Canonical Acoustics and Its Application to Surface Acoustic Wave on Acoustic Metamaterials

In a conventional formalism of acoustics, acoustic pressure p and velocity field u are used for characterizing acoustic waves propagating inside elastic/acoustic materials. We shall treat some fundamental problems relevant to acoustic wave propagation alternatively by using canonical acoustics (a more concise and compact formalism of acoustic dynamics), in which an acoustic scalar potential and an acoustic vector potential \((\Phi ,\mathbf{V})\), instead of the conventional acoustic field quantities such as acoustic pressure and velocity field \((p,\mathbf{u})\) for characterizing acoustic waves, have been defined as the fundamental variables. The canonical formalism of the acoustic energy-momentum tensor is derived in terms of the acoustic potentials. Both the acoustic Hamiltonian density and the acoustic Lagrangian density have been defined, and based on this formulation, the acoustic wave quantization in a fluid is also developed. Such a formalism of acoustic potentials is employed to the problem of negative-mass-density assisted surface acoustic wave that is a highly localized surface bound state (an eigenstate of the acoustic wave equations). Since such a surface acoustic wave can be strongly confined to an interface between an acoustic metamaterial (e.g., fluid–solid composite structures with a negative dynamical mass density) and an ordinary material (with a positive mass density), it will give rise to an effect of acoustic field enhancement on the acoustic interface, and would have potential applications in acoustic device design for acoustic wave control.