of second derivatives
that we need in 3D.

1.6 Returning to the 3D problem

The next step after the rotation of coordinates is to transform from initial slownesses in the
ray-centered coordinate system to the q’s mentioned above. This is a standard matrix of
propagation of a local ray tube in ray-centered coordinates. It is given by a matrix solution Q
of the dynamic ray tracing equations with appropriate initial data for the pair, Q, P. After
these steps, the original Hessian of the complex traveltime in Cartesian slownesses can be
written in terms of the Hessian of the same complex traveltime with respect to q = (q1 , q2 ).
One other subtlety occurs in the derivation of the Hessian in q. In ray-centered coordi-
nates, the arc length along a ray is an independent third parameter with the given location
determined by marching out to a specific value of the arc length s and then moving orthog-
onally to the ray along a vector q. However, the image point x is the same for the entire
family of Gaussian beams in the integral representing a Green’s function. As a result of that,
the arc length can be different for each ray that “carries” a Gaussian beam, so that s = s(q),
as we show below by examining the case of constant velocity in the discussion beginning on
page 21; on the other hand, when there are no caustics in the ray family, we can also write
down q = q(s, , p10 , p20 ); the latter pair on the right here are the two initial slownesses that
generalize p10 shown in Figure 1 to 3D.
With an explanation of the approximation we make along the way, we arrive at an approx-
imate expression for the desired Hessian of the complex traveltime in Cartesian slownesses
that we want in terms of the Hessian of the same complex traveltime with respect to q. The
latter Hessian is surrounded by the Jacobians of the two transformations of coordinates and
their transposes. The formula for the Hessian of one set of Cartesian slownesses—sources or
receivers—is stated in equation (50). The final formula for the sum of Hessians needed in
this analysis is stated in equation (51).
All quantities in (51) are determined on the discrete set of central rays that are computed.
Thus, after a difficult theory, once we have the answer, the original rotation to the ray through
the image point x is not needed. This is explained in context.

1.7 Content of the sections

Section 2 contains background information necessary for this analysis and establishes a base-
line of notation. The asymptotic formula we need to evaluate is stated in equation (19), with
I in that equation related to the product of Green’s functions as defined by equation (15).
The Hessian matrix that we need to determine at a saddle point is defined by equation (18).
It is written in terms of the Hessians of transverse slownesses for source and receiver in
equation (21).
Section 3 is devoted to the analysis of either of these last two slownesses; they both
require the same analysis, one for source coordinates, one for receiver coordinates. Hence, a
Second derivatives, complex traveltime. 8

single analysis suffices for both. Section 4 provides the final formula for the Hessian matrix
that we seek.
In Section 5, we present a true amplitude common-shot Kirchhoff migration formula and
show that exactly the sort of integral we analyze in this paper appears in that formula. The
methodology we present is driven by the fact that the exponent that appears in the migration
operator is the complex conjugate of the sum of complex traveltimes of the separate Green’s
functions. That structure is generic and not specific to our example; hence, our derivation
applies to the kernel of the integral migration operator for any integration operator using
Gaussian beams.
Finally, in Section 6, we provide the 2D example that appeared in Gray and Bleistein
[2009]. This example supports our claimed accuracy of the method presented here.
The two major results derived in this paper are as follows.

1. The asymptotically-approximate determinant of a sum of two Hessian matrices that are

required to complete the 2D steepest descent formula that provides “true amplitude”
of the Gaussian beam migration formula in 3D.

2. Strictly speaking, the steepest descent evaluation of integrals is not available in more
than one complex variable, but iteration under reasonable assumptions provides us
with a formula that is almost to be expected in a double integral with a complex
exponent. This analysis is presented in Appendix A.

2 Preliminaries
We need various pieces of background information and notation in order to explain our
analysis. That will be done in this preliminary section. Here is a list of what will be
discussed.

1. The kinematic and dynamic equations governing propagation of paraxial rays in ray-
centered coordinates.

2. The dynamic quantities of the propagator matrix—Červený [2001], Section 4.3.1—and

the relationship to the dynamic quantities of Gaussian beams.

3. The complex traveltimes from source and receiver to an image point; their dependencies
on the original slownesses as well as their dependencies on the transformed slownesses
proposed by Hill [2001].

4. The Hessian we need to evaluate and its relation to the Hessians in the original slowness
variables from source and receiver to image point.

2.1 The kinematic and dynamic equations governing propagation

on paraxial rays in ray-centered coordinates
This is item 1 in the list above. We begin by considering a ray defined by Cartesian ray
theory with initial point x0 and passing through x0 as in Figure 2, the 3D version of Figure
Second derivatives, complex traveltime. 9

Figure 2: Central ray of a Gaussian beam from x0 through x0 , connected along

an orthogonal vector q to the point x.

1, omitting the slowness vectors. The point x0 might be the initial point for a ray from a
source location, x0 = xs , or a receiver location, x0 = xr .
The initial direction of the ray from x0 through x defines the rotation direction in 3D
of the new coordinate system in 3D. Associated with that ray is an orthogonal ray-centered
coordinate system, (s, q1 , q2 ). Figure 3 on page 9 shows the initial orientation of the unit
vectors (t̂, ê1 , ê2 ) in an (s, q1 , q2 ) coordinate system. In these coordinates s is arc length
along the central ray, as depicted in Figure 2, and q1 and q2 are the orthogonal coordinates
to the central ray, also orthogonal to one another.

^
e1

^
e2 x
β2
β1

y
^ = ^t
p’
z

Figure 3: The polar angles define the initial slowness in the Cartesian system.
The ray through x has initial direction p̂0 . ê1 , ê2 are the other initial orthogonal
coordinates in this system. Furthermore, the rotation angles β1 and β2 are de-
picted. Each of the central rays of Gaussian beams, as in Figure 2, has its own
such triple of initial directions.

In Figure 2, we depict the coordinates of the point x in terms of the ray-centered coor-
dinates (s, q1 , q2 ) on the central ray through x0 .
In these coordinates, q1 = q2 = 0 on the central ray through x0 . Nearby central rays of
Gaussian beams from the same point x0 are defined by initial directions that are different
Second derivatives, complex traveltime. 10

from the initial direction of this central ray.

We need a notation for the velocity and its derivatives along the central ray through x0 :
∂v(s, 0, 0)
v0 (s) = v(s, 0, 0), v0,s = ,
∂s q1 = q2 = 0
(1)
2
∂v ∂ v h i
v0,I = , v0,IJ = , I, J = 1, 2, V = v0,IJ .
∂qI q = q = 0 ∂qI ∂qJ q = q = 0
1 2 1 2

Kinematic behavior of the central rays is determined by describing the propagation of

the coordinates (q1 , q2 ) for each arc length s along the central ray and the slownesses of the
real traveltime τ of asymptotic ray theory, defined by
∂τ ∂τ
p1 = , p2 = . (2)
∂q1 ∂q2
In our application, we need to move from initial slownesses (p0x , p0y ) of this central ray in the
Cartesian coordinates system of the defined integral of interest to the initial ray-centered
slownesses (p10 , p20 ).
The kinematic equations are then given by
dqI
= v0 pI , qI (0) = 0,
ds
(3)
dpI v
= − 0,IJ q , pI (0) = pI0 , I, J = 1, 2.
ds v02 J
Summation on repeated capital indices from 1 to 2 is understood. The propagation of the
transverse slownesses (p1 , p2 ) is determined. We determine the q’s of interest through the
connection of the central ray to the image point.
These equations can also be written in vector form as
dq
= v0 p, q(0) = 0,
ds
dp 1
= − 2 Vq, p(0) = p0 , (4)
ds v0
with
dτ 1
= .
ds v
In the last equation, V is the matrix defined in equation (1) and the vectors are vertical
arrays of the q’s and p’s, respectively.
We turn now to the dynamic equations of ray centered coordinates. These are equations
for two 2 × 2 matrices, Q and P. This is item 2 of our list in the introduction to this
section. These matrices are, in turn, related to the Hessian matrix of second derivatives of
the traveltime with respect to q as follows:
∂ 2τ
" #
M= , I, J = 1, 2, M = PQ−1 , (5)
∂qI ∂qJ
q =0
Second derivatives, complex traveltime. 11

with Q and P satisfying the equations

dQ
= v0 P,
ds
(6)
dP 1
= − 2 VQ.
ds v0

These are the same equations as the kinematic equations (4), except now for 2 × 2 matrices.
We refrain from stating initial conditions since we will define different solutions to these
equations below by imposing different initial conditions. Furthermore, when we introduce
Gaussian beams through complex-valued initial conditions for Q and P, we will use T instead
of τ for the resulting complex traveltime. Then, τ remains the real traveltime of classical
asymptotic ray theory. However, the relation between the Hessian of T with respect to q
and the matrices M, Q and P stated in equation (5) will remain the same.

