 Uniaxial conductivity tensor

A uniaxial electrical conductivity has one distinguished direction $n$ and equal response in its orthogonal plane. Its eigenvalues are $\alpha$ in $n^{\perp }$ and $\alpha +\gamma$ along $n$, so it is invertible precisely when $\alpha (\alpha +\gamma )\ne 0$. For an electric field perpendicular to $n$, the electric current density is $J=\alpha E$. Positive dissipation requires both eigenvalues to be nonnegative, a physical constraint separate from algebraic invertibility. For $D_{ij}={ϵ}_{ijk}{n}_k$, one has $D^2=n{n}^{\mathsf{T}}-I$, and $\sigma D^2=-\sigma$ is equivalent to $\gamma =-\alpha$; the conductivity then vanishes along $n$.