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A Theorem on Ray Trajectories

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2016

K.C. Westfold*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Science, Monash University, Melbourne

Extract

The classical theorems on the intensity of radiation (e.g. Milne) depend on the geometry of rectilinear ray trajectories in uniform media. In particular, the theorem concerning the specific intensity I in a medium specified by an isotropic refractive index μ—that, where there are no gains due to emission or losses due to absorption or scattering, the quantity I/μ2 = constant—is proved by assuming that the medium consists of a series of regions of constant refractive index at whose plane interfaces the coefficients of reflection are zero. For these the geometry of the trajectories (Figure 1) is such that, by Snell’s law,

Type
Contributions
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of Australia 1968

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References

1 Milne, E.A., ‘Thermodynamics of the Stars’, Chapter 3 of ‘Handbuch der Astrophysik’ Bd III/l, Springer Publishers, Berlin, 1930.Google Scholar
2 Woolley, R.v.d.R., Aust. J. Sci., Suppl, 10, No. 2, 1947.Google Scholar
3 Pawsey, J.L., and Smerd, S.F., ‘Solar Radio Emission’, Chapter 7 of ‘The Sun’ ed. Kuiper, G. P., University of Chicago Publishers, Chicago, 1953.Google Scholar