Читать книгу Stigmatic Optics - Rafael G González-Acuña - Страница 25

In this chapter, we briefly studied Maxwell’s equations, from which we find the wave equation. From the latter, we obtained some particular solutions and their spatial part—the Helmholtz equation.

The Helmholtz equation will be of great help to us because through it we will find the eikonal equation and in turn, the ray equation. These last equations lay the foundations of geometric optics. Geometric optics is the playing field of stigmatism which will be presented in-depth in chapter 5 and the following chapters; stigmatic systems will be studied in detail.