Reflection of a wave off a surface
Abstract
Recent advances in twistor theory are applied to geometric optics in ${\Bbb{R}}^3$. The general formulae for reflection of a wavefront in a surface are derived and in three special cases explicit descriptions are provided: when the reflecting surface is a plane, when the incoming wave is a plane and when the incoming wave is spherical. In each case particular examples are computed exactly and the results plotted to illustrate the outgoing wavefront.
- Publication:
-
arXiv Mathematics e-prints
- Pub Date:
- June 2004
- DOI:
- 10.48550/arXiv.math/0406212
- arXiv:
- arXiv:math/0406212
- Bibcode:
- 2004math......6212G
- Keywords:
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- Mathematics - Differential Geometry;
- 53A05
- E-Print:
- 14 pages, AMS-LATEX