title: Analysis of the shadow-sausage effect caustic.
abstract: We analyze the optical caustic produced by light refracted at the curved meniscus surrounding a cylindrical rod standing partially out of a liquid-filled container. When the rod is tilted from the vertical or when light is diagonally incident, the caustic is a four-cusped astroid with two of its cusps obscured by the rod's shadow. If a portion of the flat end of the rod is raised above the water level, the caustic evolves into a pattern of five interlocking cusps. The five cusps result from symmetry breaking of a three-cusped surface perturbation caustic.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio 44115, USA. j.lock@csuohio.edu
authors.forename: James A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Lock
authors.forename: Charles L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Adler
authors.forename: Diana
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ekelman
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mulholland
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Keating