Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-1-1992
Publication Title
American Journal of Physics
Abstract
When observing a distant point source of light through a water droplet adhering to a pane of glass near one's eye or the scattering of light from raindrops, one often sees optical caustics. In this paper, diffraction integrals are used to investigate these caustics. The caustic shapes are related to divergences in the stationary phase method for approximating the diffraction integrals. These divergences correspond to the coalescing of two or more geometrical light rays in ray optics or the coalescing of two or more regions of stationary phase in wave optics. The number of coalescing light rays is related to a polynomial approximation of the phase function in the diffraction integral. Also, the relation between the shape of the resulting caustic and the elementary caustic forms of the catastrophe optics classification scheme is described.
Repository Citation
Lock, James A. and Andrews, James H., "Optical Caustics in Natural Phenomena" (1992). Physics Faculty Publications. 83.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/sciphysics_facpub/83
Original Citation
Lock, James A. and J. H. Andrews. "Optical Caustics in Natural Phenomena." American Journal of Physics 60 (1992): 397-407.
DOI
10.1119/1.16891
Version
Postprint
Publisher's Statement
Copyright 1992 American Association of Physics Teachers. The article appeared in American Journal of Physics 60 (1992): 397-407 and may be found at http://aapt.scitation.org/doi/10.1119/1.16891
Volume
60
Issue
5
