Waves Primer II

Waves are: 1. Important 2. Easy 3. Neat

23.1

Basic wave form

a = Re[Ac ei(kx+lyt) ] (23.1)

The wave form that you will almost always use is

Where a variable Ac wave amplitude (complex in this case) kx + ly t phase (note, could also have a mz) k, l wave numbers frequency t time Since ei = cos + i sin we get a = Re[Ac (cos(kx + ly t) + i sin(kx + ly t))] Dening Ac = A1 + iA2 a = Re[A1 (cos(kx + ly t) + A1 i sin(kx + ly t) +iA2 cos(kx + ly t) A2 sin(kx + ly t)] a = A1 cos(kx + ly t) A2 sin(kx + ly t) Dene A1 A2 Such that a = A cos cos(kx + ly t) A sin sin(kx + ly t) Two angle formulas say: a = A cos(kx + ly t + ) (23.9) (23.8) = A cos = A sin (23.6) (23.7) (23.3) (23.4) (23.5) (23.2)

Where is a reference phase. The wave number is the number of waves per 2 (see gure 23.1). 1

Figure 23.1: (fig:WaveNumber) Wavelengths in the x and y directions as well as the overall wave length. Wave number is the number of waves in 2.

Figure 23.2: (fig:WaveLengths) Wavelengths in the x and y directions as well as the overall wave length. What is in terms of x and y ?

23.2

Wavelength
a = A cos(kx + ly t + ) (23.10)

Consider a wave of the form:

where is the distance over which signal repeats self in x direction distance over which kx increases by 2 kx = 2: x = 2 2 and y = k l (23.11)

This is how component-wise wavelengths and wavenumbers are related. What about the that gives the shortest crest to crest distance (see gure 23.2)? We have that sin = and sin = Equating these last two equations yields x 2 2 2 + 2 2 x y = y 2 + 2 x y x y 2 + 2 x y 2 2 x y 2 + 2 x y (23.14) x (23.13) y 2 x + 2 y (23.12)

(23.15)

(23.16) (23.17)

= 2 + 2 x y 2

Figure 23.3: (fig:WaveNumberVersusLength) Wave number versus wave lengths. 2 2 y 2 x 2 2 + 2 2 y x 1 2

2 +

= 2 y = = 1 1 1 + 2 x 2 y

(23.18) (23.19) (23.20)

Since x =

2 k

and y =

2 l

we get 1 2 4 2 =

k2 l2 + 2 (23.21) 2 4 4 = (k 2 + l2 )2 (23.22) 4 2 2 = (23.23) k 2 + l2 2 = (23.24) k 2 + l2 We dene k to be the total wave number and equal to k 2 + l2 . Note that while k = ki + lj, = xi + yj . Thus, K is the magnitude of the wavenumber vector. Note smaller wavenumber implies longer waves. Show PIX (See gure 23.3)

23.3

Frequency

Frequency is the number of periods per 2. Similar to the wavelength denition, the period is the time over which the signal repeats. For a = A cos(kx + ly t + ) this means the time over which t increases by 2 T T = = 2 2 (23.26) (23.27) (23.25)

Note that a smaller frequency implies a longer period. Show PIX (See gure 23.4) Jim Picture doesnt show anything.

Figure 23.4: (fig:WaveFrequencyVersusPeriod) Wave frequency versus wave period.

Figure 23.5: (fig:WavePhaseSpeed) A waves phase speed is the speed of individual crests and troughs.

23.4

Phase speed

Phase speed is the speed of individual crests and troughs. Consider a moving crest over a time t = t2 t1 (see gure 23.5). Express x as a fraction of wavelength in x: x = x (23.28)

In one period, x = x ; in two periods x = 2x , etc. Thus is the fraction of period traveled over t. = So: x = Note that this means x = t k (23.31) t 2 t x = t = T 2 k k (23.30) t T (23.29)

In the limit of t 0, this gives an expression for the speed of a wave crest in the x-direction. We call if the phase speed cx = Similarly cy = l (23.33) x = t k (23.32)

Just as in the wavenumber calculation (see gure 23.6): c= cx cy cx2 + cy 2 (23.34)

Figure 23.6: (fig:WaveAbsolutePhaseSpeed) Phase speeds in the x and y directions as well as the overall phase speed. What is c in terms of cx and cy ? Turn the crank and you get c = c = As for , c = cx i + cy j. Show MOVIE k2 + l2 (23.35) (23.36)

23.5

Group speed

The group speed is the speed at which energy (or information) travels. Consider the superposition of two waves a = A1 cos(k1 x + l1 y 1 t) + A2 cos(k2 x + l2 y 2 t) where A1 = A2 , Trigonometry tells us a = 2A cos where k = k1 k2 , k =
(k1 +k2 ) 2

(23.37)

k1 and k2

k1 k2 ,

1 and 2

1 2

(23.38)

k x t cos(kx t) 2 2

(23.39)

and similarly for . Thus we can write a = A cos(kx t) (23.40)

The A is a wavy amplitude modeulation of cos(kx t). Note that since k k and , amplitude modulation has much longer wavelength and much longer periods than cos(kx t). As before the phase speed is , but the speed of the amplitude modulation goes like k /2 d = = k/2 k dk in the limit k 0. cg is the group velocity which is equal too have cgx = k cgy = l cg = k Show MOVIES 5
d dk .

(23.41) In multiple-dimensions we (23.42) (23.43) (23.44)

Figure 23.7: (fig:WaveDispersion) Schematic of dispersion.

Figure 23.8: (fig:WaveDispersion1) One example of a dispersion relationship. groupspeedk.avi

k

same in each,
k

k k

changes. same. Note

k

groupspeeddeltak.avi

changes,

in bottom.

groupspeedomega.avi same, changes. Optically, larger seems faster group speed, but k k k not? (Jim part of the text got cut o on the right of the page.) groupspeeddeltaomega.avi
k

changes, k

same.

groupspeeddirection.avi Note that

looks faster when it is not.

groupspeedphasespeed.avi Shows , + . k k

23.6

Dispersion relatioship
(k,l) K (k,l) k

In general, k, l, , and A are not independent of one another, and phase speed = c = c(k, l) =

group velocity = cy = cy (k, l) =

Waves with dierent frequencies will travel at dierent speeds, smearing out coherent signals. This is called dispersion (see gure 23.7). The way in which frequency changes as a function of k and l is called the dispersion relation. The classic pictures are seen in gures 23.8 and 23.9. In general, these dispersion relations are obtained by substituing an a = Aei(kx+lyt+) into the equation of interest and reducing (all the ei(kx+lyt+) s drop out) to obtain = f (k, l).

Figure 23.9: (fig:WaveDispersion2) Another example of a dispersion relationship. 6