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International Editinn

OPTICS
F O U R T H E D T I n N ,

Eugene Hecht
 Eugene Hecht
Adelphi University

San Francisco Boston New York

Capetown Hong Kong London Madrid Mexico City
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Sponsoring Editor: Adam Black
Project Manager: Nancy Gee
Manufacturing Supervisor: Vivian McDougal
Cover Designer: Blakeley Kim
Production Service: HRS lnteractive
Text Design: HRS lnteractive
Composition: HRS lnteractive
Illustration: HRS lnteractive
Photo Research: Carolyn Eisen Hecht

ISBN 0-321-18878-0

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A
physics more readable. To further enhance the pedagogy, this
edition also contains many new drawings and photographs.
s with previous revisions, this fourth edition has been Chapter 2 (Wave Motion), which lays the mathematical
guided by three distinct imperatives: to fine-tune the peda- groundwork for wave theory, has been somewhat revised in
gogy, modernize the discourse, and update the content. order both to make the existing material clearer and to provide
During the past several years, using the third edition in the a broader foundation for what's to come. For instance, the dis-
classroom, a number of small but significant pedagogical cussion of the differential wave equation (p. 13) has been
refinements have evolved, and these have been incorporated fleshed out a bit, with some of the previously missing steps
throughout this revised text. For instance, all symbols repre- now provided.
senting vectors now have an arrow directly above them. The Chapter 3 (Electromagnetic Theory, Photons, and Light)
intent, as ever, is to be responsive to students' needs. has been extensively reworked. Nowadays many students
This edition continues the program of gradually moderniz- studying Optics come to it with little more than the brief expo-
ing the treatment. In this, there are several goals, vis-h-vis the sure to electromagnetic theory afforded by the traditional
student: to impart an appreciation of the central role of atomic introductory course in physics. With them in mind, Section
scattering in almost every aspect of Optics; to provide an 3.1, Basic Laws of Electromagnetic Theory (p. 37), has been
understanding, as early as possible, of the insightful perspec- expanded, making the material far more accessible to these
tive offered by Fourier Theory; and to make clear, from the students. In keeping with the commitment to discuss modern
outset, the underlying quantum-mechanical nature of light. applications of Optics, a new section called Optical Cooling
Technological advances have been made in a wide range of examines this important technique (p. 65).
areas from lenses and lasers to telescopes and fiberoptics. This The Propagation of Light (Chapter 4) now contains a dis-
fourth edition treats (even if sometimes only in introductory cussion of the historical origins of the concept of index of
fashion) many of the significant advances that today's students refraction (p. 88). This helps to make Snell's Law easier to
should be aware of. really understand. The chapter is further enhanced with a more
At the request of users, I have added dozens of new prob- thorough treatment of Fermat and Mirages (p. 107). A new
lems throughout the text. Most of these were designed to section, 4.1 1.2, called Photons and the Laws of Reflection and
develop needed analytic skills and are of the "easy-to-inter- Refraction (p. 141) completes the chapter.
mediate" variety. As in previous editions, the complete solu- The treatment of Geometrical Optics (Chapter 5 ) was
tions to problems without asterisks can be found at the back of refined here and there (e.g., pp. 161, 164, 166, 178, and 215)
the book. It should be noted that the vast majority of the new to improve its clarity. The field of telecommunications is so
problems are not provided with such solutions. This was done important and so rapidly evolving that each edition of this
to increase the selection of potential homework questions. book has had to treat several major technological advances.
Much effort was expended in redrawing well over a hun- Accordingly, the discussion of fiberoptics was brought up to
dred pieces of existing art to make them clearer and the date with the consideration of such topics as erbium-doped
iv Preface