2.2 The dynamic quantities of the propagator matrix.

Červený [2001], Section 4.3.1, introduces the propagator matrix Π(x0 , x0 ). This is a matrix
of four columns and four rows made up of two different solutions of the dynamic ray equations
(6) with different initial conditions as follows.
" #
Q1 (x0 , x0 ) Q2 (x0 , x0 )
Π(x0 , xr ) = . (7)
P1 (x0 , x0 ) P2 (x0 , x0 )

The initial conditions for these two pairs of solutions are

Q1 (x0 , x0 ) = I, Q2 (x0 , x0 ) = 0,
, (8)
P1 (x0 , x0 ) = 0, P2 (x0 , x0 ) = I.

The solution pair Q1 (x0 , x0 ) and P1 (x0 , x0 ) arise naturally when describing propagation
of plane waves in (real) asymptotic ray theory. The solution pair Q2 (x0 , x0 ) and P2 (x0 , x0 )
arise naturally when describing the propagation from a point, as for the Green’s function.
The initial data for Π is a 4 × 4 identity matrix. Furthermore, when the columns are viewed
as solutions of the system of differential equations (6), it can be shown that they are linearly
independent in the sense that the Wronskian—the determinant of the matrix Π—is nonzero
for all values of s.

Remark
It is useful to understand the dimensions of the two solutions comprising the
propagator matrix. Note that the elements of Q1 are dimensionless quantities,
given initially by a matrix of ones and zeroes. Similarly, the elements of P2 are
dimensionless. With Q1 dimensionless, the second differential equation in (6)
reveals that the dimensions of the elements of P1 are T /L2 —TIME/LENGTH-
SQUARED. Similarly, with P2 dimensionless, the dimensions of Q2 are L2 /T —
LENGTH-SQUARED/TIME.
Second derivatives, complex traveltime. 12

For our physical applications, we will choose the dimension of the elements of Q
to be LENGTH and the dimensions of the elements of P to be slowness, inverse
velocity—TIME/LENGTH. Thus, when adding together linear combinations of
the two sets of fundamental solutions, the dimensionality of the coefficients of
these solutions will have corresponding dimensionality to yield the desired di-
mensionality of the sum.

Now let us consider a complex-valued traveltime, T , instead of τ used above in equation

(5). Thus, instead of equation (5), we write

∂ 2T
" #
MGB = , I, J = 1, 2 MGB = PGB Q−1 . (9)
∂qI ∂qJ GB

q =0

The pair of functions Q(x0 , x0 ) = QGB (x0 , x0 ) and P(x0 , x0 ) = PGB (x0 , x0 ) is a solution of
the dynamic equations (6) subject to the initial conditions

ωr w02
QGB (x0 , x0 ) = I,
v0 (0)
(10)
i
PGB (x0 , x0 ) = I,
v0 (0)

In the first equation, ωr is a reference frequency and w0 is a length scale. At the reference
frequency ωr , w0 is the initial “standard deviation” of the Gaussian exponential that arises in
the description of the Gaussian beam. For example, in a homogeneous medium with initial
arc length zero and initial traveltime zero, the exponential part of the Gaussian beam is

|x0 − x0 | ω|q|2
( )
exp {iωT } = exp iω − . (11)
V0 2 [ωr w02 + iV0 |x0 − x0 |]

It is easy to check our claim about w0 by setting x = x0 in this equation and ω = ωr .

As a result of the linearity in the differential equations, we can write the two matrices
QGB and PGB in terms of the elemental matrices of equation (8) as follows:

ωr w02 i
QGB (x0 , x0 ) = Q1 (x0 , x0 ) + Q2 (x0 , x0 ),
v0 (0) v0 (0)
(12)
ωr w02 i
PGB (x0 , x0 ) = P1 (x0 , x0 ) + P2 (x0 , x0 ).
v0 (0) v0 (0)

2.3 Gaussian beams and the complex traveltimes T

Here we proceed to item 3 in our list at the beginning of this section. The Gaussian beam rep-
resentation of a Green’s function G(x, x0 , ω) is given by Hill [2001] as 1
1
Hill [1990, 2001] uses subscripts x, y and z. We use numerical subscripts because we need them for
index notation in the matrices to follow.
Second derivatives, complex traveltime. 13

iωωr w02 Z 0 0 dp01 dp02

G(x, x0 , ω) = A (x , x0 ) exp{iωT (x , x 0 )} .
2πv3/2 (x0 ) Dx GB p03
v
v0 (x0 (s)) 1
u
AGB (x0 , x0 ) = , T (x0 , x0 ) = τ (s) + q T PGB Q−1
u
t
0
q, (13)
det[QGB (x (s))] 2 GB

Zs
ds0
τ (s) = .
v0 (s0 )
0

In these equations, the superscript T denotes “transpose.” The vector p0 = (p01 , p02 , p03 ) is the
initial Cartesian slowness vector of the ray that propagates from x0 to x0 . The ensemble
of central rays in this integral covers a region around the image point x. (We do not need
to know which ray goes through x. This claim will be explained near the end of Section 4
starting on page 24.) For each ray, a vector q connects point x0 to the image point x and is
perpendicular to the ray at x0 ; s is the arc length along that ray to the point x0 . Thus, the
complex traveltime T is implicitly a function of the transverse slownesses, p01 , p02 , and τ (s)
is the traveltime of the classical asymptotic ray theory as noted above. In the application
where x is fixed and the initial direction of the ray changes, the arc length s at the upper
limit of the integral defining T is also a function of the initial slownesses on the ray from x0
through x0 and the image point x.
Any correlation-type migration imaging condition involves a product of such Green’s
functions from source and receiver to image point:

G(x, xs , xr , ω) = G∗ (x, xs , ω)G∗ (x, xr , ω), (14)

with (∗ ) denoting complex conjugate here and below. When we use equation (13) for each
Green’s function, we obtain

ω 2 ωr2 w04
G(x, xs , xr , ω) = − I(x, xs , xr , ω),
4π 2 v3/2 (xs )v3/2 (xr )
Z
dp0s1 dp0s2 Z dp0r1 dp0r2
I(x, xs , xr , ω) = (15)
Dxs p0s3 Dxr p0r3

·A∗GB (x0s , xs )A∗GB (x0r , xr ) exp{−ωΨ(x0s , xs , x0r , xr )},

Ψ(x0s , xs , x0r , xr ) = i[T (x0s , xs ) + T (x0r , xr )]∗ .

Hill [2001] proposes the change of variables

p0h1 = p0r1 − p0s1 , p0h2 = p0r2 − p0s2 , p0m1 + p0h1 p0 − p0h2

p0r1 = , p0s1 = m2 ,
2 2
⇔ (16)
p0m1 + p0h1 p0m2 − p0h2
p0m1 = p0r1 + p0s1 , p0m2 = p0r2 + p0s2 , p0r2 = , p0s2 = .
2 2
Second derivatives, complex traveltime. 14

The variables in ph may be viewed as an offset slowness vector and the variables in pm may
be viewed as a midpoint slowness vector .
This change of variables produces an expressions for I with the (p0m1 , p0m2 ) integrals outer-
most. He then proposes that the method of steepest descent be applied to the two integrals
in the variables p0h1 and p0h2 . While acknowledging the approximate nature of doing this, he
carries it out as a kinematic process, neglecting a complete amplitude and phase analysis.
Therefore, he needs only to determine the saddle points in these two variables for any given
choice of the other pair, p0m1 and p0m2 . He then proposes to compute the integrals over p0m1
and p0m2 numerically.
In Appendix A we show how to calculate the leading order asymptotic expansion of an
integral such as I in equation (15) by the method of steepest descent. This method calculates
that expansion by applying the method of steepest descent in one dimension iterively. The
method properly accounts for amplitude as well as complex exponent in that expansion. We
assume that for each value of p0m = (p0m1 , p0m2 ) there exists a “ simple saddle point”
0 0 0
phsad (p0m ) = (ph1
sad
(p0m ), ph2
sad
(p0m )), (17)

for which
∂Ψ ∂Ψ 0
= = 0, ph = phsad (p0m ),
∂p0h1 ∂p0h2
(18)
∂ 2Ψ
" #
0
det[Ψ] 6= 0, Ψ = , I, J = 1, 2, ph = phsad (p0m ).
∂phI ∂phJ
The last constraint here, det[Ψ] 6= 0, makes this saddle point “simple.” This is a standard
assumption on the Hessian matrix Ψ in two-dimensional integrals.

