English

Unidirectional zero sonic reflection in passive $\mathcal{PT}$ symmetric Willis media

Applied Physics 2018-11-14 v2

Abstract

In an effective medium description of acoustic metamaterials, the Willis coupling plays the same role as the bianisotropy in electromagnetism. Willis media can be described by a constitutive matrix composed of the classical effective bulk modulus and density and additional cross-coupling terms defining the acoustic bianisotropy. Based on an unifying theoretical model, we unite the properties of acoustic Willis coupling with PT\mathcal{PT} symmetric systems under the same umbrella and show in either case that an exceptional point hosts a remarkably pronounced scattering asymmetry that is accompanied by one-way zero reflection for sound waves. The analytical treatment is backed up by experimental input in asymmetrically side-loaded wavesguides showing how gauge transformations and loss biasing can embrace both Willis materials and non-Hermitian physics to tailor unidirectional reflectionless acoustics, which is appealing for purposeful sound insulation and steering.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1807.08730,
  title  = {Unidirectional zero sonic reflection in passive $\mathcal{PT}$ symmetric Willis media},
  author = {Aurélien Merkel and Vicent Romero-García and Jean-Philippe Groby and Jensen Li and Johan Christensen},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1807.08730},
  year   = {2018}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-23T03:11:20.078Z