Band Gaps and Localization in Acoustic Propagation in Water with Air-cylinders

Multiple scattering of waves leads to many peculiar phenomena such as complete band gaps in periodic structures and wave localization in disordered media. Within a band gap excitations are evanescent; when localized they remain confined in space until dissipated. Here we report acoustic band gap and localization in a 2D system of air-cylinders in water. Exact numerical calculations reveal the unexpected result that localization is relatively independent of the precise location or organization of the scatterers. Localization occurs within a finite region of frequencies, coincident with the complete band gap predicted by a conventional band structure calculation for a periodic lattice of scatterers. Inside the gap or localization regime, a previously uninvestigated stable collective behavior of the cylinders appears.