Polarization singularities in isotropic random vector waves
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- 8 January 2001
- journal article
- Published by The Royal Society in Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences
- Vol. 457 (2005) , 141-155
- https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.2000.0660
Abstract
Following Nye & Hajnal, we explore the geometry of complex vector waves by regarding them as a field of polarization ellipses. Singularities of this field are the C lines and L lines, where the polarization is purely circular and purely linear, respectively. The singularities can be reinterpreted as loci of photon spin 1 (C lines) and 0 (L lines). For Gaussian random superpositions of plane waves equidistributed in direction but with an arbitrary frequency spectrum, we calculate the density (length per unit volume) of C and L lines.Keywords
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