Electromagnetic symmetry dislocations

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Vernon, Alex J., Golat, Sebastian, Rodríguez-Fortuño, Francisco J.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Vernon, Alex J.
Golat, Sebastian
Rodríguez-Fortuño, Francisco J.
author_facet Vernon, Alex J.
Golat, Sebastian
Rodríguez-Fortuño, Francisco J.
contents Singular optics aims to understand and manipulate light's topological defects, pioneered by the discovery that phase vortex lines, strands of destructive interference, naturally occur in scalar wave fields. Monochromatic electromagnetic fields, however, are described by complex three-dimensional vectors that make individual scalar phase vortices in their vector components, which depend on the choice of co-ordinate basis, less meaningful. Instead, polarisation singularities can capture the vector texture of complicated, even non-paraxial light, with separate spatial descriptions for the electric $\mathbf{E}$ and magnetic $\mathbf{H}$ fields. But polarisation textures, too, are basis-dependent, because the laws of electromagnetism can be expressed not only by separate $\mathbf{E}$ and $\mathbf{H}$ fields, but by linear combinations of the two. We instead propose fundamental, basis-independent topological features generic in monochromatic electromagnetic fields: one- and two-dimensional structures that relate to time-averaged symmetries, including parity, duality and time-reversal, held locally by the combined electric and magnetic field polarisation geometry.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2411_05741
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Electromagnetic symmetry dislocations
Vernon, Alex J.
Golat, Sebastian
Rodríguez-Fortuño, Francisco J.
Optics
Singular optics aims to understand and manipulate light's topological defects, pioneered by the discovery that phase vortex lines, strands of destructive interference, naturally occur in scalar wave fields. Monochromatic electromagnetic fields, however, are described by complex three-dimensional vectors that make individual scalar phase vortices in their vector components, which depend on the choice of co-ordinate basis, less meaningful. Instead, polarisation singularities can capture the vector texture of complicated, even non-paraxial light, with separate spatial descriptions for the electric $\mathbf{E}$ and magnetic $\mathbf{H}$ fields. But polarisation textures, too, are basis-dependent, because the laws of electromagnetism can be expressed not only by separate $\mathbf{E}$ and $\mathbf{H}$ fields, but by linear combinations of the two. We instead propose fundamental, basis-independent topological features generic in monochromatic electromagnetic fields: one- and two-dimensional structures that relate to time-averaged symmetries, including parity, duality and time-reversal, held locally by the combined electric and magnetic field polarisation geometry.
title Electromagnetic symmetry dislocations
topic Optics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.05741