Necessary and sufficient conditions for the two-point phase probability function of two-phase random media

Abstract

Constructing realizations of random media with a specified two-point phase probability function S 2 has attracted considerable attention in the recent literature. However, little is known about conditions under which a prescribed S 2 is realizable. The only known necessary and sufficient condition, due to McMillan, involves a class of square matrices, called corner-positive matrices, about which almost nothing is known except their definition. As a result, McMillan's theorem has gone mostly unused in the literature for over 50 years. In this paper, we present a general decomposition formula for corner-positive matrices, which allows McMillan's theorem to be written in a significantly more tractable and testable form. We also connect McMillan's theorem with many known but heretofore unrelated necessary conditions on S 2 , extending many of these conditions.