Anti-cloaking: the Mathematics of Disguise

Recent developments in cloaking, the ability to selectively bend electromagnetic waves so as to render an object invisible, have been abundant. Based on cloaking principles, we will describe several ways to mathematically disguise objects in the context of electrical impedance imaging. Through the use of a change-of-variables scheme we show how one can make an object appear enlarged, translated, or rotated by surrounding it with a suitable “metamaterial,” a man-made material that selectively redirects current. Analysis of eigenvectors and eigenvalues, which describe how current flows, follow. We prove that in order to disguise an object, a metamaterial must encompass both the subdomain and its disguised version, and discuss the consequences. Finally, we briefly explore how electricity is just a springboard to potential applications.