Geometrical optics

Author(s):  
Paul Ewart
Keyword(s):  
Author(s):  
Nathalie Deruelle ◽  
Jean-Philippe Uzan

This chapter examines solutions to the Maxwell equations in a vacuum: monochromatic plane waves and their polarizations, plane waves, and the motion of a charge in the field of a wave (which is the principle upon which particle detection is based). A plane wave is a solution of the vacuum Maxwell equations which depends on only one of the Cartesian spatial coordinates. The monochromatic plane waves form a basis (in the sense of distributions, because they are not square-integrable) in which any solution of the vacuum Maxwell equations can be expanded. The chapter concludes by giving the conditions for the geometrical optics limit. It also establishes the connection between electromagnetic waves and the kinematic description of light discussed in Book 1.


Entropy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (8) ◽  
pp. 950
Author(s):  
Ziwen Pan ◽  
Ivan B. Djordjevic

Traditionally, the study of quantum key distribution (QKD) assumes an omnipotent eavesdropper that is only limited by the laws of physics. However, this is not the case for specific application scenarios such as the QKD over a free-space link. In this invited paper, we introduce the geometrical optics restricted eavesdropping model for secret key distillation security analysis and apply to a few scenarios common in satellite-to-satellite applications.


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