Locally resonant effective phononic crystals for subwavelength vibration control of torsional cylindrical waves

Locally resonant materials allow for wave propagation control in the sub-wavelength regime. Even though these materials do not need periodicity, they are usually designed as periodic systems since this allows for the application of the Bloch theorem and analysis of the entire system based on a single unit cell. However, geometries that are invariant to translation result in equations of motion with periodic coefficients only if we assume plane wave propagation. When wave fronts are cylindrical or spherical, a system realized through tessellation of a unit cell does not result in periodic coefficients and the Bloch theorem cannot be applied. Therefore, most studies of periodic locally resonant systems are limited to plane wave propagation. In this paper, we address this limitation by introducing a locally resonant effective phononic crystal composed of a radially-varying matrix with attached torsional resonators. This material is not geometrically periodic but exhibits effective periodicity, i.e. its equations of motion are invariant to radial translations, allowing the Bloch theorem to be applied to radially propagating torsional waves. We show that this material can be analyzed under the already developed framework for metamaterials. To show the importance of using an effectively periodic system, we compare its behavior to a system that is not effectively periodic but has geometric periodicity. We show considerable differences in transmission as well as in the negative effective properties of these two systems. Locally resonant effective phononic crystals open possibilities for subwavelength elastic wave control in the near field of sources.

Periodic Hamiltonians and the Emergence of Band Structure: The Bloch Theorem and the Dirac Kronig–Penney Model

Crystals are defined by their atomic makeup and their crystal symmetry. The spatial symmetry leads to a periodic potential that localizes the electron or carrier at the lattice sites corresponding to the location of the atoms. But because of the periodicity of potential the particles wave function extends throughout the entire crystal, not localized at a specific atom. This delocalization of the wave function gives rise to the band structure in crystals such as those that are semiconductors. This chapter explores the physics that emerges in the wave function when the time independent Schrödinger equation is solved for a periodic potential.

Non-Hermitian Chiral Magnetic Effect in Equilibrium

We analyze the chiral magnetic effect for non-Hermitian fermionic systems using the bi-orthogonal formulation of quantum mechanics. In contrast to the Hermitian counterparts, we show that the chiral magnetic effect takes place in equilibrium when a non-Hermitian system is considered. The key observation is that for non-Hermitian charged systems, there is no strict charge conservation as understood in Hermitian systems, so the Bloch theorem preventing currents in the thermodynamic limit and in equilibrium does not apply.

A Proof of the Bloch Theorem for Lattice Models

The Bloch theorem is a powerful theorem stating that the expectation value of the U(1) current operator averaged over the entire space vanishes in large quantum systems. The theorem applies to the ground state and to the thermal equilibrium at a finite temperature, irrespective of the details of the Hamiltonian as far as all terms in the Hamiltonian are finite ranged. In this work we present a simple yet rigorous proof for general lattice models. For large but finite systems, we find that both the discussion and the conclusion are sensitive to the boundary condition one assumes: under the periodic boundary condition, one can only prove that the current expectation value is inversely proportional to the linear dimension of the system, while the current expectation value completely vanishes before taking the thermodynamic limit when the open boundary condition is imposed. We also provide simple tight-binding models that clarify the limitation of the theorem in dimensions higher than one.