Remark The condition, det[Ψ] 6= 0

In one dimension, a stationary point is “simple” if the second derivative of the

exponent is nonzero at that point. In this case, the difference,
0 0 0
Ψ(p) − Ψ(p sad ) ≈ Ψ00 (p sad )(p − p sad )2 /2,

is quadratic. The stationary phase formula relies on this quadratic approxima-

tion. The stationary point is called ”higher order” if the second derivative at the
stationary or saddle point is zero as well; the local approximation is at least cubic
and the leading order asymptotic approximation is changed accordingly. See, for
example, Bleistein and Handelsman [1986]. For higher dimensional integrals with
a real traveltime, (imaginary exponent), this idea is extended by using properties
of Hessian matricies. In particular, these matrices are symmetric, their eigen-
values are real and their eigenvectors are orthogonal. Bleistein and Handelsman
[1975, 1986] show how these properties allow a rotation of coordinates to the
directions of the eigenvectors, called the “principal directions” of the Hessian. In
this case, the function Ψ is locally a sum of signed squares, with the signs of the
separate terms depending on the signs of the individual eigenvalues. The same
is possible for purely real exponents, such as occur in Laplace-type integrals (op.
Second derivatives, complex traveltime. 15

cit.), except that now both of the eigenvalues of the Hessian matrix of second
derivatives have to be of one sign. This leads to the asymptotic expansion derived
by the one-dimensional stationary phase or Laplace method formula, respectively,
applied to the integrations in each of the principal directions.
For a complex valued traveltime Ψ, we do not have the same theory for its
complex valued Hessian matrix. However, we show in Appendix A that the same
condition naturally arises in order to solve for the second derivative of the second
variable of integration after having determined the first integral by the formula for
the leading order asymptotic approximation by the method of steepest descent.
See equation (A.20).

Under these assumptions, the iterated method of steepest descent leads to the following
asymptotic formula for I in equation (14).

π Z dp0m1 dp0m2 ∗
I(x, xs , xr , ω) ∼ A (x0 , xs )A∗GB (x0r , xr )
2ω Dm det[Ψ] GB s
q

(19)
0 sad
· exp{−iω[T (x0s , xs ) + T (x0r , xr )]∗ }, ph = p h (p0m ).

The objective of this paper is evaluate det[Ψ] appearing in this formula. For that purpose,
let us first rewrite the matrix Ψ in terms of the separate Hessian matrices for T (x0s , xs ) and
T (x0r , xr ) appearing in the definition of Ψ in equation (14).
To begin this process, we observe first that

∂Ψ ∂p0rj ∂Ψ ∂p0sj ∂Ψ
= + ,
∂p0hj ∂p0hj ∂p0rj ∂p0hj ∂p0sj
∂Ψ ∂Ψ
= 0
− 0 (20)
∂prj ∂psj
#∗
∂T (x0r , xr ) ∂T (x0s , xs )
"
= i − , j = 1, 2.
∂p0rj ∂p0sj

In the second line in this equation, we used equation (16) to evaluate the derivatives of the
elements of ph with respect to the elements of pr and ps . In the third line, we replaced Ψ
by the separate complex traveltimes, the T ’s, using the definition of Ψ in equation (15).
Differentiating one more time leads to the following representation of the elements of the
Hessian matrix of second derivatives of Ψ:
#∗
∂ 2Ψ ∂ 2 T (x0r , xr ) ∂ 2 T (x0s , xs )
"
= i + , j.k = 1, 2. (21)
∂p0hj ∂p0hk ∂p0rj ∂p0rk ∂p0sj ∂p0sk

This is item 4 of the list at the beginning of this section. In the next section we analyze the
two matrices on the right hand side of this equation.
We remark that each of the matrices on the right hand side of equation (21) will be
singular at a caustic of the central rays {a} from the receiver (first matrix), or {b} from the
Second derivatives, complex traveltime. 16

Figure 4: Rays with a caustic point incident on a reflector, shown as solid lines.
Reflected rays shown as dashed lines. For a flat reflector, the reflected rays are
simple “image rays” from corresponding source points in the lower space. The
image rays have the same caustic as the incident rays.

source (second matrix), respectively. This would undo the original purpose of using Gaussian
beams to represent the Green’s functions. However, the occurrence of both matrices being
singular simultaneously in such a manner as to create a singular sum of matrices is expected
to be relatively rarer than singular behavior of one or the other. The sum of the singular
matrices being zero requires an alignment of the eigenvectors attached to the pair of zero
eigenvalues. In fact, one situation where we know this will occur is when the image point
is on a caustic of the incident rays. In that case, the incident rays and the reflected rays
lie in a plane, and the eigenvectors of the zero eigenvalues are colinear. In Figure 4, we
show a 2D example of a family of rays (solid black) incident on a line. The reflected rays
(dashed black) continue the caustic of t he incident rays. In fact, those rays emanate from
the “image points” of the sources points at 0 km depth. This example is a cartoon of the
more general 3D case. Incident and reflected rays start out in the same plane, so that the
slice might be thought of as arising from the normal to the local tangent to the reflector
surface at the caustic point. Further, if the reflector were curved, that curvature would only
slightly distort the directions of the reflected (black) rays. However, those new rays would
still exhibit the same caustic as the incident rays.
The true amplitude Kirchhoff migration theory is not valid at caustics in any case. We
would not use a caustic reflection point as a place to estimate a reflection coefficient. We
only need to regularize the sum of matrices in equation (21) so that the zero determinant of
the sum of those two matrices does not cause the running sum producing the true amplitude
migration to blow up. So the question of inversion as we define it is moot. Thus, we would
content ourselves with some appropriate regularization of the matrix sum.

3 The Hessian matrix T

The right hand side of equation (21) contains two Hessian matrices of identical structure.
In this section, we show how they can be written in terms of the matrix elements of the
propagator matrix Π of equation (6). There is no need to distinguish between source and
receiver here through the subscripts s and r and so we speak of a generic Hessian with respect
Second derivatives, complex traveltime. 17

to initial transverse slownesses. Thus, we write

∂ 2 T (x0 , x)
T = [Tjk ] , Tjk = , j, k = 1, 2. (22)
∂p0j ∂p0k

As discussed in the Introduction, we proposed to determine this Hessian by transforming

from Cartesian coordinates to ray-centered coordinates and relating this Hessian to the
Hessian of T with respect to the offset coordinates (q1 , q2 ) from a central ray, .
We propose to do this in two steps.

1. Transform the Hessian from the variables p0 of the integral in Cartesian coordinates
to the initial ray-centered slownesses orthogonal to the central ray (p10 , p20 ). Implicit
in this transformation is a transformation also of the Cartesian coordinates, x0 to the
ray-centered coordinates (s, q1 , q2 ). This transformation is described below.

2. Transform the Hessian in (p10 , p20 ) into a Hessian in (q1 , q2 ). The Jacobian of this
transformation arises from the mapping by rays from a point source.

A subtlety in Step 1 of this analysis needs discussion. Each (p01 , p02 ) of the Cartesian
integration variables defines a new central ray. Each central ray has its own ray-centered
coordinate system. In each individual coordinate system, the initial slownesses (p10 , p20 )
orthogonal to the central ray are zero on the central ray. By changing coordinate systems with
each central ray, we cannot transform derivatives with respect to the variables (p01 , p02 ) into
derivatives with respect to (p10 , p20 ) because the coordinate system of the latter slownesses
keeps changing. That is, there is only one Cartesian coordinate system, but each ray has its
own ray-centered coordinate system.
Instead, we introduce the central ray from x0 to x as a reference. We then evaluate
the initial values p0 of the vector p0 on each paraxial ray in a fixed ray-centered coordinate
system measured from the initial direction of this reference ray. In this rotated coordinate
system p0 is just the new representation of the vector p0 . In Figure 5, we depict the ray
from x0 to x as well the ray x0 to x0 . We also show the polar angles (β1 , β2 ) of the initial
direction of the ray to x.
Once we have this first transformation from p0 to the initial values p0 in place, the second
transformation from the initial values of (p10 , p20 ) to (q1 , q2 ) is simply a mapping by rays that
can be expressed in terms of the appropriate dynamic matrix Q2 .
Gaussian beams were used for a similar purpose as we are doing here in the asymptotic
analysis of the integral over beams in Hill [2001], Appendix B. He used such transformations
in homogeneous media to compare his beam representation to the known leading order ray-
theoretic asymptotic approximation of Green’s functions. In that appendix, the integral over
beams is calculated as an integral in polar angles measured from the distinguished central
ray through x as opposed to an integration of slownesses p0s or p0r through the points x0s
or x0r , respectively, as in the representations of the Green’s functions imbedded in the right
hand side in equation (15). The use of polar coordinates as in Hill’s appendix was not
really necessary; in fact, Hill’s [2001] Gaussian beam migration integrates initially over the
slownesses p0s or p0r as we are doing here in equation (15). However, in his appendix Hill
carried out the asymptotic analysis in homogeneous media; that is all he needed for the
Second derivatives, complex traveltime. 18

