Coherence, power laws, and the negative polarization surge.
We develop a second-order ray-tracing model that includes the constructive interference of reciprocal rays and Fresnel reflections from an inverse gamma-type distribution function of path length to predict the negative polarization branch seen in some astronomical bodies. We expect that such a path-length distribution might resemble the path lengths undertaken by rays incident upon some astronomical bodies. The resulting negative polarization is largely wavelength independent and depends primarily on the power law in the path-length distribution, which coincides with some observations.
Videen
Gorden
G
U.S. Army Research Laboratory, AMSRL-CI-EE, 2800 Powder Mill Road, Adelphi, Maryland 20783-1197, USA. gvideen@arl.army.mil
Muinonen
Karri
K
Lumme
Kari
K