Diffraction is the interference or bending of waves around the corners of an obstacle or through an aperture into the region of geometrical shadow of the obstacle/aperture. The diffracting object or aperture effectively becomes a secondary source of the propagating wave. Italian scientist Francesco Maria Grimaldi coined the word diffraction and was the first to record accurate observations of the phenomenon in 1660.
A Fourier series is an expansion of a periodic function into a sum of trigonometric functions. The Fourier series is an example of a trigonometric series, but not all trigonometric series are Fourier series. By expressing a function as a sum of sines and cosines, many problems involving the function become easier to analyze because trigonometric functions are well understood. For example, Fourier series were first used by Joseph Fourier to find solutions to the heat equation. This application is possible because the derivatives of trigonometric functions fall into simple patterns. Fourier series cannot be used to approximate arbitrary functions, because most functions have infinitely many terms in their Fourier series, and the series do not always converge. Well-behaved functions, for example smooth functions, have Fourier series that converge to the original function. The coefficients of the Fourier series are determined by integrals of the function multiplied by trigonometric functions, described in Common forms of the Fourier series below.
In solid-state physics and condensed matter physics, the density of states (DOS) of a system describes the number of modes per unit frequency range. The density of states is defined as , where is the number of states in the system of volume whose energies lie in the range from to . It is mathematically represented as a distribution by a probability density function, and it is generally an average over the space and time domains of the various states occupied by the system. The density of states is directly related to the dispersion relations of the properties of the system. High DOS at a specific energy level means that many states are available for occupation.
In mathematics, physics and engineering, the sinc function, denoted by sinc(x), has two forms, normalized and unnormalized.
In mathematics, trigonometric interpolation is interpolation with trigonometric polynomials. Interpolation is the process of finding a function which goes through some given data points. For trigonometric interpolation, this function has to be a trigonometric polynomial, that is, a sum of sines and cosines of given periods. This form is especially suited for interpolation of periodic functions.
In quantum physics, Fermi's golden rule is a formula that describes the transition rate from one energy eigenstate of a quantum system to a group of energy eigenstates in a continuum, as a result of a weak perturbation. This transition rate is effectively independent of time and is proportional to the strength of the coupling between the initial and final states of the system as well as the density of states. It is also applicable when the final state is discrete, i.e. it is not part of a continuum, if there is some decoherence in the process, like relaxation or collision of the atoms, or like noise in the perturbation, in which case the density of states is replaced by the reciprocal of the decoherence bandwidth.
In mathematics, the discrete-time Fourier transform (DTFT), also called the finite Fourier transform, is a form of Fourier analysis that is applicable to a sequence of values.
The rectangular function is defined as
The Debye–Waller factor (DWF), named after Peter Debye and Ivar Waller, is used in condensed matter physics to describe the attenuation of x-ray scattering or coherent neutron scattering caused by thermal motion. It is also called the B factor, atomic B factor, or temperature factor. Often, "Debye–Waller factor" is used as a generic term that comprises the Lamb–Mössbauer factor of incoherent neutron scattering and Mössbauer spectroscopy.
In condensed matter physics and crystallography, the static structure factor is a mathematical description of how a material scatters incident radiation. The structure factor is a critical tool in the interpretation of scattering patterns obtained in X-ray, electron and neutron diffraction experiments.
The zero-order hold (ZOH) is a mathematical model of the practical signal reconstruction done by a conventional digital-to-analog converter (DAC). That is, it describes the effect of converting a discrete-time signal to a continuous-time signal by holding each sample value for one sample interval. It has several applications in electrical communication.
In functional analysis, the Shannon wavelet is a decomposition that is defined by signal analysis by ideal bandpass filters. Shannon wavelet may be either of real or complex type.
In crystallography and solid state physics, the Laue equations relate incoming waves to outgoing waves in the process of elastic scattering, where the photon energy or light temporal frequency does not change upon scattering by a crystal lattice. They are named after physicist Max von Laue (1879–1960).
The Scherrer equation, in X-ray diffraction and crystallography, is a formula that relates the size of sub-micrometre crystallites in a solid to the broadening of a peak in a diffraction pattern. It is often referred to, incorrectly, as a formula for particle size measurement or analysis. It is named after Paul Scherrer. It is used in the determination of size of crystals in the form of powder.
In mathematical analysis, the Dirichlet kernel, named after the German mathematician Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet, is the collection of periodic functions defined as
In physics and engineering, the envelope of an oscillating signal is a smooth curve outlining its extremes. The envelope thus generalizes the concept of a constant amplitude into an instantaneous amplitude. The figure illustrates a modulated sine wave varying between an upper envelope and a lower envelope. The envelope function may be a function of time, space, angle, or indeed of any variable.
The kicked rotator, also spelled as kicked rotor, is a paradigmatic model for both Hamiltonian chaos and quantum chaos. It describes a free rotating stick in an inhomogeneous "gravitation like" field that is periodically switched on in short pulses. The model is described by the Hamiltonian
In optics, the Fraunhofer diffraction equation is used to model the diffraction of waves when the diffraction pattern is viewed at a long distance from the diffracting object, and also when it is viewed at the focal plane of an imaging lens.
The spectrum of a chirp pulse describes its characteristics in terms of its frequency components. This frequency-domain representation is an alternative to the more familiar time-domain waveform, and the two versions are mathematically related by the Fourier transform.
The spectrum is of particular interest when pulses are subject to signal processing. For example, when a chirp pulse is compressed by its matched filter, the resulting waveform contains not only a main narrow pulse but, also, a variety of unwanted artifacts many of which are directly attributable to features in the chirp's spectral characteristics.
The simplest way to derive the spectrum of a chirp, now that computers are widely available, is to sample the time-domain waveform at a frequency well above the Nyquist limit and call up an FFT algorithm to obtain the desired result. As this approach was not an option for the early designers, they resorted to analytic analysis, where possible, or to graphical or approximation methods, otherwise. These early methods still remain helpful, however, as they give additional insight into the behavior and properties of chirps.
In physics, a sinusoidal plane wave is a special case of plane wave: a field whose value varies as a sinusoidal function of time and of the distance from some fixed plane. It is also called a monochromatic plane wave, with constant frequency.
