English

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 Φ=krku/c\Phi=\mathbf{k\cdot r}-\mathbf{k\cdot u}/c, instead of the widely-used expression Φ=krωt\Phi=\mathbf{k\cdot r}-\omega t which has a limited validity.

Keywords

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

R2 v1 2026-06-21T10:04:48.100Z