x0
x
β2
p’
β1 s
x’
y
q
x
z

Figure 5: The reference ray from x0 to x and the ray from x0 to x0 . The initial
ray direction of the first ray is defined by the polar angles (β1 , β2 ). The initial
direction of this ray is defined by the values of p0 . The initial vector p0 is the
vector p0 in the coordinate system of the central ray through vx0

purpose of comparison of leading order asymptotic representations of Green’s functions; the

calculation in homogeneous media is particularly simple in polar coordinates. Here, however,
for the Hessian matrices T of equation (22) for sources and receivers and eventually for the
matrix Ψ of equation (18), we need to do a similar analysis in heterogeneous media. Implicit
in our analysis is the methodology for calculating the asymptotic expansion that Hill [2001]
did, but in heterogeneous media. This is not new: Červený[2001] describes asymptotic
expansions for more arbitrary changes of coordinates in heterogeneous media. His method
relies on a theorem in Korn & Korn [1968] where the authors show how to simultaneously
diagonalize a symmetric complex-valued matrix such as our Hessian matrix T in equation
(22). It is not straightforward to use Červený’s method to go from the general discussion
of the asymptotic expansion of the double integral to the specific example we have here.
Hence, we proceed with the transformations and then they will be applied to facilitate the
evaluation of the det[Ψ]. Thereafter we apply the method of Appendix A of this paper to
determine the asymptotic expansion in p0h in equation (19).
We now proceed to the outlined analysis.

3.1 Transformation to a Hessian with respect to p0 .

Figure 3 on page 9 shows the initial directions of a ray in Cartesian and ray-centered coor-
dinates. The vector p̂0 is the initial direction of the ray through x. In the original Cartesian
coordinate system, p̂0 = (p̂01 , p̂02 , p̂03 ). As a first step, we rotate the Cartesian coordinate sys-
tem through the angles β1 and β2 of the figure, with p̂0 being the initial direction of the new
z-axis. In the new coordinate system, p̂0 = vp0 = (0, 0, 1)
The rotation to the new Cartesian coordinates from the old is accomplished by first
carrying out a rotation around the z-axis through the angle β2 and then by a rotation
through the angle β1 about the new y-axis with unit vector ê2 . We therefore write the
transformation of coordinates as a product of two matrix multiplications on the elements of
Second derivatives, complex traveltime. 19

an arbitrary slowness vector p0 as follows:

p01
   
p10
p0 =  p20  = Γ1 (β1 )Γ2 (β2 )  p2  = Γ1 (β1 )Γ2 (β2 )p0 .
 0 
(23)
 

p30 p03
Here
   
cos β1 0 sin β1 cos β2 sin β2 0
Γ1 (β1 ) = 
 0 1 0 
 , Γ (β
2 2 ) =

 − sin β 2 + cos β2 0 
,
− sin β1 0 cos β1 0 0 1
(24)
 
cos β1 cos β2 cos β1 sin β2 sin β1
Γ1 (β1 )Γ2 (β2 ) = 
 − sin β2 cos β2 0  .
− sin β1 − cos β2 sin β1 sin β2 cos β1
Now in equation (22), we can apply the chain rule to rewrite the Hessian with respect to
p01 , p02
as
∂ 2 T (x0 , x) ∂ 2 T (x0 , x) ∂pλ0 ∂pκ0
T = [Tjk ] , Tjk = = , j, k = 1, 2, λ, κ = 1, 2. (25)
∂p0j ∂p0k ∂pλ0 ∂pκ0 ∂p0j ∂p0k
Summation from 1 to 2 over the repeated indices λ and κ is understood in this equation.
This rotation of the representation of the initial slownesses is also the rotation of the
initial directions of the coordinate system. It makes the direction of the post rotation z-axis
be along the initial tangent of the ray from x0 through x.
We can calculate the matrix of derivatives among the slownesses in equation (25) from
equation (23) relating these variables. We simply differentiate both sides of equation (25)
with respect to p01 and p02 . In doing so, we must take care to note that p03 is a function of p01
and p02 through the eikonal equation in Cartesian coordinates, namely,
0 0 0
p12 + p22 + p32 = 1/v2 . (26)
When we carry out these calculations, we find that
cos β2 sin β2
 
" #
∂pλ0  cos β1

cos β1 
= = [Γλj ] = Γ, λ, j = 1, 2. (27)

∂p0j

 
− sin β2 cos β2
In analogy with equation (25), let us now introduce the notation
∂ 2 T (x0 , x)
T0 = [Tλκ0 ] , Tλκ0 = , λ, κ = 1, 2. (28)
∂pλ0 ∂pκ0
Then we can rewrite T in equation (25) as
Tjk = Tλκ0 Γλj Γκk , j, k = 1, 2; T = ΓT T0 Γ. (29)
We sum over the repeated indices λ, κ in the elements form of equation (28) for Tjk . Again,
the superscript T denotes transpose in the matrix form of this same equation for T.
Equation (29) completes the transformation of the Hessian of the complex traveltime in
the initial slownesses p0 to a Hessian in the initial slownesses p0 .
Second derivatives, complex traveltime. 20

3.2 Transformation to a Hessian with respect to q

Varying p0 leads to different rays, q = q(p0 , s). Furthermore, the arc length s along the
central ray also changes with p0 because the image point x is fixed: s = s(q). As an example,
consider the configuration of Figure 5 on page 18 for homogeneous media where the rays
from x0 to x0 are straight lines. Similar to the complex exponent in equation (11) we find
that the complex traveltime in equation (13) is

s i|q|2 q
T = + , s= |x0 − x0 |2 − q 2 . (30)
V0 2 [ωr w02 + iV0 s]

As claimed, s = s(q). We could equally have confirmed that s was a function of p0 or p0 ,

but the confirmation at this stage is much easier.

xs xr x
‘
ps ‘
pr

x
z
xs
‘ ‘
xr
Figure 6: Central rays from the source and receiver propagating to points x0s
and x0r . Those points connect to the image point x by straight lines that are
orthogonal to the respective rays at x0s and x0r , respectively. The exponential
decay of the respective complex traveltimes from source and receiver arise from
quadratic forms in the respective q’s defining the vectors x − x0s and x − x0r . This
configuration might be typical for a choice of p0m different from p00 m , for which
both rays pass through x and the q’s are all equal to zero. The difference of
the transverse parts of the vector difference p0r − p0s is the 2D vector ph in the
acquisition plane, while the transverse part of the sum p0r + p0s is the 2D vector
p0m in the acquisition plane.

Therefore, we consider a change of variables from p0 to q. In that case, we write

∂T ∂T ∂qµ
= , (31)
∂pλ0 ∂qµ ∂pλ0

and
∂ 2T ∂ 2 T ∂qµ ∂qν ∂T ∂ 2 qµ
= + , λ, κ = 1, 2. (32)
∂pλ0 ∂pκ0 ∂qµ ∂qν ∂pλ0 ∂pκ0 ∂qµ ∂pλ0 ∂pκ0
Second derivatives, complex traveltime. 21

As previously, summation over the repeated indices µ and ν from 1 to 2 is to be understood.

Viewing this Hessian in q helps us to understand a difficulty in the evaluation process:
0
in general, the saddle points phsad (p0m ) do not place the central rays through x, but rather
through some x0s or x0r as in Figure 6. In this case, Im[T ] 6= 0 for one and/or the other
central ray from source and receiver. Hence the total traveltime will have some exponential
decay. For a certain p0m , say, p00 m , both rays for the saddle point in ph will pass through
x; that is, q s = q r = 0 and Im[T ] = 0, as well. This is the choice of p0m that would be
the saddle point in p0m if we were to estimate the integral in p0m by the method of steepest
descent. For this choice of p0m = p00 m , all of the first derivatives with respect to slownesses
0
are zero, since the first derivatives with respect to the elements of ph = phsad (p0m ) are already
equal to zero. With all of these derivatives equal to zero, the first derivatives with respect
0
to the elements of q must also be zero here, as well, when ph = phsad (p0m ) and p0m = p00 m.
Furthermore, from the equation for equation (13), we can see that the first derivatives of the
traveltime T are linear in the q’s.
From the point of view of leading order asymptotic analysis, the smooth variations of
the amplitude of the integrand away from p00 m matter little as long as that amplitude is
00
correct at pm . The Hessian that we are trying to evaluate is a piece of the amplitude in the
integral over p0m , so this observation applies to the evaluation of the Hessian. This is true
whether we evaluate the integral numerically or with some asymptotic formula. We avoid
using an asymptotic formula because we cannot a priori guarantee the nature of the saddle
point—whether it is a simple or higher order saddle point of the complex traveltime as a
function of p0m . The numerical evaluation will be correct in either case, but it only depends
on the amplitude near p00 0
m ; Im[T ] 6= 0 away from this value of pm and the error in amplitude
of the integrand in equation (19) for I is exponentially damped by the value of Im[T ]. As
noted in the introduction, the approximation we propose here has been empirically shown to
be adequate for estimating the reflection coefficient in 2D as demonstrated in the numerical
example in the last section of this paper.
Thus, we can evaluate the formula for the Hessian in p0 on the right hand side of equation
(25)—admittedly incorrect for p0m 6= p00 m —by setting all first derivatives of T equal to zero
and also setting q = 0. Now, in equation (32), we simplify the right hand side to write
∂ 2T ∂ 2 T ∂qµ ∂qν
= , λ, κ = 1, 2. (33)
∂pλ0 ∂pκ0 ∂qµ ∂qν ∂pλ0 ∂pκ0
Furthermore, we will evaluate all derivatives at q = 0.

