Course | Postgraduate |
Semester | Electives |
Subject Code | ESA670 |
Subject Title | Polarization in Astronomy |
Unpolarised light, Linear, Circular, Elliptical pol arised light, Partially and fully polarised light, Stokes parameters, Dichroism, Birefringence, Poinca re sphere - Mueller and Jones representations with applications - Complex plane o f polarisation states. Generation of polarised light in astronomy - polari sation by reflection, scattering geometry, magnetic fields - dependence on refractive index - synchrotron emission - Faraday rotation - Dust in ISM. Instrumental polarisation errors and t heir calibration Optical/infrared polarimetry - Polaroids, Wave plat es, Wollaston prism, Modulators - photoelastic modulators, liquid crystals, - compound zero order plates, achromatic retarders, fresnel rhombs, modulators with CCDs, Two beam analysers, Achromati c systems, imaging and spectropolarimetry Radio polarimetry - Orthogonal dipoles as feeds, Na tive linear and circular feeds, correlation, synthesis array and VLBI. X-ray polarimetry - Bragg Polarimeters, Thompson/Compton Polarimeters, Gas Pixel Detector (GPD) solution, Ti me Projection Chamber (TPC) polarimeter solution, X-ray polarimetry--future missions .
Same as Reference
1. Astronomical Polarimetry - J. Tinbergen, Cambrid ege University Press
2. Polarized light by Dennis Goldstein (3rd Edition ) Marcel Dekker Inc (ISBN: 0-8247-4053- X)
3. X-ray Polarimetry--Edited By Ronaldo Bellazzini Enrico Costa Giorgio Matt Gianpiero Tagliaferri Publisher: Cambridge University Press ( 2010)
4. Introduction to the theory of Coherence and pola risation of light - Emil Wolf