Geometric Structure behind Duality and Manifestation of Self-Duality from Electrical Circuits to Metamaterials

Abstract

In electromagnetic systems, duality is manifested in various forms: circuit, Keller–Dykhne, electromagnetic, and Babinet dualities. These dualities have been developed individually in different research fields and frequency regimes, leading to a lack of unified perspective. In this paper, we establish a unified view of these dualities in electromagnetic systems. The underlying geometrical structures behind the dualities are elucidated by using concepts from algebraic topology and differential geometry. Moreover, we show that seemingly disparate phenomena, such as frequency-independent effective response, zero backscattering, and critical response, can be considered to be emergent phenomena of self-duality.