Modeling implanted metals in electrical stimulation applications

BackgroundMetal implants impact the dosimetry assessment in electrical stimulation techniques. Therefore, they need to be included in numerical models. While currents in the body are ionic, metals only allow electron transport. In fact, charge transfer between tissues and metals requires electric fields to drive the electrochemical reactions at the interface. Thus, metal implants may act as insulators or as conductors depending on the scenario.Objective/HypothesisThe aim of this paper is to provide a theoretical argument that guides the choice of the correct representation of metal implants using purely electrical models but considering the electrochemical nature of the problem in the technology of interest.MethodsWe built a simple model of a metal implant exposed to a homogeneous electric field of various magnitudes to represent both weak (e.g., tDCS), medium (TMS) or strong field stimulation. The same geometry was solved using two different models: a purely electric one (with different conductivities for the implant), and an electrochemical one. As an example of application, we also modeled a transcranial electrical stimulation (tES) treatment in a realistic head model with a skull plate using a high and low conductivity value for the plate.ResultsMetal implants generally act as electric insulators when exposed to electric fields up to around 100 V/m (tES and TMS range) and they only resemble a perfect conductor for fields in the order of 1000 V/m and above. The results are independent of the implant’s metal, but they depend on its geometry.Conclusion(s)Metal implants can be accurately represented by a simple electrical model of constant conductivity, but an incorrect model choice can lead to large errors in the dosimetry assessment. In particular, tES modeling with implants incorrectly treated as conductors can lead to errors of 50% in induced fields or more. Our results can be used as a guide to select the correct model in each scenario.

Regular electrically charged objects in Nonlinear Electrodynamics coupled to Gravity

We present a brief review of the basic properties of regular electrically charged black holes and electromagnetic solitons, predicted by analysis of regular solutions to dynamical equations of Nonlinear Electrodynamics minimally coupled to Gravity (NED-GR). The fundamental generic feature of regular NED-GR objects is the de Sitter vacuum interiors and the relation of their masses to spacetime symmetry breaking from the de Sitter group. Regular spinning NED-GR objects have interior de Sitter vacuum disk with the properties of a perfect conductor and ideal diamagnetic. The disk is confined by the ring with the superconducting current which provides the non-dissipative source of the electromagnetic fields and of the intrinsic magnetic momentum.

Hall instability: origin, properties and asymptotic theory for its tearing mode

Hall instability in electron magnetohydrodynamics is interpreted as the shear-Hall instability driven jointly by helicoidal oscillations and shear in the electron current velocity. This explanation suggests an antiparallel orientation of the background magnetic field and vorticity of the current velocity as the necessary condition for Hall instability. The condition is tested and generally confirmed by numerical computations in plane slab geometry. Unstable eigenmodes are localized in the spatial regions of the antiparallel field and vorticity. Computations of the tearing-type mode of the instability are complemented by (and generally agree with) asymptotic analytical estimations for large Hall numbers. The stabilizing effect of perfect conductor boundary conditions is found and explained. For large Hall numbers, the growth rates approach the power-law dependence $\sigma \propto B^\alpha \eta ^{1-\alpha }$ on the magnetic field ( $B$ ) and diffusivity ( $\eta$ ). Almost all computations give the power index $\alpha = 3/4$ with one exception of the tearing-type mode with vacuum boundary conditions for which case $\alpha = 2/3$ .

Combining density functional theory with macroscopic QED for quantum light-matter interactions in 2D materials

A quantitative and predictive theory of quantum light-matter interactions in ultra thin materials involves several fundamental challenges. Any realistic model must simultaneously account for the ultra-confined plasmonic modes and their quantization in the presence of losses, while describing the electronic states from first principles. Herein we develop such a framework by combining density functional theory (DFT) with macroscopic quantum electrodynamics, which we use to show Purcell enhancements reaching 107 for intersubband transitions in few-layer transition metal dichalcogenides sandwiched between graphene and a perfect conductor. The general validity of our methodology allows us to put several common approximation paradigms to quantitative test, namely the dipole-approximation, the use of 1D quantum well model wave functions, and the Fermi’s Golden rule. The analysis shows that the choice of wave functions is of particular importance. Our work lays the foundation for practical ab initio-based quantum treatments of light-matter interactions in realistic nanostructured materials.

Image of the Electron Suggested by Nonlinear Electrodynamics Coupled to Gravity

We present a systematic review of the basic features that were adopted for different electron models and show, in a brief overview, that, for electromagnetic spinning solitons in nonlinear electrodynamics minimally coupled to gravity (NED-GR), all of these features follow directly from NED-GR dynamical equations as model-independent generic features. Regular spherically symmetric solutions of NED-GR equations that describe electrically charged objects have obligatory de Sitter center due to the algebraic structure of stress–energy tensors for electromagnetic fields. By the Gürses-Gürsey formalism, which includes the Newman–Janis algorithm, they are transformed to axially symmetric solutions that describe regular spinning objects asymptotically Kerr–Newman for a distant observer, with the gyromagnetic ratio g=2. Their masses are determined by the electromagnetic density, related to the interior de Sitter vacuum and to the breaking of spacetime symmetry from the de Sitter group. De Sitter center transforms to the de Sitter vacuum disk, which has properties of a perfect conductor and ideal diamagnetic. The ring singularity of the Kerr–Newman geometry is replaced with the superconducting current, which serves as the non-dissipative source for exterior fields and source of the intrinsic magnetic momentum for any electrically charged spinning NED-GR object. Electromagnetic spinning soliton with the electron parameters can shed some light on appearance of a minimal length scale in the annihilation reaction e+e−→γγ(γ).