Negative bending in seismic reflection associated with time‐advanced and time‐retarded fields

We present an analysis of scattering diagrams (i.e., Feynman-like diagrams for wave scattering) of the correlation-type representation theorem for ordinary inhomogeneous media with both positive stiffnesses and positive Poisson's ratios. This analysis reveals scattering events whose scattering diagrams include "negative" bending (i.e., bending in the opposite direction of that of scattering diagrams in ordinary inhomogeneous media). Unlike common scattering events, these events are inconsistent with the current interpretation of some of the basic physical laws, such as Snell's law, just like the so-called "negative refraction" in optics. Yet we find them very useful, for instance, in suppressing some undesired events from scattering data.