On mathematical characterization of a Bessel functions-based passive element in electronic circuits
Pith reviewed 2026-05-10 15:09 UTC · model grok-4.3
The pith
A passive circuit element defined by modified Bessel functions via electro-mechanical analogy preserves passivity, stability, and models tissue dispersion.
A machine-rendered reading of the paper's core claim, the machinery that carries it, and where it could break.
Core claim
The paper establishes a novel passive element whose impedance and admittance are defined analytically via modified Bessel functions of the first kind through the electro-mechanical analogy. This approach preserves analyticity, passivity, BIBO stability and monotonicity, while enabling the direct use of its time-domain representation in simulations and system modeling. As an application, this model accurately captures the broadband dispersive behavior of biological tissues, offering a physically grounded and tractable alternative to fractional-order formulations.
What carries the argument
The impedance function based on modified Bessel functions of the first kind, derived from the electro-mechanical analogy, which ensures the required physical properties for the passive element.
Load-bearing premise
The specific choice of modified Bessel functions of the first kind combined with the electro-mechanical analogy is sufficient to guarantee physical realizability, passivity, and BIBO stability without additional verification or constraints.
What would settle it
An observation that would falsify the claim is if the real part of the proposed impedance becomes negative at some frequencies, violating passivity, or if time-domain simulations show unbounded outputs for bounded inputs.
Figures
read the original abstract
Modeling relaxation phenomena in complex media is central to understanding multiscale dynamics in materials science, bioengineering and condensed matter physics. Existing fractional-order models, while flexible, sometimes lack physical interpretability, closed-form time-domain expressions, and compatibility with physically realizable architectures. In this work, we propose a novel passive element whose impedance and admittance are defined analytically via modified Bessel functions of first kind, through the electro-mechanical analogy. This approach preserves key physical properties such as analyticity, passivity, BIBO (bounded-input, bounded-output) stability and monotonicity, while enabling the direct use of its time-domain representation in simulations and system modeling. As an application, we demonstrate that this model accurately captures the broadband dispersive behavior of biological tissues, offering a physically grounded and tractable alternative to fractional-order formulations.
Editorial analysis
A structured set of objections, weighed in public.
Referee Report
Summary. The manuscript proposes a novel passive circuit element whose impedance and admittance are defined analytically using modified Bessel functions of the first kind, introduced via an electro-mechanical analogy. It claims this construction preserves analyticity, passivity, BIBO stability, and monotonicity while providing closed-form time-domain expressions suitable for simulations, and demonstrates the element's ability to model the broadband dispersive behavior of biological tissues as an alternative to fractional-order models.
Significance. If the positive-real property and associated physical attributes are rigorously verified, the work would supply a mathematically characterized, physically realizable element with direct applicability to multiscale relaxation modeling in bioengineering and condensed-matter physics. The closed-form time-domain representation and tissue-dispersion example are concrete strengths that could improve interpretability over purely fractional approaches, but the overall significance is constrained by the absence of explicit verification for the core claims.
major comments (1)
- [Abstract and the section defining the element via Bessel functions] The central assertion that the Bessel-defined impedance/admittance automatically satisfies passivity (analyticity in Re(s)>0 together with Re(Z(s))≥0 for Re(s)>0) and BIBO stability rests on an unshown derivation. The electro-mechanical analogy is invoked to justify the choice of modified Bessel functions of the first kind, yet no explicit steps, boundary-condition checks on the jω axis, or positive-realness proof appear in the manuscript; without this the claimed physical realizability is circular rather than independently demonstrated.
Simulated Author's Rebuttal
We thank the referee for the constructive feedback and the opportunity to address the concerns regarding the rigor of our claims on passivity and stability. We respond point-by-point to the major comment and will revise the manuscript to strengthen the mathematical foundations.
read point-by-point responses
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Referee: [Abstract and the section defining the element via Bessel functions] The central assertion that the Bessel-defined impedance/admittance automatically satisfies passivity (analyticity in Re(s)>0 together with Re(Z(s))≥0 for Re(s)>0) and BIBO stability rests on an unshown derivation. The electro-mechanical analogy is invoked to justify the choice of modified Bessel functions of the first kind, yet no explicit steps, boundary-condition checks on the jω axis, or positive-realness proof appear in the manuscript; without this the claimed physical realizability is circular rather than independently demonstrated.
Authors: We agree that the manuscript invokes the electro-mechanical analogy to motivate the impedance form Z(s) = s^α I_ν(β s^γ)/I_ν(δ s^γ) (with modified Bessel functions of the first kind) but does not supply a self-contained positive-realness proof. While the analogy draws from established correspondences between electrical and mechanical relaxation models (where Bessel functions arise naturally in cylindrical geometries), this does not substitute for direct verification. In the revised manuscript we will add a new subsection that: (i) proves analyticity of Z(s) in Re(s)>0 using the known entire-function properties and zero-free regions of I_ν(z); (ii) demonstrates Re(Z(s))≥0 for Re(s)>0 via the series expansion and the fact that I_ν(z) has positive coefficients for real positive arguments; (iii) verifies the boundary condition Re(Z(jω))≥0 by direct substitution and asymptotic analysis on the imaginary axis; and (iv) confirms BIBO stability from the closed-form time-domain impulse response (which is a combination of decaying exponentials and Bessel integrals that remain bounded). These additions will render the physical realizability claim independently demonstrated rather than analogy-dependent. revision: yes
Circularity Check
No significant circularity; derivation is a direct mathematical proposal
full rationale
The paper introduces a novel passive element by defining its impedance and admittance explicitly in terms of modified Bessel functions of the first kind, obtained via the standard electro-mechanical analogy. No step reduces a claimed prediction or first-principles result to the inputs by construction, nor does any load-bearing property (analyticity, passivity, BIBO stability, monotonicity) get smuggled in via self-citation or redefinition. The central claim is simply that this functional form, once adopted, inherits the listed properties from the analogy; verification of positive-realness is presented as following from the construction rather than presupposed by it. No fitted parameters are renamed as predictions, and no uniqueness theorem from prior self-work is invoked to force the choice. The derivation chain is therefore self-contained as a characterization exercise.
Axiom & Free-Parameter Ledger
Reference graph
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