As an aside, let us examine the exponent T for constant velocity, equation (30).
The first and second derivatives of that traveltime with respect to q are as follows
∂T 1 qµ iqµ i|q|2 qµ
= − + 2
− 2 , µ = 1, 2,
∂qµ V0 s [ωr w0 + iV0 s] [ωr w0 + iV0 s] s
2

(34)
2
" #
∂ T 1 δµν qµ qν iδµν
= − + 3 + 2
+ O(|q|2 ), µ, ν = 1, 2,
∂qµ ∂qν V0 s s [ωr w0 + iV0 s]
q
s = |x0 − x0 |2 − q 2 .
Second derivatives, complex traveltime. 22

In the equation for the Hessian ∂ 2 T /∂qµ ∂qν above, δµν is the Kronecker delta
function, equal to one for µ = ν and equal to zero otherwise.
Recall the discussion below equation (32) where we argued that quadratic correc-
tions amplitude functions would affect the integration over slownesses negligibly.
The most dominant part of the integrand was the neighborhood of the image
point. For rays nearby that point, the quadratic correction is small. For rays
further away the quadratic decay arising from T again makes the error negligi-
ble. Thus, there is no reason to write down those last terms in the second line
in equation (34) to make the point that this Hessian is a complicated function
of q, even for constant velocity. Neglecting the quadratic terms in the second
derivative of T in equation (34) we obtain the approximation
∂ 2T δµν iδµν
= − + 2
∂qµ ∂qν V0 |x − x0 | [ωr w0 + iV0 |x − x0 |V0 |x0 − x0 |]
0 0

(35)
δµν ωr w02
= − , q = 0.
[ωr w02 + iV0 |x0 − x0 |]
In the first form here we can identify the two quotients with the matrix solutions
of the dynamic ray equations (6). In matrix form
∂ 2T
" #
Tq = = −P2 Q−1 −1 −1 −1
2 + PGB QGB = PGB QGB − P2 Q2
∂qµ ∂qν q =0
(36)
h i
= Q−1T T
GB PGB − P2 Q−1
2 = Q−1T
GB PT
GB Q2 − QT
GB P2 Q−1
2 .

In the first line, we have simply reordered terms. In the second line, we used
the fact that each term is a matrix of second derivatives and hence symmetric.
Therefore, we replaced one product by its transpose. Then we factored out the
two inverse matrices to obtain a difference of products of matrices inside the
braces [ ].
Let us now examine the term in square brackets in the last part of the equality
in this last equation, (36). To begin, set

∆ = PT T
GB Q2 − QGB P2 (37)

and differentiate with respect to s:

d∆ dPT
GB dQ2 QT P2
= Q2 + P T
GB − GB P2 − QT
GB
ds ds ds ds ds
(38)
1 T 1 T
= − Q VQ2 + PT
2 GB
T
GB V0 P2 − PGB V0 P2 + Q VQ2 = 0.
V0 V02 GB
In the second line, we have used the dynamic differential equations (6) and the
fact that the matrix V defined in equation (1) is symmetric. Thus we conclude
Second derivatives, complex traveltime. 23

that ∆ is constant on rays, given by its initial value. The initial values for QGB
and PGB are stated in equation (10) and the initial values of Q2 and P2 are
stated in equation (8). Using these values we find that
ωr w02 ωr w02
∆ = PT T
GB Q2 − QGB P2 = − I=− I. (39)
V0 v0 (0)

This is an identity that arises from the simplectic properties of the propagator
matrix as discussed by Červený [2001] in section 4.3.2, starting on page 281
and introduced earlier in Červený and Pšenčik [1983] without resorting to the
simplectic method. Note that the derivation of differential equation (38) did not
rely on the fact that the velocity is constant in the specific example. Hence, even
for heterogeneous media, ∆ is given by its initial value on the ray.
Furthermore, the mechanics of the derivation were not peculiar to the particular
choices of Q’s and P’s. It relied solely on the differential equations for Q’s and
P. Thus, if we redefined ∆ for any pairs of Q’s and P’s satisfying the dynamic
differential equations (10), it would still be true that ∆ is constant on the rays,
given by its initial value or by its value at any point on the ray, for that matter.
To complete this discussion, we now use the identity for ∆ in the last equation
(39) to rewrite Tq in equation (36) as
ωr w02 −1T −1 ωr w02 −1 −1
Tq = − Q2 QGB = − Q Q (40)
v0 (0) v0 (0) GB 2
In the second form here, we have exploited the fact that each of the matrices is
symmetric. We took a transpose of the product and then removed the transpose
of the matrix Q−1T
GB .

We return now to the heterogeneous case, continuing the analysis of the Hessian on the
right hand side of equation (33). Let us begin by considering the first derivatives in that
equation. We now show that the matrix of derivatives of (q1 , q2 ) with respect to (p10 , p20 ) is
just Q2 by following Červený [2001], Section 4.1.7. To do so, let us set
" # " #
∂qµ ∂pµ
Q̃ = , P̃ = . (41)
∂pλ0 ∂pλ0
This pair of vectors q µ , pµ satisfies the kinematic ray equations and initial conditions stated
in equation (4). When we differentiate those equations with respect to the components of p0
we obtain exactly the dynamic ray equations (6) for the matrices Q̃, P̃. Then, differentiation
of the initial conditions of equation (4) yields exactly the initial conditions of the functions
Q2 , P2 given in equation (8). That is,
" #
∂qµ
Q̃ = = Q2 . (42)
∂pλ0
We use this identity and equation (33) to obtain
∂ 2T
" #
T 0 = Q2 T q Q2 , T q = , µ, ν = 1, 2. (43)
∂qµ ∂qν
Second derivatives, complex traveltime. 24

3.2.1 Analysis of Tq
Here, we follow the discussion of Červený [2001], Section 5.8.3. Figure 5 on page 18 shows
the central ray of a Gaussian beam. The Gaussian beam is to be evaluated at the point x,
thus defining the vector q connecting a point on the ray x0 to the point x. In equation (13)
we see that T is a sum of two traveltimes, the first being the central ray real traveltime τ (s)
of asymptotic ray theory connecting x0 to x0 . The second term is the complex part of the
traveltime given by the standard quadratic form in q.
It is straightforward to evaluate the Hessian of the second term here with respect to q
at q = 0. The first term requires a little more effort.
With a slight abuse of notation, let us consider the real ray-theoretic traveltime τ (x, x0 )
from x0 to x. We can write a quadratic approximation of that traveltime in terms of the
traveltime on the central ray through x0 as
1
τ (x, x0 ) = τ (x0 , x0 ) + qP2 Q−1
2 q. (44)
2
This equality allows us to write the traveltime τ (x0 , x0 ) in terms of the fixed traveltime
τ (x, x0 ) minus a quadratic form in the vector q; that is,
1
τ (x0 , x0 ) = τ (x, x0 ) − qP2 Q−1
2 q. (45)
2
We use this equation in equation (13) to rewrite the complex traveltime T (x0 , x0 ) as
1 h i
T (x0 , x0 ) = T (x, x0 ) + q T PGB Q−1 − P Q
2 2
−1
q. (46)
2 GB

Now, when we calculate the second derivative here at q = 0, we find that Tq defined in
equation (43) is given by

Tq = PGB Q−1
GB
− P2 Q−1
2 , q = 0, (47)

in heterogeneous media. This is exactly the same as equation (36) for Tq in homogeneous
media. As noted in the discussion below that equation, the simplification of Tq did not rely
on the fact that the velocity was constant. Thus, the final form of Tq in equation (40) is
valid here as well and we write for the heterogeneous case.
ωr w02 −1 −1
Tq = − Q Q , q = 0. (48)
v0 (0) 2 GB
We now have all of the pieces needed to express the Hessian matrix Ψ in equation (21).

