A rigorous approach to the field recursion method for two-component composites with isotropic phases

In this chapter of the book entitled, “Extending the Theory of Composites to Other Areas of Science” [edited by Graeme W. Milton, 2016] we give a rigorous derivation of the field equation recursion method in the abstract theory of composites to two-component composites with isotropic phases. This method is of great interest since it has proven to be a powerful tool in developing sharp bounds for the effective tensor of a composite material. The reason is that the effective tensor ${\mathbf{L}}_{\ast }$ can be interpreted in the general framework of the abstract theory of composites as the $Z$-operator on a certain orthogonal $Z(2)$ subspace collection. The base case of the recursion starts with an orthogonal $Z(2)$ subspace collection on a Hilbert space $\mathcal{H}$, the $Z$-problem, and the associated $Y$-problem. We provide some new conditions for the solvability of both the $Z$-problem and the associated $Y$-problem. We also give explicit representations of the associated $Z$-operator and $Y$-operator and study their analytical properties. An iteration method is then developed from a hierarchy of subspace collections and their associated operators which leads to a continued fraction representation of the initial effective tensor ${\mathbf{L}}_{\ast }$.