title: 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
journal: Light Science & Applications