4 The approximation of Ψ
We now move back through the sequence of formulas for the various Hessians that we intro-
duced in the previous section. Then we will take the formula for the Hessian with respect
to p0 and apply it to both the source and receiver traveltimes to obtain a formula for Ψ in
equation (21).
Second derivatives, complex traveltime. 25

To begin, we use Tq as defined in equation (48) to rewrite T0 in equation (43) as

ωr w02 ωr w02 −1
T0 = − Q2 Q−1 −1
2 QGB Q2 = − Q Q2 (49)
v0 (0) v0 (0) GB

Now that we have T0 , we can go back a further step by substituting this representation
into equation (29) to express the Hessian with respect to p0 in terms of T0 as follows.

ωr w02 T −1
T=− Γ QGB Q2 Γ. (50)
v0 (0)

The matrix Γ appearing on the right side of this equation is defined in terms of the angles
β1 and β2 in equation (27). It is the matrix of transformation from Cartesian slownesses to
ray-centered slownesses; the slowness vector defines the initial direction of the tangent of the
ray from the initial point x0 to the image point x. Further, recall that the various Q’s and
P’s here are solutions of the dynamic ray equations (6) with initial conditions for QGB and
PGB given in equation (10) and the initial conditions for Q2 and P2 given in equation (8).
Equation (21) tells us that we must add two Hessians of the form defined by the last
equation, (50), in order to obtain the Hessian Ψ for the complex traveltime Ψ which is
related to the two complex traveltimes from source and receiver by equation (15). The only
difference in the two components is that one is for sources and the other is for receivers. We
can accomplish that distinction by introducing subscripts s and r in the right hand side of
equation (50). Thus we find that
( )∗
1 −1 1
Ψ= −iωr w02 ΓT
r QGBr Q2r Γr + ΓT Q−1 Q2s Γs . (51)
v0r (0) v0s (0) s GBs

Note here that the subscript r in ωr denotes “reference frequency” and is the same for
Hessians associated with the traveltimes from source and receiver.
The matrices Q2r and Q2s are each singular if x0r or x0s , respectively, is located at a
caustic of the ensemble of central rays from their respective initial points. In order for this
sum of matrices to be singular, the singularities of the two matrix products would have to
“line up;” that is, their eigenvectors associated with the zero eigenvalue would have to be
colinear. We would expect such an occurrence to be relatively rarer than for one and/or the
other of the matrix products to be singular. Nonetheless, some regularization of this matrix
may be required in numerical computations.
As noted earlier, we can expect the Hessian matrix Ψ to be singular when the image
point is located at a caustic of incident rays. However, the underlying inversion theory is not
applicable at such a point for estimation of a reflection coefficient, so this anomaly is moot
as regards that theory.
In the Introduction and in Section 2.3 we claimed that we did not need to know the
actual initial slownesses of the ray from the initial point x0 = xs or xr to the image point
x.
We explain now why we do not need to know those rotation angles on the ray from the
source or receiver through the image point explicitly. It is necessary to assume that the
actual rays that we do compute are close sufficiently dense that the discrete sum over rays is
Second derivatives, complex traveltime. 26

a sufficiently accurate approximation of the continuous integral over rays to satisfy whatever
numerical accuracy criterion we impose. That means we can think of the discrete sum as
having the properties of the integral.
We will use the matrices Γr and Γs on the rays that we actually compute. This again is
justified by the discussion below equation (32). This is in error except for the distinguished
ray pair from source and receiver through the image point. Those errors for other rays are
linearly small for small values of the q’s nearby and exponentially small for q’s further away.
This suffices for our leading order approximation of the the integral I in equation (19). Then,
all quantities in equation (15) are determined on the central rays of the computed Gaussian
beams. As we will see in the common shot example of Section 5—in particular in equation
(60)—the reflectivity in that example needs to be computed on the actual central rays of
Gaussian beams that we compute. Hence, we can use Hill’s original variables pm and ph or
even in the variables p0r and p0s of equation (15).

4.1 Special case: V = 0

In many applications, the matrix of second derivatives V defined by equation (1) is set equal
to zero. This is equivalent to assuming a piecewise constant or piecewise linear velocity
model. As a consequence, in equation (6) we see that the dynamic quantity P is a constant
given by its initial value. Furthermore, the dynamic equations now separate into scalar
equations for the pairs Qij and Pij for fixed ij and there is no interaction with other elements
of the matrix; that is, the matrix equations reduce to scalar equations for each of these
pairs. Further, for the case of piecewise constant velocity, the matrices Q and P become
diagonal with the same functions propagating along each diagonal because the initial data
are diagonal.2 Since the initial data are the same for each diagonal element of Q and P
in this case, each matrix is a scalar times the identity matrix; We call such a matrix a
scalar matrix. Thus, the propagation is reduced to determining the scalar Q’s and P ’s of 2D
propagation.
With all of this simplifications,we can replace the matrix of Ψ by
( )∗
1 1
Ψ= −iωr w02 Q2r Q−1 T
GBr Γr Γr + Q2s Q−1 T
GBs Γs Γs . (52)
v0r (0) v0s (0)

From equation (27), it is straightforward to calculate the products of Γ’s appearing here.
They are
1 1
   
0  0
0 
 cos2 β1r  [v0r (0)p3r ]2
 
ΓT Γ
r r = 

 = 
,
   
0 1 0 1
(53)
2
If the velocity is linear in some direction, then that direction and the initial direction of each ray form
a plane. The initial values of Q and P will be different in the in-plane and out-of-plane directions.
Second derivatives, complex traveltime. 27

1 1
   
0  0
0 
 cos2 β1s  [v0s (0)p3s ]2
 
ΓT
s Γ s = 

 = 
.
   
0 1 0 1
Because these rotation matrices are not scalar matrices, Ψ is not a scalar matrix; that is,
they are not scalar multiples of the identity matrix.

5 Common-shot inversion with Gaussian beams; an ex-

ample
We will show a particular example of a common-shot inversion formula for which the product
of Green’s functions leads to an integral of the form of I in equation (15).
We start from the classic imaging condition for common-shot data [Claerbout, 1971],
1 Z U (x, xs , ω)
R(x, xs , θ) = dω. (54)
2π D(x, xs , ω)
This formula for the reflectivity R is asymptotically equivalent to the Kirchhoff inversion
formula when U and D are replaced by their ray-theoretic asymptotic expansions; see Keho
and Beydoun [1988], Hanitzsch [1997], Zhang et al [2003] and Bleistein et al [2005]. The
function U (x, xs , ω) is generated by downward propagating U (xr , xs , ω), the observed re-
sponse to a point source at xs at the receivers denoted by xr . The function D(x, xs , ω) is the
full-bandwidth downward propagating wave from a point source, that is, it is the downward
part of the Green’s function denoted by G(x, xs , ω). Both wave fields are propagated into
the Earth in some background model of the wavespeed.
Let us replace D by G in the integrand of equation (54) for R and then multiply numerator
and denominator by G∗ , the complex conjugate of the downward propagating wave from the
source. This leads to
1 Z U (x, xs , ω)G∗ (x, xs , ω)
R(x, xs ) = dω. (55)
2π G(x, xs , ω)G∗ (x, xs , ω)
Next, we propose to replace the Green’s functions in the denominator here by their leading
order ray-theoretic asymptotic expansions and observe that only a product of amplitudes A,
independent of ω survive, the multiplication:
1 Z
R(x, xs ) = U (x, xs , ω)G∗ (x, xs , ω)dω. (56)
2πA2 (x, xs )
In ray-centered coordinates
1 v0 (xs ) det[Q2 (x, xs )]
= (4π)2 . (57)
A2 (x, x s) v0 (x)
The determinant det[Q2 (x, xs )] will be equal to zero at caustics of the rays from the source
to the output point; some regularization is required to avoid the zeroes there. That is not
important to the discussion here.
Second derivatives, complex traveltime. 28

When we use this formulas for A in equation (56) for the reflectivity, we find that

8πv0 (xs ) det[Q(x, xs )] Z

R(x, xs ) = U (x, xs , ω)G∗ (x, xs , ω)dω. (58)
v0 (x)

The downward propagated field U (x, xs , ω) can be written in terms of the surface data as
Z
U (x, xs , ω) = 2iω p03r G∗ (x, xr , ω)U (xr , xs , ω)dxr dyr (59)
zr =0

in a standard manner by using Green’s theorem. Here, p03r is the third component of p0r .
Substitution of this representation of U (x, xs , ω) into equation (58) for the reflectivity
leads to
8πv0 (xs ) det[Q(x, xs )] Z Z
R(x, xs ) = 2iω p03r U (xr , xs , ω)dxr dyr G(x, xs , xr , ω) (60)
v0 (x)

In this equation, G(x, xs , xr , ω) is defined in equation (14) and was the starting point for
the analysis of this paper. It is not our intention to continue with the discussion of this true
amplitude migration formula or any other. We only wanted to show that the integral I that
we analyzed asymptotically here does arise in true-amplitude migration formulas as claimed.

