Applied Mathematics Seminar | Daniel Onofrei, Active control of electromagnetic fields

In this talk we will discuss the problem of control of electromagnetic fields by using active sources (antennas), i.e., characterization of surface currents needed on the active sources so that their radiated fields will approximate desired patterns in several given disjoint external regions. Mentioning that any realistic design will need to consider a series of important feasibility constraints, this problem can be placed at the intersection of several exciting research areas: inverse source problems, optimal control of PDE's, antenna synthesis and optimization theory. 

In the first part of the talk, after a brief introduction of the subject, we will discuss the problem of controlling transverse normal modes in a wave guide. We will present our analytical approach, discuss the feasibility of the approach and conclude with several relevant numerical results. Our analysis indicates, among other things, that the proposed control strategy seems to be feasible only in the near field region of the defending antenna. 

In the second part of the lecture we will present the extension of our results to the case of free space electromagnetics, discuss the feasibility of the approach in this general context, and highlight several future research goals and the challenges we anticipate for this project.