fiber amplifiers (p. 197), wavelength division multiplexing, grand ideas. Thus the concept of interference, which is one of
and optical switching via MOEMS (p. 200). Liquid mirrors are the premier notions in Optics (and not surprisingly in Quan-
briefly considered on page 223. The chapter ends with a new tum Mechanics, as well), is used qualitatively to understand
section on Gravitational Lensing (p. 23 1). propagation phenomena long before it's studied formally in
The discussion of wavefront aberrations in Chapter 6 (More Chapter 9. Among other benefits, this approach of presenting
on Geometrical Optics) has been enlarged (p. 254). There is a advanced concepts in simplified form early in the exposition
new piece concerning the upgraded Arecibo Observatory (p. allows the student to develop a cohesive perspective.
258) because it beautifully illustrates an important contempo- Over the years, I have received comments, articles, and
rary approach to dealing with spherical aberration. photographs, from hundreds of colleagues, and I most sincere-
Chapter 7 (The Superposition qf Waves) was reworked to ly thank them all. I am especially grateful to Professors P. J.
make the material generally more accessible (eg., p. 303). The Dolan of Northeastern Illinois University, W. A. Mendoza of
phasor representation was used to illuminate the creation of Jacksonville University, M. W. Coffey of the University of
both standing waves (p. 288) and partial standing waves (p. Colorado and H. Fearn of California State University for their
289). Because of a very significant series of experiments pub- contributions and suggestions. Prof. J. R. Peverley of The
lished in the last several years, the discussion of Group Veloc- George Washington University kindly donated several very
ity (p. 296), Section 7.2.2, was enriched and new subsections nice problems on Jones matrices and I thank him for helping to
on Superluminal and Subluminal Light were added. freshen up this edition. Anyone else wishing to contribute
In Chapter 8 (Polarization), as elsewhere, the prose was their favorite problems, please fell free to do so. Indeed, if you
tightened and the analysis clarified, here and there. A few new are interested in the discipline and wish to exchange ideas you
photographs and several fresh diagrams were included. The can contact me by mail at Adelphi University, Physics Depart-
section (8.7) on Retarders was extended, and the concepts of ment, Garden City, N.Y. 11530 or at [email protected].
zero-ordered, multiple-ordered, and compound zero-ordered I'd like to thank the entire team at Addison Wesley, for all
wave plates were introduced. A section on Liquid Crystals their help, without which this edition would never have seen
(8.12) was added, and the operation of both the liquid crystal the light of day, as it were. I am especially grateful to Adam
variable retarder and liquid crystal display (LCD) were Black whose enthusiasm for the project was sustaining, to
explained. Joan Marsh whose wise decisions made the whole thing man-
In addition to a few new photos and the occasional clarify- ageable, and to Nancy Gee who handled the day-to-day oper-
ing remark, Chapter 9 (Interference) now contains a section, ation with efficiency and good humor.
9.8.4, called Radar Intei$erometry. The book was produced by HRS Interactive, which did a
Over the last two decades there's been some interesting brilliant job of getting it all together. Lorraine Burke watched
work done on so-called nondiffracting beams. Accordingly, over every aspect of the process with incredible patience and
Chapter 10 (Diffraction) contains a new section (10.2.7) enti- skill; Alan Wiener and Jennifer Burke cheerfully brought their
tled The Zeroth-Order Bessel Beam, that deals with the phe- production acumen to bear; Ed Burke designed a beautiful
nomenon. book and struggled mightily to maintain the highest standards;
Chapters 11 (Fourier Optics), and 12 (Basics of Coherence Hilda Espreo was the tireless compositor; and as ever, Pat
Theory) have undergone a line-by-line fine tuning, but little or Hannagan, with the able assistance of Chris Burke, produced
no overhaul. incomparable art. All have my deepest respect and profound
Chapter 13, Modem Optics: Lasers and Other Topics, has appreciation. Finally, I thank my dear friend, my wife,
been revised with the addition of a subsection on Gaussian Carolyn Eisen Hecht for coping with one more edition of one
Laserbeams and some updating as required (e.g., it .now more book.
includes material on the Omega laser).
This fourth edition continues the agenda of unifying the
discourse, as much as possible, within the framework of a few Freeport, New York E.H.
1 A Brief History 1 4.2 Rayleigh Scattering 8 6
1.1 Prolegomenon 1 4.3 Reflection 95
1.2 In the Beginning 1 4.4 Refraction 100
1.3 From the Seventeenth Century 2 4.5 Fermat's Principle 106
1.4 The Nineteenth Century 4 4.6 The Electromagnetic Approach 111
1.5 Twentieth-Century Optics 7 4.7 Total Internal Reflection 122
4.8 Optical Properties of Metals 127
2 Wave Motion 10 4.9 Familiar Aspects of the Interaction of
2.1 One-Dimensional Waves 1 0 Light and Matter 131
2.2 Harmonic Waves 1 4 4.10 The Stokes Treatment of Reflection and
2.3 Phase and Phase Velocity 17 Refraction 136
2.4 The Superposition Principle 20 4.11 Photons, Waves, and Probability 137
2.5 The Complex Representation 2 1 Problems 141
2.6 Phasors and the Addition of Waves 2 3
2.7 Plane Waves 2 4 5 Geometrical Optics 149
2.8 The Three-Dimensional Differential 5.1 Introductory Remarks 149
Wave Equation 27 5.2 Lenses 150
2.9 Spherical Waves 2 8 5.3 Stops 171
2.10 Cylindrical Waves 3 1 5.4 Mirrors 175
Problems 3 2 5.5 Prisms 186
5.6 Fiberoptics 193
3 Electromagnetic Theory, Photons,
and Light 36 5.7 Optical Systems 201
5.8 Wavefront Shaping 226
3.1 Basic Laws of Electromagnetic Theory 37
5.9 Gravitational Lensing 231
3.2 Electromagnetic Waves 4 4
Problems 234
3.3 Energy and Momentum 47
3.4 Radiation 5 8
3.5 Light in Bulk Matter 6 6 6 More on Geometrical Optics 243
3.6 The Electromagnetic-Photon Spectrum 7 3 6.1 Thick Lenses and Lens Systems 243
3.7 Quantum Field Theory 8 0 6.2 Analytical Ray Tracing 246
Problems 8 2 6.3 Aberrations 253
6.4 GRIN Systems 273
4 The Propagation of Light 8 6 6.5 Concluding Remarks 276
4.1 Introduction 8 6 Problems 277
vi Contents

