Related papers: From Fermat Principle to Wave equation
The present work shows that through a suitable change of variables relativistic dynamics can be mapped to light propagation in a non-homogeneous medium. A particle's trajectory through the modified space-time is thus formally equivalent to…
New form of Fermat's principle for light propagation in arbitrary (i.e. in general neither static nor stationary) gravitational field is proposed. It is based on Herglotz extension of canonical formalism and simple relation between the…
Starting from the classical Newton's second law which, according to our assumption, is valid in any instantaneous inertial rest frame of body that moves in Minkowskian space-time we get the relativistic equation of motion…
The refraction of a light ray by a homogeneous, isotropic and non-dispersive transparent material half-space in uniform rectilinear motion is investigated theoretically. The approach is an amalgamation of the original Fermat's principle and…
It is shown that for a relativistic particle moving in an electromagnetic field its equations of motion written in a form of the second law of Newton can be reduced with the help of elementary operations to the Hamilton-Jacobi equation. The…
The derivation becomes possible when we find a new formalism which connects the relativistic mechanics with the quantum mechanics. In this paper, we explore the quantum wave nature from the Newtonian mechanics by using a concept: velocity…
The Fermat principle is advocated to be a convenient tool to analyze the light propagation in a curved space time. It is shown that in the weak deflection regime the light ray trajectories can be systematically described by applying the…
The images of many distant galaxies are displaced, distorted and often multiplied by the presence of foreground massive galaxies near the line of sight; the foreground galaxies act as gravitational lenses. Commonly, the lens equation, which…
In this paper we use a general version of Fermat's principle for light rays in General Relativity and a curve shortening method to write the Morse relations for light rays joining an event with a smooth timelike curve in a Lorentzian…
We apply Perlick's (1990a) rigorous formulation of the Fermat principle in arbitrary spacetimes to prove the correctness of the description of gravitational lensing by gravitational waves, given in the literature using the scalar and vector…
We start with formulation of the generalized Fermat's principle for light propagation in a curved spacetime. We apply Pontryagin's minimum principle of the optimal control theory and obtain an effective Hamiltonian for null geodesics in a…
Fermat's principle and variational analysis is used to analyze the trajectories of light propagating in a radially inhomogeneous medium with a singularity in the center. It is found that the light trajectories are similar to those around a…
Quantum Action Principle formulated earlier is used as a ground for a probabilistic interpretation of one-particle relativistic quantum mechanics. In this new approach the probability "flows" in the Minkowsky space being dependent on an…
In this paper we regard the dynamics obtained from Fermat principle as begin the classical theory of light. We (first-)quantize the action and show how close we can get to the Maxwell theory. We show that Quantum Geometric Optics is not a…
We present an introduction to the study of a relativistic particle moving under the influence of its own Frenet-Serret curvatures. With the aim of introducing the notation and conventions used in this paper, we first recall the action of a…
The behavior of classical and quantum wave beams in stationary media is shown to be ruled by a "Wave Potential" function encoded in Helmholtz-like equations, determined by the structure itself of the beam and taking, in the quantum case,…
On the basis of Galilean invariance and the Doppler formula, combined with an observational condition, it is shown that the constancy of the velocity of light {\it in vacuo} can be derived, together with time-dilatation and Lorentz…
The indeterministic character of physical laws is generally considered to be the most important consequence of quantum physics. A deterministic point of view, however, together with the possibility of well defined Hamiltonian trajectories,…
The least action principle occupies a central part in contemporary physics. Yet, as far as classical field theory is concerned, it may not be as essential as generally thought. We show with three detailed examples of classical interacting…
A new derivation of the relativistic aberration formula for a plane-polarized light wave is presented that does not require any use of the Lorentz transformation. The method is based on a modification of the Huygens-Fresnel principle to…