Rigorous bounds for the complex dielectric constant of a two-component composite

Rigorous bounds are systematically derived for the bulk effective dielectric constant of a two-phase composite material ε_e under various assumptions about the available information. The bounds are drawn for some special cases in the complex ε_e-plane. The question of optimality of the bounds and their connection to solvable microgeometries is discussed. It is shown how linear programming theory can be used to aid in the derivation of these bounds.