The lower part of the spectrum of the Helmholtz equation for a heterogeneous system in a finite region in $d$ dimensions, where the solutions to the corresponding homogeneous system are known, can be systematically approximated by means of iterative methods. These methods only require the specification of an arbitrary ansatz and converge to the desired solution, regardless of the strength of the inhomogeneities, provided the ansatz has a finite overlap with it. In this paper, different boundary conditions at the borders of the domain are assumed, and some applications are used to illustrate the methods.

The “analogue gravity formalism”, an interdisciplinary theoretical scheme developed in the past for studying several non relativistic classical and quantum systems through effective relativistic curved space-times, is here applied to largely de-formable elastic bodies described by the nonlinear theory of solid mechanics. Assuming the simplest nonlinear constitutive relation for the elastic material given by a Kirchhoff-St Venant strain-energy density function, it is possible to write for the perturbations an effective space-time metric if the deformation is purely longitudinal and depends on one spatial coordinate only. Theoretical and numerical studies of the corresponding dynamics are performed in selected cases and physical implications of the results obtained are finally discussed.