Maximum reception/transmission criteria for Conical Horn Antennas

[tworitdash]

TL;DR Summary

I want to get an analogy between nature and the design of an antenna that I got by optimizing it for a minimum return loss.

I have written a solver for my thesis which determines various parameters of a conical horn antenna for astronomy application. It is done with Mode Matching Technique (MMT) and some Rumsey's integrals for the aperture free space transitions. I have made some goal functions with the solver which are used to optimize some parameters of the antenna. One such parameter is the return loss (amount of power reflected because of the flare of the horn). The base of the horn is excited with the fundamental mode ($TE_{11}$). Due to the flare of the horn, higher-order modes are excited and the fundamental mode also is reflected to some extent. I used a genetic algorithm in MATLAB to optimize it. The input parameters are the geometrical parameters of the antenna. Different conical section radii and the overall length of the antenna.

Finally, with a fitness limit (minimum return loss to be achieved as -45 dB), I got a very nice result for the horn Geometry. It is shown in the figure below. After getting this result, I was surprised by the look of it. It looks like a pumpkin flower that my father grows in our backyard at home.

I know that some antenna array topologies are being designed keeping in mind the structure of the seeds in a sunflower (Fibonacci pattern) to get maximum reception of signals from space. Did I also discover something similar with an analogy to a different flower model? Do these flowers also take the shape like this to have minimum return loss with light energy?

 

[Paul Colby]

I've never checked the VSWR of a pumpkin flower but my guess would be no. Isn't the primary function of flowers to attract insects and animals to help with seed dispersal and pollination?

 

[sophiecentaur]

I've never checked the VSWR of a pumpkin flower but my guess would be no. Isn't the primary function of flowers to attract insects and animals to help with seed dispersal and pollination?

Horn shaped flowers are a good shape to encourage the insect to carry on to the bottom and not turn round and leave. That's a sort of minimum reflection coefficient?

 

[tworitdash]

I've never checked the VSWR of a pumpkin flower but my guess would be no. Isn't the primary function of flowers to attract insects and animals to help with seed dispersal and pollination?

I started searching about the connection with light but didn't get anything nice. I thought there would be something as in the case of sunflower. I guess it doesn't do much with light. :P