Timeline for Eikonal approximation for wave optics. Why follow the unit vector parallel to the Poynting vector?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
10 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| S Apr 1, 2020 at 18:54 | history | suggested | abhijit975 | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
corrected spelling
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| Apr 1, 2020 at 18:05 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| S Apr 1, 2020 at 18:54 | |||||
| Feb 27, 2013 at 11:16 | vote | accept | Krastanov | ||
| Feb 27, 2013 at 1:37 | comment | added | Emilio Pisanty | Related: Derivation of the ray equation. | |
| Feb 27, 2013 at 1:35 | history | edited | Emilio Pisanty | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Important change of exp(chi) to exp(i chi). Minor copy edit.
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| Feb 27, 2013 at 1:32 | answer | added | Emilio Pisanty | timeline score: 3 | |
| Feb 27, 2013 at 0:12 | comment | added | KDN | Also, I don't know if there is any kind of "proof" for 3. I believe it is more of a definition. The geometric "light ray" is taken to be the path traced out by the Poynting vector of the electromagnetic field. | |
| Feb 27, 2013 at 0:07 | comment | added | Krastanov | @KDN, intuitively your comment makes a lot of sense, thanks, however I hope to get a more detailed proof at some point. | |
| Feb 27, 2013 at 0:05 | comment | added | KDN | The distinction between $\vec{s}$ and $\vec{S}$ is not terribly significant; the point of the unit vectors is that they point in the same direction as the Poynting vector, with unit magnitude. The field of unit vectors deforms continuously across phase boundaries, as does the Poynting vector. You could just as easily follow the Poynting vector, but it would be a little more confusing since the "size" of the vector would change shape as the index of the medium changed. This isn't necessary to see that the path of light propagation at any point in space is along the Poynting unit vector. | |
| Feb 26, 2013 at 23:41 | history | asked | Krastanov | CC BY-SA 3.0 |