Abstract

Conditions on the elastic stiffnesses of anisotropic crystals are derived such that circularly polarized longitudinal inhomogeneous plane waves with an isotropic slowness bivector may propagate for any given direction of the normal to the sagittal plane. Once this direction is chosen, then the wave speed, the direction of propagation, and the direction of attenuation are expressed in terms of the mass density, the elastic stiffnesses, and the angle between the normal to the sagittal plane and the normals (also called “optic axes”) to the planes of central circular section of a certain ellipsoid. In the special case where this angle is zero, and in this special case only, such waves cannot propagate. PACS no. 43.20.Bi, 43.20.Hq, 43.35.Cg 1.