6 A numerical example in 2D
In Gray and Bleistein [2009], we presented numerical examples in 2D for a common-shot
data set. The asymptotic technique derived and implemented there is the 2D analog of what
we have presented here. Both a deconvolution imaging condition with a structure similar
to the reflectivity formula of equation (54) and a correlation imaging formula similar to the
reflectivity formula of equation (60) were tested. See Gray and Bleistein [2009] for details.
The best results were obtained for the deconvolution imaging condition and we present
those here in Figure 7. This example models reflections from density contrasts in a medium
of constant velocity 2000 m/s. Four horizontal reflectors with identical reflection coefficients
are placed at depths of 1000, 2000, 3000, and 4000 m. A single shot record, with a recording
aperture of 7000 m on either side of the shot point, is migrated. Half-opening angles were
limited to 60◦ in the migration.
Within the reflection aperture for each reflector the output confirms the “true-amplitude”
claim but for numerical noise from the computation and from the peak search.

7 Summary and conclusions

We have obtain a formula for the Hessian matrix of complex traveltimes with respect to
transverse Cartesian slowness variables [equation (50)]. We believe that this formula is new.
That allows us to add two Hessian matrices of this form to obtain yet another Hessian matrix
for the sum of complex traveltimes with respect to Cartesian “offset slownesses,” equation
(51). The determinant of this Hessian is needed for the asymptotic reduction of four integrals
in source and receiver transverse slownesses to two integrals. The formula we evaluate in the
 Depth (m)
Second derivatives,
True-amplitude complex traveltime.
Gaussian beam migration 29
2000

Figure 2(a)

1000 Figure 2(b)

2000
Depth (m)

3000

4000

5000
-5000 0 5000
Distance (m)
Figure 2(a)
Figure 2(b)

Figure 7: Left: Migrated image (deconvolution imaging condition) from a single

shot record in a constant-velocity medium with horizontal reflectors caused by
identical density contrasts. Migrated amplitudes are similar for all reflectors.
Amplitude artifacts near the maximum offsets are migration aperture truncation
effects. Right: Peak amplitude as a function of offset for all45reflectors. Amplitude
fall-off corresponds to the peak amplitudes along the migration aperture artifacts
of the left figure.

first step [equation (50)]

44 requires approximating an earlier representation of that Hessian at
the saddle point of the traveltime with respect to the “midpoint slowness.”
In two dimensions, the steepest descent analysis is much simpler. There, two integrals
in transverse slownesses were reduced to a single integral by the method of steepest descent.
The example of Gray and Bleistein [2009], provides a confirmation of “true-amplitude” claim
for this method.

References
Bleistein, N., 1984, Mathematical Methods for Wave Phenomena: Academic Press, Or-
lando.

Bleistein, N., 2008, Mathematics of modeling, migration and inversion with Gaussian
beams, Course notes: cwp.mines.edu/∼norm/ShrtCrse/GBNotes.pdf.

Bleistein, N. and R. A. Handelsman, 1975, Multidimensional stationary phase, an alterna-

tive derivation: SIAM J. Math. Anal., 6, 3 480-487.

Bleistein, N. and R. A. Handelsman, Bleistein, 1986, Asymptotic Expansions of Integrals,

Dover Publications, Inc., New York.
Second derivatives, complex traveltime. 30

Bleistein, N., Y. Zhang, S. Xu, G.Zhang and S. H. Gray, 2005, Migration/inversion: think
image point coordinates, process in acquisition surface coordinates: Inverse Problems,
21, 17151744.

Červený, V., 1982, Expansion of a plane wave into Gaussian beams: Studia geoph. et geod.,
26, 120-131.

Červený, V., 2001, Seismic Ray Theory. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Červený, V., and I. Pšenčik, 1983, Gaussian beams and paraxial ray approximation in
three-dimensional elastic inhomogeneous media: J Geophysics, 53, 1-15.

Claerbout, J. F., 1971. Toward a unified theory of reflector mapping: Geophysics. v. 36,
p. 467-481

Claerbout, J. F., 1985, Imaging the Earths Interior: Blackwell Scientific Publications, Inc,
Oxford.

George, Th, J. Virieux, and R. Madariaga, 1987, Seismic wave synthesis by Gaussian beam
summation: A comparison with finite differences: Geophysics, 52. 8, 1065 .1073.

Gray, S. H., and N. Bleistein, 2009, True-amplitude Gaussian beam migration: Geophysics,
74, S11-S23.

Hanitzsch, C. 1997, Comparision of weights in prestack amplitude-preserving Kirchhoff

depth migration: Geophysics 62, 1812-1816.

Hill, N. R., 1990, Gaussian beam migration: Geophysics, 55, 11, 1416-1428.

Hill, N. R., 2001, Prestack Gaussian-beam depth migration: Geophysics, 66, 4, 1240-1250.

Keho, T. H. and Beydoun, W. B., 1988, Paraxial ray Kirchhoff migration, Geophysics, 53,
1540-1546.

Korn, G. A., and T. M. Korn, 1968, Mathematical Handbook for Scientists and Engineers:
McGraw-Hill, New York.

Schneider, W. A., 1978, Integral formulation for migration in two and three dimensions:
Geophysics, v. 43, p. 49-76.

Zhang, Y., Zhang, G., and Bleistein, N., 2003, True amplitude wave equation migration
arising from true-amplitude one-way wave equations: Inverse Problems, 19, 1113-1138.
Second derivatives, complex traveltime. 31

Acknowledgements
The authors wish to express extreme gratitude to John Stockwell of the Center for Wave
Phenomena at the Colorado School of Mines for a critical reading of the paper. It is much
improved by his input. The first author would also like to thank the attendees of a short
course on Gaussian beam migration in December, 2008 at Petrobras University. Many
stimulating discussion in that course led to the ideas that appear in the method used here.
The germ of this approach was formulated by the author on the plane ride home from Brazil,
undoubtedly in response to discussions of what had not worked previously. Finally, many
thanks to Professor Vastislav Červený, Charles University, Prague,whose ideas underly much
of the discussion appearing here and also for his mentoring of and friendship with the first
author and to Ivan Pšenčik, Czech Academy of Sciences, for many helpful and stimulating
discussions.
Second derivatives, complex traveltime. 32

A Iterated Method of Steepest Descent in Two Vari-

ables
In Section 2.3, we claimed a result for the asymptotic expansion of a pair of iterated integrals
obtained by the method of steepest descent—specifically for the asymptotic expansion of
the integral I(x, xs , xr , ω) of equation (15). To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the
derivation of the explicit asymptotic formula leading to the asymptotic expansion of this
integral presented in equation (19) has not appeared in the open literature. In that equation,
Ψ is given by equation (51). We derive the claimed leading order asymptotic expansion of
equation (19) here. The derivation of the matrix form of Ψ in equation (51) is the major
discussion of Section 2.3.
The classical method of steepest descent for a one-dimensional integral does not gener-
alize to higher dimensions. It would require the analog of the Cauchy integral theorem in
two complex variables—essentially four variables. The difficulty is that in higher dimensions
a closed curve does not contain an interior domain as it does in one complex variable; that
is, in two dimensions. On the other hand, we show here that the iterated application of
the one-complex variable method of steepest descent really behaves much like the corre-
sponding application of the multidimensional method of stationary phase, with the complex
determinant of the Hessian matrix of the complex traveltime appearing in the amplitude
of the asymptotic expansion. This is an alternative to the method used by Červený [1982]
and repeated in Červený [2001]. His method rests on a theorem in linear algebra that gives
conditions under which the sum of two complex-valued symmetric matrices can be simul-
taneous diagonalized. His reference for that result is a paper in the Russian literature, not
easily accessible in the western literature. To date, we have not found the counterpart of
this theorem in the western literature.

