On the spectral resolution of the Neumann-Poincare operator

The Neumann-Poincare (NP) operator (or the double layer potential) has classically been used as a tool to solve the Dirichlet and Neumann problems of a domain. It also serves as a prominent example in non-self adjoint spectral theory, due to its unexpected behaviour for domains with singularities. Recently, questions from materials science have revived interest in the spectral properties of the NP operator on domains with rough features. I aim to give an overview of recent developments, with particular focus on the NP operator's action on the energy space of the domain. The energy space framework ties together Poincare’s efforts to solve the Dirichlet problem with the operator-theoretic symmetrisation theory of Krein. I will also indicate recent work for domains in 3D with conical points. In this situation, we have been able to describe the spectrum both for boundary data in $L^2$ and for data in the energy space. In the former case, the essential spectrum consists of the union of countably many self-intersecting curves in the plane, and outside of this set the index may be computed as the winding number with respect to the essential spectrum. In the latter case the essential spectrum consists of a real interval.