7 The Superposition of 10 Diffraction 443

Waves 281 10.1 Preliminary Considerations 443
7.1 The Addition of Waves of the Same 10.2 Fraunhofer Diffraction 452
Frequency 282 10.3 Fresnel Diffraction 485
7.2 The Addition of Waves of Different 10.4 Kirchhoff's Scalar Diffraction Theory 510
Frequency 294 10.5 Boundary Diffraction Waves 512
7.3 Anharmonic Periodic Waves 302 Problems 5 1 4
7.4 Nonperiodic Waves 308
Problems 320 11 Fourier Optics 519
11.1 lntroduction 519
8 Polarization 325 11.2 Fourier Transforms 519
8.1 The Nature of Polarized Light 325 11.3 Optical Applications 529
8.2 Polarizers 331 Problems 556
8.3 Dichroism 333
8.4 Birefringence 336 12 Basics of Coherence
8.5 Scattering and Polarization 344 Theory 560
8.6 Polarization by Reflection 348 12.1 lntroduction 560
8.7 Retarders 352 12.2 Visibility 562
8.8 Circular Polarizers 357 12.3 The Mutual Coherence Function and the
8.9 Polarization of Polychromatic Light 358 Degree of Coherence 566
8.10 Optical Activity 360 12.4 Coherence and Stellar lnterferometry 573
8.11 Induced Optical Effects-Optical Problems 578
Modulators 365
8.12 Liquid Crystals 370 13 Modern Optics: Lasers and
8.13 A Mathematical Description of Other Topics 5 8 1
Polarization 372
13.1 Lasers and Laserlight 581
Problems 379
13.2 Imagery - The Spatial Distribution of
Optical Information 606
9 lnterference 385 13.3 Holography 623
9.1 General Considerations 386 13.4 Nonlinear Optics 639
9.2 Conditions for lnterference 390 Problems 644
9.3 Wavefront-splitting Interferometers 393
9.4 Amplitude-splitting lnterferometers 400 Appendix 1 649
9.5 Types and Localization of lnterference
Appendix 2 652
Fringes 414
9.6 Multiple-Beam lnterference 416 Table 1 653
9.7 Applications of Single and Multilayer Solutions to Selected Problems 658
Films 425 Bibliography 685
9.8 Applications of lnterferometry 431 Index 689
Problems 438
1.1 Prolegomenon immersed in water (p. 102) is mentioned in Plato's Republic.
Refraction was studied by Cleomedes (50 A.D.)and later by
In chapters to come we will evolve a formal treatment of Claudius Ptolemy (130 A.D.) of Alexandria, who tabulated
much of the science of Optics, with particular emphasis on fairly precise measurements of the angles of incidence and
aspects of contemporary interest. The subject embraces a vast refraction for several media (p. 101). It is clear from the
body of knowledge accumulated over roughly three thousand accounts of the historian Pliny (23-79 A.D.)that the Romans
years of the human scene. Before embarking on a study of the also possessed burning glasses. Several glass and crystal
modem view of things optical, let's briefly trace the road that spheres have been found among Roman ruins, and a planar
led us there, if for no other reason than to put it all in convex lens was recovered in Pompeii. The Roman philoso-
perspective. pher Seneca (3 B.c.E.-65 A.D.)pointed out that a glass globe
filled with water could be used for magnifying purposes. And
it is certainly possible that some Roman artisans may have
used magnifying glasses to facilitate very fine detailed work.
1.2 In the Beginning After the fall of the Western Roman Empire (475 A.D.),
which roughly marks the start of the Dark Ages, little or no
The origins of optical technology date back to remote antiqui- scientific progress was made in Europe for a great while. The
ty. Exodus 38:8 (ca. 1200 B.c.E.) recounts how Bezaleel, while dominance of the Greco-Roman-Christian culture in the lands
preparing the ark and tabernacle, recast "the looking-glasses embracing the Mediterranean soon gave way by conquest to
of the women" into a brass laver (a ceremonial basin). Early the rule of Allah. The center of scholarship shifted to the Arab
mirrors were made of polished copper, bronze, and later on of world, and Optics was studied and extended, especially by
speculum, a copper alloy rich in tin. Specimens have survived Alhazen (ca. 1000 A.D.).He elaborated on the Law of Reflec-
from ancient Egypt-a mirror in perfect condition was tion, putting the angles of incidence and reflection in the same
unearthed along with some tools from the workers' quarters plane normal to the interface (p. 99); he studied spherical and
near the pyramid of Sesostris I1 (ca. 1900 B.c.E.) in the Nile parabolic mirrors and gave a detailed description of the human
valley. The Greek philosophers Pythagoras, Democritus, eye (p. 202).
Empedocles, Plato, Aristotle, and others developed several By the latter part of the thirteenth century, Europe was only
theories of the nature of light. The rectilinear propagation of beginning to rouse from its intellectual stupor. Alhazen's work
light (p. 89) was known, as was the Law of Reflection (p. 97) was translated into Latin, and it had a great effect on the writ-
enunciated by Euclid (300 B.c.E.)in his book Catoptrics. Hero ings of Robert Grosseteste (1 175-1253), Bishop of Lincoln,
of Alexandria attempted to explain both these phenomena by and on the Polish mathematician Vitello (or Witelo), both of
asserting that light traverses the shortest allowed path between whom were influential in rekindling the study of Optics. Their
two points. The burning glass (a positive lens used to start works were known to the Franciscan Roger Bacon (1215-
fires) was alluded to by Aristophanes in his comic play The 1294), who is considered by many to be the first scientist in
Clouds (424 B.c.E.). The apparent bending of objects partly the modem sense. He seems to have initiated the idea of using
2 Chapter 1 A Brief H~story

lenses for correcting vision and even hinted at the possibility

of combining lenses to form a telescope. Bacon also had some
understanding of the way in which rays traverse a lens. After
his death, Optics again languished. Even so, by the mid- 1300s,
European paintings were depicting monks wearing eyeglasses.
And alchemists had come up with a liquid amalgam of tin and
mercury that was rubbed onto the back of glass plates to make
mirrors. Leonardo d a Vinci (1452-1519) described the ccitt~-
e m O ~ S C U (p.
~ L 215),
~ later popularized by the work of Gio-
vanni Battista Della Porta (1 535-1 6lS), who discussed
multiple mirrors and combinations of positive and negative
lenses in his M L I X11~ltu1~ilis
~ (1 589).
This, for the most part, modest array of events constitutes
what might be called the first period of Optics. It was Johannes Kepler (1571-1630). (Burndy L~brary.)
undoubtedly a beginning-but on the whole a humble one.
The whirlwind of accomplishment and excitement was to
come later, in the seventeenth century. Rene Descartes ( 1 596-1 650) was the first to publish the now
familiar formulation of the Law of Refraction in terms of
sines. Descartes deduced the law using a model in which light
was viewed as a pressure transmitted by an elastic medium; as
1.3 From the Seventeenth Century he put it in his 0 1 Ilioptrique (1637)
recall the nature that I havc attributed to light. when I said that
It is not clear who actually invented the refracting telescope, iti h nothing other than a certain motion or an action conceived
but records in the archives at The Hague show that on October in a very subtle matter. which fills the porcs of all other bod-
2, 1608, Hans Lippershey (1587-1 6 19), a Dutch spectacle LCS ....
maker, applied for a patent on the device. Galileo Galilei
(1 564- 1642), in Padua, heard about the invention and within The universe was a plenum. Pierre de Fermat (1 60 1- l66S),
several months had built his own instrument (p. 170), grinding taking exception to Descartes's assumptions, rederived the
the lenses by hand. The compound microscope was invented Law of Reflection (p. 106) from his own Principle of Least
at just about the same time, possibly by the Dutchman Time ( 1657).
Zacharias Janssen (1588-1 632). The microscope's concave The phenomenon of diffraction, that is, the deviation from
eyepiece was replaced with a convex lens by Francisco rectilinear propagation that occurs when light advances
Fontana (1580-1656) of Naples, and a similar change in the
telescope was introduced by Johannes Kepler ( 1 571-1630).
In 16 1 1. Kepler published his Dioptrice. He had discovered
total internal reflection (p. 122) and arrived at the small angle
approximation to the Law of Refraction, in which case the
incident and transmission angles are proportional. He evolved
a treatment of first-order Optics for thin-lens systems and
in his book describes the detailed operation of both the
Keplerian (positive eyepiece) and Galilean (negative eye-
piece) telescopes. Willebrord Snel ( 159 1-1 626), professor at
Leyden, empirically discovered the long-hidden Law of'
Refirrcrion (p. 100) in 1621-this was one of the great
moments in Optics. By leatning precisely how rays of light are
redirected on traversing a boundary between two media, Snell
in one swoop swung open the door to modern applied Optics. Rene Descartes by Frans Hals (1596-1650). (0Musees Nat~onaux.)
 1.3 From the Seventeenth Century 3