A.1 Steepest descent in one dimension

Before beginning the analysis of the double integral, we remind the reader of the correspond-
ing asymptotic expansion in one variable. We introduce the integral
Z
I(ω) = f (z) exp{−ωΨ(z)}dz. (A.1)

Here, the interval of integration is real3 and positively oriented, but both functions in the
integrand are complex-valued. We assume that the exponent has a saddle point that we can
characterize by the equation
dΨ
= 0, z = zsad . (A.2)
dz
Furthermore, we assume that the second derivative is nonzero at the saddle point,

d2 Ψ
Ψzz = 6= 0; (A.3)
dz 2 z=zsad

3
The constraint of the path of integration to the real axis is not necessary. This can be generalized, but
the generalization is not needed for our application
Second derivatives, complex traveltime. 33

Ψzz may be complex. We seek the leading order asymptotic expansion of this integral for
“large” values of the parameter ω.
The Taylor expansion of Ψ near the saddle point has the form
1
Ψ(z) − Ψ(zsad ) = Ψzz (z − zsad )2 + . . . . (A.4)
2
The direction of steepest descent in z − zsad at the saddle point is the direction in which this
second order approximation is real and positive, which provides the direction of maximal
exponential decay of the integrand. In terms of the phases (denoted by arg in the complex
variable literature) of the factors in the complex product appearing on the right side of the
last equation, this condition becomes,

arg(Ψzz ) + 2 arg(z − zsad ) = 0, 2π, . . . . (A.5)

We expect that the direction of choice will be a rotation of the contour of integration—the
real line, positively oriented—through an acute angle. Thus from the two unique choices of
direction here we choose
arg(z − zsad ) = − arg(Ψzz )/2, (A.6)
such that the oriented direction with this angle makes an acute angle with the direction of
the (real) path of integration. Application of the formula for evaluation of the integral of
equation (A.1) by the method of steepest descent4 [Bleistein, 1984, equation (7.3.11)] with
positive ω leads to the following.
s
2π
I(ω) ∼ f (zsad ) exp {−ωΨ(zsad ) − i arg(Ψzz )/2}
ω|Ψzz |
(A.7)
s
2π
= f (zsad ) exp {−ωΨ(zsad )} .
ωΨzz

Notice that by defining the integrand on the right hand side of equation for I(ω) with a
minus sign in the exponent, the phase adjustment in the first line here provides exactly the
right factor so that the denominator can be expressed as the (principal value) square root
of the second derivative. If we had defined the exponent without that minus sign, then we
would have need an additional phase shift of ±π/2 in the right hand exponents of this last
equation.
The method of steepest descent relies on deforming the path of integration onto a path
where the exponential difference Ψ(z)−Ψ(zsad ) remains real and increasing and then applying
the more basic Laplace method [Bleistein, 1984] to the integral on that steepest descent
contour.
4
There we use λ = −ω as the large parameter. The minus sign modifies the argument of the directions
of steepest descent in equation (A.6).
Second derivatives, complex traveltime. 34

A.2 Iterated steepest descent in two dimensions

This is an extension not found in texts on the method of steepest descent. We consider
the iterated integral of equation (15). For this purpose, we introduce indexed variables and
consider the integral
Z
I(ω) = f (z) exp{−ωΨ(z)}dz1 dz2 , z = (z1 , z2 ). (A.8)

Here, the domain of integration is real, although when considered as iterated integrals, we
will allow for deformations into the complex z1 -plane to obtain the asymptotic expansion
of the integral with respect to z1 and similarly for z2 . Both functions in the integrand are
complex-valued.
We assume that the exponent has a saddle point in both variables that we can characterize
by the equation
∇z Ψ(z) = 0, z = z sad = (z1sad , z2sad ). (A.9)
Furthermore, we assume that the Hessian matrix—the matrix of second derivatives—of Ψ is
non-singular at this saddle point; that is
∂ 2Ψ
" #
det[Ψ] 6= 0. Ψ = , i, j = 1, 2. (A.10)
∂zi ∂zj
We will also assume that
∂ 2Ψ
6= 0. (A.11)
∂z12 z =zsad
If this were not the case, we could rotate the coordinate system to make this so; such rotations
use matrices with determinant equal to one, so that they do not affect the final formula for
the asymptotic expansion of I(ω) in equation (19).
Let us consider the integration in z1 alone in equation (A.8). From equation (A.10), that
integral has a saddle point when
∂Ψ(z1 , z2 )
= 0. (A.12)
∂z1
By the assumption of the existence of the saddle point in equation (A.10), we know that this
equation has a solution for z2 = z2sad , at which point, z1 = z1sad . By the implicit function
theorem, equation (A.12) has a unique solution in the neighborhood of z = zsad by virtue of
the assumption of equation (A.11) that the second derivative with respect to z1 is nonzero
at the saddle point. Therefore we can write
∂Ψ(Z(z2 ), z2 )
z1 = Z(z2 ), ≡0 (A.13)
∂z1
in some neighborhood of z = z sad .
We can now write down the asymptotic expansion with respect to z1 of the iterated
integral I(ω) in equation (A.8) by using the formula of equation (A.7) for that asymptotic
expansion in one variable:
s
2π Z f (Z(z2 ), z2 )
I(ω) = q exp{−ωΨ(Z(z2 ), z2 )}dz2 . (A.14)
ω Ψz1 z1 (Z(z2 ), z2 )
Second derivatives, complex traveltime. 35

We write down the first derivative with respect to z2 of this redefined exponent Ψ by
applying the chain rule to deal with the dependence of the first variable of Ψ on z2 .

dΨ(Z(z2 ), z2 ) ∂Ψ dZ ∂Ψ
= + . (A.15)
dz2 ∂z1 dz2 ∂z2
The first term here is identically equal to zero as a result of the stationarity condition
in equation (A.13). Therefore, let us rewrite the first derivative here accordingly and then
write down the second derivative, as well.

dΨ(Z(z2 ), z2 ) ∂Ψ
= ,
dz2 ∂z2
(A.16)
d2 Ψ(Z(z2 ), z2 ) ∂ 2Ψ ∂ 2 Ψ dZ
= +
dz22 ∂z22 ∂z2 ∂z1 dz2
From the first line here, we see that the condition that the total derivative with respect to z2
of this new exponent be equal to zero is exactly the condition that the partial derivative with
respect to z2 be equal to zero. This is just the requirement that the second component of
the gradient of Ψ be equal to zero in equation (A.9). We then conclude that the saddle point
occurs at z2 = z2sad for which point we also have z1 = z1sad . In summary, the dual saddle
point obtained by setting the gradient of the original exponent equal to zero is the same as
the simultaneous saddle point in two separate variables determined by iterated application
of the method of steepest descent.
Now we must evaluate the second derivative of Ψ in equation (A.15) at the saddle point.
To this end, we must first express the derivative of Z(z2 ) in terms of derivatives of Ψ. The
function Z(z2 ) is defined implicitly in equation (A.13). We differentiate that equation with
respect to z2 :
∂ 2 Ψ(Z(z2 ), z2 ) dZ(z2 ) ∂ 2 Ψ(Z(z2 ), z2 )
+ ≡ 0. (A.17)
∂z12 dz2 ∂z1 ∂z2
The coefficient of the derivative of Z is nonzero at the saddle point—equation (A.11)—so
we can divide by it and conclude that
#−1
∂ 2 Ψ(Z(z2 ), z2 ) ∂ 2 Ψ(Z(z2 ), z2 )
"
dZ(z2 )
=− . (A.18)
dz2 ∂z1 ∂dz2 ∂z12

We substitute this value of the first derivative into the second line of equation (A.15) to
obtain the representation we seek for the second derivative of Ψ with respect to z2 .
 !2  " #−1
d2 Ψ(Z(z2 ), z2 ) ∂ 2Ψ ∂ 2Ψ ∂ 2Ψ ∂ 2 Ψ(Z(z2 ), z2 )
=  − 
dz22 ∂z12 ∂z22 ∂z1 ∂z2 ∂z12
(A.19)
" #−1
∂Ψ(Z(z2 ), z2 )
= det[Ψ] .
∂z12
Second derivatives, complex traveltime. 36

We again apply the asymptotic expansion formula of equation (A.7) to the integral of
equation (A.14) and find that

2π f (z sad )
I(ω) ∼ q exp{−ωΨ(z sad )}. (A.20)
ω det[Ψ(z sad )]

This is the formula that we applied to obtain the asymptotic expansion of the Gaussian
beam representation of I in equation (15) to obtain the asymptotic expansion of I in equation
(19).
We have presented this general formula heere because it has application to other mul-
tidimensional integrals in the analysis of Gaussian beams. In particular, it is applicable to
the asymptotic expansion of the basic Green’s function itself in heterogeneous media. Hill’s
[2001] derivation is in homogeneous media. This derivation is an alternative to one presented
by Červený [1982] and Červený [2001].