Colloquium

Composite materials can have properties unlike any found in nature, and in this case they are known as metamaterials. Materials with negative Poisson's ratio or negative refractive index are now classic examples. The effective mass density, which governs the propagation of elastic waves in a metamaterial can be anisotropic, negative, or even complex. Even the eigenvectors of the effective mass density tensor can vary with frequency. We show that metamaterials can exhibit a "Willis type behavior" which generalizes continuum elastodynamics. Non-linear metamaterials are also interesting and a basic question is what non-linear behaviors can one get in periodic materials constructed from rigid bars and pivots? It turns out that the range is enormous. Materials for which the only easy mode of macroscopic deformation is an affine deformation, can be classed as unimode, bimode, trimode,..., hexamode, according to the number of easy modes of deformation. We give a complete characterization of possible behaviors of nonlinear unimode materials.