though his work simultaneously embraced both the wave and

emission (corpuscular) theories, he did become more commit-
ted to the latter as he grew older. His main reason for rejecting
the wave theory as it stood then was the daunting problem of
explaining rectilinear propagation in terms of waves that
spread out in all directions.
After some all-too-limited experiments, Newton gave up
trying to remove chromatic aberration from refracting tele-
scope lenses. Erroneously concluding that it could not be
done, he turned to the design of reflectors. Sir Isaac's first
reflecting telescope, completed in 1668, was only 6 inches
long and 1 inch in diameter, but it magnified some 30 times.
At about the same time that Newton was emphasizing the
emission theory in England, Christiaan Huygens (1629-1 695),
on the continent, was greatly extending the wave theory.
Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727). (Burndy Library.)
Unlike Descartes, Hooke, and Newton, Huygens correctly
concluded that light effectively slowed down on entering more
dense media. He was able to derive the Laws of Reflection and
Refraction and even explained the double refraction of calcite
(p. 337), using his wave theory. And it was while working with
beyond an obstruction (p. 443), was first noted by Professor calcite that he discovered the phenomenon of polarization
Francesco Maria Grimaldi (161 8-1663) at the Jesuit College ( p 325).
in Bologna. He had observed bands of light within the shadow
As there are two different refractions, I conceived also that
of a rod illuminated by a small source. Robert Hooke
there are two different emanations of the waves of light. ...
(1635-1703), curator of experiments for the Royal Society,
London, later also observed diffraction effects. He was the Thus light was either a stream of particles or a rapid undu-
first to study the colored interference patterns (p. 400) gener- lation of aethereal matter. In any case, it was generally agreed
ated by thin films (Micrographia, 1665). He proposed the that its speed was exceedingly large. Indeed, many believed
idea that light was a rapid vibratory motion of the medium that light propagated instantaneously, a notion that went back
propagating at a very great speed. Moreover, "every pulse or at least as far as Aristotle. The fact that it was finite was
vibration of the luminous body will generate a spheren-this
was the beginning of the wave theory. Within a year of
Galileo's death, 1;aac Newton (1642-1727) was boin. The
thrust of Newton's scientific effort was to build on direct
observation and avoid speculative hypotheses. Thus he
remained ambivalent for a long while about the actual nature
of light. Was it corpuscular-a stream of particles, as some
maintained? Or was light a wave in an all-pervading medium,
the aether? At the age of 23, he began his now famous experi-
ments on dispersion.
I procured me a triangular glass prism to try therewith the cel-
ebrated phenomena of colours.

Newton concluded that white light was composed of a mix-

ture of a whole range of independent colors (p. 189). He main-
tilined that the corpuscles of light associated with the various Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695). (R~jksmuseumvoor de gesch~eden~s
der natu-
colors excited the aether into characteristic vibrations. Even urwetenschappen, courtesy Alp Em1110Segre V~sualArch~ves.)
4 Chapter 1 A Brief History

determined by the Dane Ole Christensen Romer (1644-

1710). Jupiter's nearest moon, 10, has an orbit about that plan-
et that is nearly in the plane of Jupiter's own orbit around the
Sun. Romer made a careful study of the eclipses of 10 as it
moved through the shadow behind Jupiter. In 1676 he predict-
ed that on November 9th 10 would emerge from the dark some
10 minutes later than would have been expected on the basis
of its yearly averaged motion. Precisely on schedule, 10 per-
formed as predicted, a phenomenon Romer correctly ex-
plained as arising from the finite speed of light. He was able to
determine that light took about 22 minutes to traverse the
diameter of the Earth's orbit around the Sun-a distance of
about 186 million miles. Huygens and Newton, among others,
were quite convinced of the validity of Romer's work. Inde-
pendently estimating the Earth's orbital diameter, they
assigned values to c equivalent to 2.3 X 10' m/s and 2.4 X
10' m/s, respectively." Augustin Jean Fresnel (1788-1827). (Cultural Service of the French Embassy.)
The great weight of Newton's opinion hung like a shroud
over the wave theory during the eighteenth century, all but sti-
fling its advocates. Despite this, the prominent mathematician
Leonhard Euler (1707-1783) was a devotee of the wave theo- the Royal Society extolling the wave theory and adding to it a
ry, even if an unheeded one. Euler proposed that the undesir- new fundamental concept, the so-called Principle of lntelfer-
able color effects seen in a lens were absent in the eye (which ence (p. 385):
is an erroneous assumption) because the different media pre- When two undulations, from different origins, coincide either
sent negated dispersion. He suggested that achromatic lenses perfectly or very nearly in direction, their joint effect is a com-
(p. 269) might be constructed in a similar way. Enthused by bination of the motions belonging to each.
this work, Samuel Klingenstjerna (1698-1765), a professor at
Upsala, reperformed Newton's experiments on achromatism He was able to explain the colored fringes of thin films and
and determined them to be in error. Klingenstjerna was in determined wavelengths of various colors using Newton's
communication with a London optician, John Dollond data. Even though Young, time and again, maintained that his
(1706-1761), who was observing similar results. Dollond conceptions had their very origins in the research of Newton,
finally, in 1758, combined two elements, one of crown and the he was severely attacked. In a series of articles, probably
other of flint glass, to form a single achromatic lens. Inciden- written by Lord Brougham, in the Edinburgh Review,
tally, Dollond's invention was actually preceded by the Young's papers were said to be "destitute of every species of
unpublished work of the amateur scientist Chester Moor Hall merit."
(1703-1771) in Essex. Augustin Jean Fresnel (1788-1827), born in Broglie, Nor-
mandy, began his brilliant revival of the wave theory in
France, unaware of the efforts of Young some 13 years earli-
er. Fresnel synthesized the concepts of Huygens's wave
1.4 The Nineteenth Century description and the interference principle (p. 444). The mode
of propagation of a primary wave was viewed as a succession
The wave theory of light was reborn at the hands of Dr. of spherical secondary wavelets, which overlapped and inter-
Thomas Young (1773-1829), one of the truly great minds of fered to reform the advancing primary wave as it would appear
the century. In 180 1, 1802, and 1803, he read papers before an instant later. In Fresnel's words:
.....................,........................ The vibrations of a luminous wave in any one of its points may
*A. Wroblewski, Am. J. Phys. 53, 620 (1985). be considered as the sum of the elementary movements con-
 1.4 The Nineteenth Century 5

