Polarization
of Waves| Polarization
of Waves |
In General > see [light; optics];
electromagnetism.
* Remark: Unpolarized light must be polychromatic!
* Malus' law: The intensity
of polarized light passing through a linear polarizer decreases by a factor
cos2 
; > s.a. hidden variables.
* Of sky light: The scattering
that causes the blue sky (mostly single scattering) also polarizes it; To first
approximation there are two 0-polarization
points, the Sun and the anti-Sun, but double scattering causes
them to split
vertically into two closely spaced points (Brewster and Babinet
points,
each of index 1/2).
* Demonstration: Black
light sandwich – a transparency foil between two polarizers, allows to
see two index-1/2 singularities in direction
space.
Faraday Rotation
* Idea:
The rotation of the plane of polarization of light going through a magnetic
field (or other medum); > s.a. electromagnetism
in
curved
spacetime.
* Gravitational: The rotation
of the plane of polarization of polarized electromagnetic radiation travelling
through a gravitational field; In the case of a gravitational wave, the effect
vanishes for localized (astrophysically generated) waves and is
non-zero but negligible for cosmological ones.
@ General references: Ganguly
et
al PRD(99)
[degenerate relativistic]; Zavattini PRL(06)
+ pw(06)mar
[observation,
and axions].
@ Gravitational: Perlick & Hasse CQG(93);
Sereno PRD(04);
Halilsoy & Gurtug PRD(07),
Faraoni NA(07)-a0709 [due
to gravitational waves].
Other Effects > s.a. earth [auroras].
* Birefringence: A polarization-dependent
doubling in photon propagation speed, or anisotropic index of refraction; It
happens, e.g., in calcite, and in modified gravity theories such as bi-metric
models and Poincaré gauge theory; > s.a. finsler
geometry, modified
electromagnetism.
* Dichroism: Anisotropic
absorption of components of an electromagnetic wave; For example, by a grid
of parallel conductors.
* Optical activity: The
rotation of the E-field of a plane wave traversing some materials
(e.g., quartz).
@ Optical activity: Barbieri & Guadagnini NPB(04)
[gravitational].
@ Birefringence:
Ghosh & Fischer PRL(06)
+ pw(06)nov
[in chiral
liquid]; Chen et al hx/06 [and
vacuum
dichroism, experimental searches]
@
Related topics: Berry & Dennis PRS(01)
[polarization singularities in vector
waves].
> In gravitation and cosmology:
see cmb; kaluza-klein
phenomenology; non-commutative physics; Non-Symmetric
Gravity; gravitational phenomenology, observational
cosmology; photon phenomenology in quantum
gravity; tests
of
general relativity
with
light.
References
@ General: Pye 00 [I].
@ Stokes polarization parameters:
Schaefer et al AJP(07);
> s.a. gravitational wave background.
@ Experiments and examples: Ouseph et al AJP(01)
[polarization by reflection]; Smith AJP(07)
[of sky light, model].
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Send feedback and suggestions to bombelli at olemiss.edu – Modified
19 jul 2008