Nondipole light scattering by partially oriented ensembles. III. The Müller pattern for achiral macromolecules

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Abstract
The Müller matrix representing elastic scattering of light by an isotropic suspension of particles has long been known to contain eight vanishing elements among its total of sixteen elements, provided that the particles have no handedness. We generalize the proof of this property to the case of anisotropic suspensions of particles, so that it may apply to symmetric biostructures such as viruses, undergoing electrophoresis. The matrix for the partially oriented case generally contains four crucial pieces of structural information missing from the randomly oriented case. In particular, the circular intensity difference scattering (CIDS) element M14 may be nonzero for an oriented ensemble of particles that have no helicity at all.