veyed to it at the same moment, from the separate action o f all Jean Bernard Lkon Foucault (1 8 19-1 868) was also involved
the portions o f the unobstructed wave considered in any one o f in research on the speed of light. In 1834 Charles Wheatstone
its anterior positions. (1 802-1875) had designed a rotating-mirror arrangement in
These waves were presumed to be longitudinal, in analogy order to measure the duration of an electric spark. Using this
with sound waves in air. Fresnel was able to calculate the dif- scheme, Arago had proposed to measure the speed of light in
fraction patterns arising from various obstacles and apertures dense media but was never able to carry out the experiment.
(p. 444) and satisfactorily accounted for rectilinear propaga- Foucault took up the work, which was later to provide materi-
tion in homogeneous isotropic media, thus dispelling New- al for his doctoral thesis. On May 6, 1850, he reported to the
ton's main objection to the undulatory theory. When finally Academy of Sciences that the speed of light in water was less
apprised of Young's priority to the interference principle, a than that in air. This result was in direct conflict with New-
somewhat disappointed Fresnel nonetheless wrote to Young ton's formulation of the emission theory and a hard blow to its
telling him that he was consoled by finding himself in such few remaining devotees.
good company-the two great men became allies. While all of this was happening in Optics, quite indepen-
Huygens was aware of the phenomenon of polarization dently, the study of electricity and magnetism was also bear-
arising in calcite crystals, as was Newton. Indeed, the latter in ing fruit. In 1845 the master experimentalist Michael Faraday
his Opticks stated, (1791-1867) established an interrelationship between electro-
magnetism and light when he found that the polarization direc-
Every Ray o f Light has therefore two opposite Sides ... tion of a beam could be altered by a strong magnetic field
applied to the medium. James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879)
It was not until 1808 that ~ t i e n n eLouis Malus (1775- 1812)
brilliantly summarized and extended all the empirical knowl-
discovered that this two-sidedness of light also arose upon
edge on the subject in a single set of mathematical equations.
reflection (p. 348); the phenomenon was not inherent to crys-
Beginning with this remarkably succinct and beautifully sym-
talline media. Fresnel and Dominique F r a n ~ o i sArago
metrical synthesis, he was able to show, purely theoretically,
(1786-1853) then conducted a series of experiments to deter-
that the electromagnetic field could propagate as a transverse
mine the effect of polarization on interference, but the results
wave in the luminiferous aether (p. 44).
were utterly inexplicable within the framework of their longi-
Solving for the speed of the wave, Maxwell arrived at an
tudinal wave picture. This was a dark hour indeed. For several
expression in terms of electric and magnetic properties of the
years Young, - Arago,
- and Fresnel wrestled with the problem
until finally Young suggested that the aethereal vibration
might be transverse as is a wave on a string. The two-sided-
ness of light was then simply a manifestation of the two
orthogonal vibrations of the aether, transverse to the ray
direction. Fresnel went on to evolve a mechanistic description
of aether oscillations, which led to his now famous formulas
for the amplitudes of reflected and transmitted light (p. 113).
By 1825 the emission (or corpuscular) theory had only a few
tenacious advocates.
The first terrestrial determination of the speed of light was
performed by Armand Hippolyte Louis Fizeau (18 19-1 896)
in 1849. His apparatus, consisting of a rotating toothed wheel
and a distant mirror (8633 m), was set up in the suburbs of
Paris from Suresnes to Montmartre. A pulse of light leaving an
opening in the wheel struck the mirror and returned. By
adjusting the known rotational speed of the wheel, the return-
ing pulse could be made either to pass through an opening and
be seen or to be obstructed by a tooth. Fizeau arrived at a val-
6 Chapter 1 A Br~efHistory

