A covariant form of Hamilton's Principle of Stationary Action is formulated and used to solve the general eiconal equation describing the wave function of light in a medium carrying ultrasound. Tensor notation is reviewed and the tensor form of Maxwell's equations is developed. Boundary equation that the field quantities must satisfy in order for the variation of Hamilton's action integral to be stationary are determined and used to form the generalized eiconal equation of geometrical optics. The rays are introduced and through a canonical transformation the eiconal for the diffracted medium is solved and plotted.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ucf.edu/oai:stars.library.ucf.edu:rtd-1132 |
| Date | 01 January 1974 |
| Creators | Waterhouse, Daniel F. |
| Publisher | Florida Technological University |
| Source Sets | University of Central Florida |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Retrospective Theses and Dissertations |
| Rights | Public Domain |
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