 Bandwidth limitation in fixed-power filament optimization

At fixed leading power of a periodic planar filament, the family $a\sin (mkx+\Omega t)$ has propulsive force of a periodic planar filament increasing with spatial harmonic $m$. The formal quadratic objective is unbounded without a spatial cutoff; large harmonics eventually invalidate the small-slope model. With a finite admissible Fourier series band, force divided by power is a weighted average of the signed ratios $-({\xi }_{\perp }-{\xi }_{\parallel })k_j/({\xi }_{\perp }{\Omega }_j)$. An allowed extremal ratio is attained by a travelling wave mode, or by a superposition with one common phase speed.