medium ( c = 1 / ~ = ) . Upon substituting known empirical- natively, the wave theory also offers a satisfactory explanation
ly determined values for these quantities, he obtained a numer- provided that the clefher r r n ~ a i n stotally undisturbed a s the
ical result equal to the measured speed of light! The E m h p l o ~ xthrough it.
conclusion was inescapable-light ~ ~ "m r electrorr~cigrretic
s In response to speculation as to whether the Earth's motion
disturbance in the ,form of t i m e s " propc~gtrtedthrough the through the aether might result in an observable difference
trether. Maxwell died at the age of 48, eight years too soon to between light from terrestrial and extraterrestrial sources, Ara-
see the experimental confirmation of his insights and far too go set out to examine the problem experimentally. He found
soon for physics. Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (1857-1 894) verified that there were no such observable differences. Light behaved
the existence of long electromagnetic waves by generating and just as if the Earth were at rest with respect to the aether. To
detecting them in an extensive series of experiments published explain these results, Fresnel suggested in effect that light was
in 1888. partially dragged along as it traversed a transparent medium in
The acceptance of the wave theory of light seemed to motion. Experiments by Fizeau, in which light beams passed
necessitate an equal acceptance of the existence of an all-per- down moving columns of water, and by Sir George Biddell
vading substratum, the luminiferous aether. If there were Airy (1801-1892), who used a water-filled telescope in 1871
waves, it seemed obvious that there must be a supporting to examine stellar aberration, both seemed to confirm Fres-
medium. Quite naturally, a great deal of scientific effort went nel's drag hypothesis. Assuming an aether at absolute rest,
into determining the physical nature of the aether, yet it would Hendrik Antoon Lorentz (1 853-1928) derived a theory that
have to possess some rather strange properties. It had to be so encompassed Fresnel's ideas.
tenuous as to allow an apparently unimpeded motion of celes- In 1879 in a letter to D. P. Todd of the U.S. Nautical
tial bodies. At the same time, it could support the exceedingly Almanac Office, Maxwell suggested a scheme for measuring
high-frequency (- 10'"~) oscillations of light traveling at the speed at which the solar system moved with respect to the
186 000 miles per second. That implied remarkably strong luminiferous aether. The American physicist Albert Abraham
restoring forces within the aethereal substance. The speed at Michelson (1852-193 l ) , then a naval instructor, took up the
which a wave advances through a medium is dependent on the idea. Michelson, at the tender age of 26, had already estab-
characteristics of the disturbed substratum and not on any lished a favorable reputation by performing an extremely pre-
motion of the source. This is in contrast to the behavior of a cise determination of the speed of light. A few years later, he
stream of particles whose speed with respect to the source is began an experiment to measure the effect of the Earth's
the essential parameter. motion through the aether. Since the speed of light in aether is
Certain aspects of the nature of aether intrude when study- constant and the Earth, in turn, presumably moves in relation
ing the optics of moving objects, and it was this area of to the aether (orbital speed of 67 000 mi/h), the speed of light
research, evolving quietly on its own, that ultimately led to the measured with respect to the Earth should be affected by the
next great turning point. In 1725 James Bradley (1 693-1 762), planet's motion. In 1881 he published his findings. There was
then Savilian Professor of Astronomy at Oxford, attempted to no detectable motion of the Earth with respect to the aether-
measure the distance to a star by observing its orientation at the aether was stationary. But the decisiveness of this surpris-
two different times of the year. The position of the Earth ing result was blunted somewhat when Lorentz pointed out an
changed as it orbited around the Sun and thereby provided a oversight in the calculation. Several years later Michelson,
large baseline for triangulation on the star. To his surprise, then professor of physics at Case School of Applied Science in
Bradley found that the "fixed" stars displayed an apparent sys- Cleveland, Ohio, joined with Edward Williams Morley
tematic movement related to the direction of motion of the (1 838-1 923), a well-known professor of chemistry at Western
Earth in orbit and not dependent, as had been anticipated, on Reserve, to redo the experiment with considerably greater pre-
the Earth's position in space. This so-called stellar aberration cision. Amazingly enough, their results, published in 1887,
is analogous to the well-known falling-raindrop situation. A once again were negative:
raindrop, although traveling vertically with respect to an It appears from all that precedes reasonably certain that if there
observer at rest on the Earth, will appear to change its incident be any relative motion between the earth and the luminiferous
angle when the observer is in motion. Thus a corp~scularmod- aether, it rnu.;t be small; quite small enough entirely to refute
el of light could explain stellar aberration rather handily. Alter- Fresnel's explanation of aberration.
 1.5 Twent~eth-CenturyOptics 7

Thus, whereas an explanation of stellar aberration within the

context of the wave theory required the existence of a relative
motion between Earth and aether, the Michelson-Morley
Experiment refuted that possibility. Moreover, the findings of
Fizeau and Airy necessitated the inclusion of a partial drag of
light due to motion of the medium.

1.5 Twentieth-Century Optics

Jules Henri Poincare (1854-1912) was perhaps the first to
grasp the significance of the experimental inability to observe
any effects of motion relative to the aether. In 1899 he began
to make his views known, and in 1900 he said:
Albert Einsteln 11879-1955).
Our aether, does it really exist? I do not believe that more pre-
cise observations could ever reveal anything more than rela-
tive displacements. nomena (p. 51). In 1905, boldly building on these ideas, Ein-
stein proposed a new form of corpuscular theory in which he
In 1905 Albert Einstein (1879-1955) introduced his Special
asserted that light consisted of globs or "particles" of energy.
Theory ofRelativity, in which he too, quite independently,
Each such quantum of radiant energy orphoton," as it came to
rejected the aether hypothesis.
be called, had an energy proportional to its frequency v, that is,
The introduction of a "luminiferous aether" will prove to be % = hv, where h is known as Planck's constant (Fig. 1.1). By
superfluous inasmuch as the view here to be developed will the end of the 1920s, through the efforts of Bohr, Born,
not require an "absolutely stationary space." Heisenberg, Schrodinger, De Broglie, Pauli, Dirac, and others,
He further postulated: Quantum Mechanics had become a well-verified theory. It
gradually became evident that the concepts of particle and
light is always propagated in empty space with a definite
wave, which in the macroscopic world seem so obviously
velocity c which is independent of the state of motion of the
mutually exclusive, must be merged in the submicroscopic
emitting body.
domain. The mental image of an atomic particle (e.g., elec-
The experiments of Fizeau, Airy, and Michelson-Morley trons and neutrons) as a minute localized lump of matter
were then explained quite naturally within the framework of would no longer suffice. Indeed, it was found that these "par-
Einstein's relativistic kinematics.* Deprived of the aether, ticles" could generate interference and diffraction patterns in
physicists simply had to get used to the idea that electromag- precisely the same way as would light (p. 399). Thus photons,
netic waves could propagate through free space-there was no protons, electrons, neutrons, and so forth-the whole lot-
alternative. Light was now envisaged as a self-sustaining wave have both particle and wave manifestations. Still, the matter
with the conceptual emphasis passing from aether to field. The was by no means settled. "Every physicist thinks that he
electromagnetic wave became an entity in itself. knows what a photon is," wrote Einstein. "I spent my life to
On October 19, 1900, Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck find out what a photon is and I still don't know it."
(1858-1947) read a paper before the German Physical Society Relativity liberated light from the aether and showed the
in which he introduced the hesitant beginnings of what was to kinship between mass and energy (via %,, = mc'). What
become yet another great revolution in scientific thought- seemed to be two almost antithetical quantities now became
Quantur11Mechanics, a theory embracing submicroscopic phe- interchangeable. Quantum Mechanics went on to establish that

