Past exam of the physics A course of the University of Cambridge / 2022 / Paper 2 / Section B / B6 / b / ii

For a fixed transverse normal mode, define its cutoff angular frequencyThe longitudinal phase velocity and group velocity, for propagation in $+x$, areThus $v_p{v}_g=v^2$, $v_p>v$ and $v_g<v$. The large longitudinal phase velocity reflects the geometry of the transverse standing wave and does not imply faster transport of energy than the membrane wave speed.

The cutoff frequency of a membrane waveguide for mode $n$ isAt cutoff $k_x=0$ and $v_g=0$; the longitudinal phase velocity has no finite value. Below cutoff,and a bounded field excited at $x=0$ decays as $e^{-{\gamma }_{n}x}$. It is an evanescent wave, rather than a freely propagating mode carrying net time-averaged energy flux down an indefinitely long uniform strip. A finite section can still transmit through coupling of evanescent fields.