Is the phase of plane waves a frame-independent quantity?
Optics
2011-11-10 v2 Classical Physics
Abstract
The invariance of the phase of plane waves among inertial frames is investigated in some details. The reason that eventually led the author of a recent EPL letter [EPL \textbf{79}, 1006 (2007)] to a spurious conclusion of the non-invariance of the phase of waves has been identified -- it is the ignorance of the effect of relativistically-induced optical anisotropy in the analysis of the problem. It is argued that the Lorentz-invariant expression for the phase of waves should be taken in the form , instead of the widely-used expression which has a limited validity.
Cite
@article{arxiv.0801.3149,
title = {Is the phase of plane waves a frame-independent quantity?},
author = {Aleksandar Gjurchinovski},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0801.3149},
year = {2011}
}
Comments
4 pages, 5 figures, REVTeX