*See, for example, Special Relativity by French, Chapter 5. *The word photon was coined by G. N. Lewis, Nature, December 18, 1926.
8 Chapter 1 A Brief History

FIGURE 1.1 A rather convincing illustra-

tion of the particle nature of light. This
sequence of photos was made using a posi-
tion-sensing photomultiplier tube illuminated
by an (8.5 x lo3 count-per-second) image
of a bar chart. The exposure times were (a)
8 ms, (b) 1 2 5 ms, (c) 1 s, (dl 10 s, and
(el 100 s. Each dot can be interpreted as
the arrival of a single photon. (Photos courtesy
of ITT Corporation, Electro-Optical Products Division,
Tube and Sensor Laborator~es,Fort Wayne, Indiana.)

a particle* of momentum p had an associated wavelength A , (1787-1826) greatly extended the subject. After accidentally
such that p = h/A. The neutrino, a neutral particle presumably discovering the double line of sodium (p. 270), he went on to
having zero rest mass, was postulated for theoretical reasons study sunlight and made the first wavelength determinations
in 1930 by Wolfgang Pauli (1900-1958) and verified experi- using diffraction gratings (p. 476). Gustav Robert Kirchhoff
mentally in the 1950s. The easy images of submicrosccpic (1 824-1 887) and Robert Wilhelm Bunsen (1 81 1-1899),
specks of matter became untenable, and the wave-particle working together at Heidelberg, established that each kind of
dichotomy dissolved into a duality. atom had its own signature in a characteristic array of spectral
Quantum Mechanics also treats the manner in which light lines. And in 1913 Niels Henrik David Bohr (1885-1962) set
is absorbed and emitted by atoms (p. 63). Suppose we cause a forth a precursory quantum theory of the hydrogen atom,
gas to glow by heating it or passing an electrical discharge which was able to predict the wavelengths of its emission
through it. The light emitted is characteristic of the very struc- spectrum. The light emitted by an atom is now understood to
ture of the atoms constituting the gas. Spectroscopy, which is arise from its outermost electrons (p. 63). The process is the
the branch of Optics dealing with spectrum analysis (p. 73), domain of modern quantum theory, which describes the most
developed from the research of Newton. William Hyde minute details with incredible precision and beauty.
Wollaston (1766-1828) made the earliest observations of the The flourishing of applied Optics in the second half of the
dark lines in the solar spectrum (1802). Because of the slit- twentieth century represents a renaissance in itself. In the
shaped aperture generally used in spectroscopes, the output 1950s several workers began to inculcate Optics with the
consisted of narrow colored bands of light, the so-called mathematical techniques and insights of communications the-
spectral lines. Working independently, Joseph Fraunhofer ory. Just as the idea of momentum provides another dimension
in which to visualize aspects of mechanics, the concept of spa-
tial frequency offers a rich new way of appreciating a broad
*Perhaps it might help if we just called them all wavicles. range of optical phenomena. Bound together by the mathe-
 1.5 Twent~eth-CenturyOptics 9

