Related papers: Looking to the Blue Sky with Colored Patterns
A simple variation of the traditional Young's double slit experiment can demonstrate several subtleties of interference with polarized light, including Berry and Pancharatnam's phase. Since the position of the fringes depends on the…
We calculate the degree of linear polarization of radiation from stars having planets that may not be resolved spatially. We assume single scattering by water and silicate particulates in the planetary atmosphere. The dilution of the…
Planets reflect and linearly polarize the radiation that they receive from their host stars. The emergent polarization is sensitive to aspects of the planet atmosphere such as the gas composition and the occurrence of condensates and their…
The polarization of light is a critically under-utilized, rich source of information in astronomy. For stars in particular, surface magnetism polarization that can be detected and measured with spectro-polarimetry. Many questions about…
Trirefringence is related to the existence of three distinct phase velocity solutions (and polarizations) for light propagation in a same wave-vector direction. This implies that when a trirefringent medium refracts a light ray, it is split…
Polarization provides additional diagnostic opportunities for probing the structured environments of massive stars as well as the illumination of those environments by stars that are not spherical. After a brief overview of polarization…
The polarization state of electromagnetic radiation scattered by atmospheric particles such as aerosols, cloud droplets, or ice crystals contains much more information about the optical and microphysical properties than the total intensity…
A rainbow is a captivating natural phenomenon resulting from the refraction, dispersion, and reflection of sunlight within water droplets. Traditional classroom demonstrations often focus on qualitative explanations of the formation of…
It has been long recognized that the spatial polarization of the electronic clouds in molecules, and the spatial arrangements of atoms into chiral molecular structures, play crucial roles in physics, chemistry and biology. However, these…
Polarimetry of extrasolar planets becomes a new tool for their investigation, which requires the development of diagnostic techniques and parameter case studies. Our goal is to develop a theoretical model which can be applied to interpret…
Cosmological birefringence is a rotation of the polarization plane of photons coming from sources of astrophysical and cosmological origin. The rotation can also depend on the energy of the photons and not only on the distance of the source…
This paper considers environmental problems of natural and anthropogenic atmospheric aerosol pollution and its global and regional monitoring. Efficient aerosol investigations may be achieved by spectropolarimetric measurements.…
We study the polarization-polarization and polarization-temperature correlations in standard adiabatic scenarios for structure formation. Temperature anisotropies due to gravitational potential wells and oscillations in the…
The 3.1 micron absorption feature of water-ice has been observed spectroscopically in many molecular clouds and, when it has been observed spectropolarimetrically, usually a corre- sponding polarization feature is seen. Typically on these…
We analyze the behavior of light as it passes through systems composed of polarizing filters at different angular orientations. The analysis is initially conducted in the context of classical optics, using Malus's Law to calculate the…
The basic tenets of the alternative interpretation to be presented here are that the spectral profiles of the star light polarization peaks observed in the visible and near IR are a result of the optical properties of silicate grains in the…
Increasing the complexity of a light field through the advanced manipulation of its degrees of freedom (DoF) provides new opportunities for fundamental studies and technologies. Correlating polarization with the light's spatial or spectral…
While amongst the most luminous objects in the universe, many details regarding the inner structure of quasars remain unknown. One such area is the mechanism promoting increased polarisation in the broad absorption line troughs of certain…
We suggest an experiment to observe vacuum birefringence induced by intense laser fields. A high-intensity laser pulse is focused to ultra-relativistic intensity and polarizes the vacuum which then acts like a birefringent medium. The…
This colloquium analyzes the interaction of light with two-dimensional periodic arrays of particles and holes. The enhanced optical transmission observed in the latter and the presence of surface modes in patterned metal surfaces are…