1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910257433803321

Autore

Perlick Volker

Titolo

Ray Optics, Fermat’s Principle, and Applications to General Relativity [[electronic resource] /] / by Volker Perlick

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berlin, Heidelberg : , : Springer Berlin Heidelberg : , : Imprint : Springer, , 2000

ISBN

3-540-46662-2

Edizione

[1st ed. 2000.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (X, 222 p.)

Collana

Lecture Notes in Physics Monographs, , 0940-7677 ; ; 61

Disciplina

523.0153

Soggetti

Optics

Electrodynamics

Applied mathematics

Engineering mathematics

Astrophysics

Gravitation

Physics

Magnetism

Magnetic materials

Classical Electrodynamics

Applications of Mathematics

Astrophysics and Astroparticles

Classical and Quantum Gravitation, Relativity Theory

Mathematical Methods in Physics

Magnetism, Magnetic Materials

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

From Maxwell’s equations to ray optics -- to Part I -- Light propagation in linear dielectric and permeable media -- Light propagation in other kinds of media -- A mathematical framework for ray optics -- to Part II -- Ray-optical structures on arbitrary manifolds -- Ray-optical structures on Lorentzian manifolds -- Variational principles for rays -- Applications.

Sommario/riassunto

This book is about the mathematical theory of light propagation in



media on general-relativistic spacetimes. The first part discusses the transition from Maxwell's equations to ray optics. The second part establishes a general mathematical framework for treating ray optics as a theory in its own right, making extensive use of the Hamiltonian formalism. This part also includes a detailed discussion of variational principles (i.e., various versions of Fermat's principle) for light rays in general-relativistic media. Some applications, e.g. to gravitational lensing, are worked out. The reader is assumed to have some basic knowledge of general relativity and some familiarity with differential geometry. Some of the results are published here for the first time, e.g. a general-relativistic version of Fermat's principle for light rays in a medium that has to satisfy some regularity condition only.