The singularities of light: intensity, phase, polarisation

Abstract

In modern optics, light can be described at different levels: as rays, as scalar waves, as vector fields, and as quantum fields. In the first three levels, there are singularities—characteristic features, useful in interpreting phenomena at that level. In geometrical optics, the singularities are ray caustics; in scalar wave optics, they are phase singularities (=wave dislocations= wave vortices = nodal manifolds); in vector waves, they are singularities where the polarisation of light is purely linear or purely circular. The singularities at each level are dissolved at the next level. Similar singularities occur in all waves, not just light.