Anders Bernland

Sum rules and constraints on passive systems

A passive system is one that cannot produce energy, a property that naturally poses constraints on the system. A system on convolution form is fully described by its transfer function, and the class of Herglotz functions, holomorphic functions mapping the open upper half plane to the closed upper half plane, is closely related to the transfer functions of passive systems. Following a well-known representation theorem, Herglotz functions can be represented by means of positive measures on the real line. This fact is exploited in this paper in order to rigorously prove a set of integral identities for Herglotz functions that relate weighted integrals of the function to its asymptotic expansions at the origin and infinity. The integral identities are the core of a general approach introduced here to derive sum rules and physical limitations on various passive physical systems. Although similar approaches have previously been applied to a wide range of specific applications, this paper is the first to deliver a general procedure together with the necessary proofs. This procedure is described thoroughly, and exemplified with examples from electromagnetic theory. (Less)

Physical limitations on the scattering of electromagnetic vector spherical waves

Understanding the interaction between electromagnetic waves and matter is vital in applications ranging from classical optics to antenna theory. This paper derives physical limitations on the scattering of electromagnetic vector spherical waves. The assumptions made are that the heterogeneous scatterer is passive, and has constitutive relations which are on convolution form in the time domain and anisotropic in the static limit. The resulting bounds limit the reflection coefficient of the modes over a frequency interval, and can thus be interpreted as limitations on the absorption of power from a single mode. They can be used within a wide range of applications, and are particularly useful for electrically small scatterers. The derivation follows a general approach to derive sum rules and physical limitations on passive systems on convolution form. The time domain versions of the vector spherical waves are used to describe the passivity of the scatterer, and a set of integral identities for Herglotz functions are applied to derive sum rules from which the physical limitations follow. (Less)

Bandwidth Limitations for Scattering of Higher Order Electromagnetic Spherical Waves With Implications for the Antenna Scattering Matrix

Various physical limitations in electromagnetic theory and antenna theory have received considerable attention recently. However, there are no previous limitations on the scattering of higher order electromagnetic vector spherical waves, despite the widespread use of spherical wave decompositions. In the present paper, bandwidth limitations on the scattering matrix are derived for a wide class of heterogeneous objects, in terms of their electrical size, shape and static material properties. In particular, it is seen that the order of the dominating term in the Rayleigh limit increases with the order of the spherical wave. Furthermore, it is shown how the limitations place bounds on the antenna scattering matrix, thus introducing a new approach to physical limitations on antennas. Comparisons to other types of antenna limitations are given, and numerical simulations for two folded spherical helix antennas and a directive Yagi-Uda antenna are included to illuminate and validate the theory. The results in this paper are derived using a general approach to derive limitations for passive systems: First, the low-frequency asymptotic expansion of the scattering matrix of a general scatterer is derived. This gives a set of sum rules, from which the limitations follow.

Estimation of Spherical Wave Coefficients From 3-D Positioner Channel Measurements

Electromagnetic vector spherical waves have been used recently to model antenna-channel interaction and the available degrees of freedom in multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) systems. However, there are no previous accounts of a method to estimate spherical wave coefficients from channel measurements. One approach for this, using a 3-D positioner, is presented and analyzed in this letter. Measurement results are presented and discussed. It is concluded that estimates based on randomly positioned measurements within a volume are less sensitive to noise than those based only on measurements on the surface.

On the Relation Between Optimal Wideband Matching and Scattering of Spherical Waves

Using an exact circuit analogy for the scattering of vector spherical waves, it is shown how the problem of determining the optimal scattering bounds for a homogeneous sphere in its high-contrast limit is identical to the closely related, and yet very different problem of finding the broadband tuning limits of the spherical waves. Using integral relations similar to Fanos broadband matching bounds, the optimal scattering limitations are determined by the static response as well as the high-frequency asymptotics of the reflection coefficient. The scattering view of the matching problem yields explicitly the necessary low-frequency asymptotics of the reflection coefficient that is used with Fanos broadband matching bounds for spherical waves, something that appears to be non-trivial to derive from the classical network point of view.

Physical bounds and sum rules in scattering and antenna theory

The objective of this paper is to review some recently developed sum rules and physical bounds in scattering and antenna theory. The sum rules are based on identities for Herglotz functions that relate the quantity of interest integrated over all wavelengths with its static polarizability dyadics. They are transformed to physical bounds by applying variational principles for the polarizability dyadics together with various estimates of the integrals. The theoretical findings are exemplified by numerical results for several configurations.

Sum rules and physical bounds in electromagnetic theory

Sum rules are useful in many branches of physics and engineering as they relate all spectrum parameter values with their asymptotic expansions. Properties of the dynamic response can hence be inferred by the, in many cases much simpler, static response. This has e.g., been used for lossless matching networks, radar absorbers, extinction cross section, partial realized gain of antennas, high-impedance surfaces, transmission cross section, transmission coefficients, and temporal dispersion of metamaterials. Here, several sum rules and their associated physical bounds are reviewed and it is shown that integral identities for Herglotz functions offer a unified approach in deriving them.

Sum rules and constraints on passive systems with applications in electromagnetics

A passive system is one that cannot produce energy, a property that naturally poses constraints on the system. In this paper there is a review of some results on linear, time translational invariant, continuous, causal and passive systems, where it turns out that Herglotz functions are related to the Fourier transform of the impulse response of such systems. Some well known facts of this function class is considered, and a set of integral identities and an outline of the proof of these are presented. The identities may be used to derive sum rules and constraints on various physical systems. The theory is illuminated with two examples from electromagnetics: the first revisits Fanos maching equations, while the latter makes a link to the Kramers-Kronig relations and discusses physical limitations on metamaterials.