The Geometry of Focal Sets

arXivmath/0411189MaRDI QIDQ6474685FDOQ6474685

Authors: Brendan Guilfoyle, Wilhelm Klingenberg 

Publication date: 9 November 2004

Abstract: The space $BbbL$ of oriented lines, or rays, in ${BbbR}^3$ is a 4-dimensional space with an abundance of natural geometric structure. In particular, it boasts a neutral K"ahler metric which is closely related to the Euclidean metric on ${BbbR}^3$. In this paper we explore the relationship between the focal set of a line congruence (or 2-parameter family of oriented lines in ${BbbR}^3$) and the geometry induced on the associated surface in $BbbL$. The physical context of such sets is geometric optics in a homogeneous isotropic medium, and so, to illustrate the method, we compute the focal set of the $k^{th}$ reflection of a point source off the inside of a cylinder. The focal sets, which we explicitly parameterize, exhibit unexpected symmetries, and are found to fit well with observable phenomena.

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Applications of global differential geometry to the sciences (53C80) Geometric optics (78A05) Differential line geometry (53A25)

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