matical formalism of Fourier analysis (p. 302), the outgrowths erators (p. 641), electro-optic and acousto-optic modulators,
of this contemporary emphasis have been far-reaching. Of par- and the like spurred a great deal of contemporary research in
ticular interest are the theory of image formation and evalua- crystal optics. The wavefront reconstruction technique known
tion (p. 529), the transfer functions (p. 550), and the idea of as holography (p. 623), which produces magnificent three-
spatialfiltering (p. 3 18). dimensional images, was found to have numerous additional
The advent of the high-speed digital computer brought applications (nondestructive testing, data storage, etc.).
with it a vast improvement in the design of complex optical The military orientation of much of the developmental
systems. Aspherical lens elements (p. 150) took on renewed work in the 1960s continued in the 1970s, 1980s, and the
practical significance, and the dimction-limited system with 1990s with added vigor. That technological interest in Optics
an appreciable field of view became a reality. The technique ranges across the spectrum from "smart bombs" and spy satel-
of ion bombardment polishing, in which one atom at a time is lites to "death rays" and infrared gadgets that see in the dark.
chipped away, was introduced to meet the need for extreme But economic considerations coupled with the need to
precision in the preparation of optical elements. The use of improve the quality of life have brought products of the disci-
single and multilayer thin-film coatings (reflecting, antire- pline into the consumer marketplace as never before. Today
flecting, etc.) became commonplace (p. 425). Fiberoptics lasers are in use everywhere: reading videodiscs in living
evolved into a practical communications tool (p. 197), and rooms, cutting steel in factories, scanning labels in supermar-
thin-film light guides continued to be studied. A great deal of kets, and performing surgery in hospitals. Millions of optical
attention was paid to the infrared end of the spectrum (sur- display systems on clocks and calculators and computers are
veillance systems, missile guidance, etc.), and this in turn blinking all around the world. The almost exclusive use, for
stimulated the development of infrared materials. Plastics the last one hundred years, of electrical signals to handle and
began to be used extensively in Optics (lens elements, replica transmit data is now rapidly giving way to more efficient opti-
gratings, fibers, aspherics, etc.). A new class of partially vitri- cal techniques. A far-reaching revolution in the methods of
fied glass ceramics with exceedingly low thermal expansion processing and communicating information is quietly taking
was developed. A resurgence in the construction of astronom- place, a revolution that will continue to change our lives in the
ical observatories (both terrestrial and extraterrestrial) operat- years ahead.
ing across the whole spectrum was well under way by the end Profound insights are slow in coming. What few we have
of the 1960s and vigorously sustained in the 1980s and 1990s took over three thousand years to glean, even though the pace
(p. 222). is ever quickening. It is marvelous indeed to watch the answer
The first laser was built in 1960, and within a decade laser- subtly change while the question immutably remains-what is
beams spanned the range from infrared to ultraviolet. The light?"
availability of high-power coherent sources led to the discov-
ery of a number of new optical effects (harmonic generation,
frequency mixing, etc.) and thence to a panorama of marvelous
new devices. The technology needed to produce a practicable 'For more reading on the history of Optics, see F. Cajori, A History of
Physics, and V. Ronchi, The Nature of Light. Excerpts from a number of
optical communications system developed rapidly. The sophis- original papers can conveniently be found in W. F. Magie, A Source
ticated use of crystals in devices such as second-harmonic gen- Book in Physics, and in M. H. Shamos, Great Experiments in Physics.
 The issue of the actual nature of light is central to a complete notion of wave as distinct from particle. But in the past centu-
treatment of Optics, and we will struggle with it throughout ry we found that the energy of an electromagnetic wave is not
this work. The straightforward question "Is light a wave phe- distributed continuously. The classical formulation of the elec-
nomenon or a particle phenomenon?" is far more complicated tromagnetic theory of light, however wonderful it is on a
than it might at first seem. For example, the essential feature macroscopic level, is profoundly wanting on a microscopic
of a particle is its localization; it exists in a well-defined, level. Einstein was the first to suggest that the electromagnet-
"small" region of space. Practically, we tend to take something ic wave, which we perceive macroscopically, is the statistical
familiar like a ball or a pebble and shrink it down in imagina- manifestation of a fundamentally granular underlying micro-
tion until it becomes vanishingly small, and that's a "particle," scopic phenomenon (p. 5 1). In the subatomic domain, the clas-
or at least the basis for the concept of "particle." But a ball sical concept of a physical wave is an illusion. Still, in the
interacts with its environment; it has a gravitational field that large-scale regime in which we ordinarily work, electromag-
interacts with the Earth (and the Moon, and Sun, etc.). This netic waves seem real enough and classical theory applies
field, which spreads out into space-whatever it is-cannot be superbly well.
separated from the ball; it is an inextricable part of the ball just Because both the classical and quantum-mechanical treat-
as it is an inextricable part of the definition of "particle." Real ments of light make use of the mathematical description of
particles interact via fields, and, in a sense, the field is the par- waves, this chapter lays out the basics of what both formal-
ticle and the particle is the field. That little conundrum is the isms will need. The ideas we develop here will apply to all
domain of Quantum Field Theory, a discipline we'll talk more physical waves from a surface tension ripple in a cup of tea to
about later (p. 139). Suffice it to say now that if light is a a pulse of light reaching us from some distant galaxy.
stream of submicroscopic particles (photons), they are by no
means "ordinary" miniball classical particles.
On the other hand, the essential feature of a wave is its non-
localization. A classical traveling wave is a self-sustaining 2.1 One-Dimensional Waves
disturbance of a medium, which moves through space trans-
porting energy and momentum. We tend to think of the ideal An essential aspect of a traveling wave is that it is a self-sus-
wave as a continuous entity that exists over an extended taining disturbance of the medium through which it propa-
region. But when we look closely at real waves (such as waves gates. The most familiar waves, and the easiest to visualize
on strings), we see composite phenomena comprised of vast (Fig. 2. l ) , are the mechanical waves, among which are waves
numbers of particles moving in concert. The media supporting on strings, surface waves on liquids, sound waves in the air,
these waves are atomic (i.e., particulate), and so the waves are and compression waves in both solids and fluids. Sound waves
not continuous entities in and of themselves. The only possi- are longitudinal-the medium is displaced in the direction of
ble exception might be the electromagnetic wave. Conceptual- motion of the bvave. Waves on a string (and electromagnetic
ly, the classical electromagnetic wave (p. 44) is supposed to be waves) are transverse-the medium is displaced in a direc-
a continuous entity, and it serves as the model for the very tion perpendicular to that of the motion of the bvave. In all
 2.1 One-Dimensional Waves 1 1

Envision some such disturbance $ moving in the positive

x-direction with a constant speed v.The specific nature o f the
disturbance is at the moment unimportant. It might be the ver-
tical displacement o f the string in Fig. 2.2 or the magnitude o f
an electric or magnetic field associated with an electromag-
netic wave (or even the quantum-mechanical probability
amplitude o f a matter wave).
/ Since the disturbance is moving, it must be a function o f
/ both position and time;
/'
,
I
$(A t ) = .f(& t )
,/--

f where f(x, t ) corresponds to some specific function or wave

shape. This is represented in Fig. 2 . 3 ~which shows a pulse
traveling in the stationary coordinate system S at a speed v.
The shape o f the disturbance at any instant, say t = 0, can be
found by holding time constant at that value. In this case,
(a)

represents the profile o f the wave at that time. For example, i f

,f(x) = eG""', where a is a constant, the profile has the shape o f

Figure 2.1 ( a ) A longitudinal wave in a spring. ( b ) A transverse wave in

a spring.

cases, although the energy-carrying disturbance advances

through the medium, the individual participating atoms remain
in the vicinity o f their equilibrium positions: the disturbance
....
advances, not the material rnecliur~l.That's one o f several cm-
cia1 features o f a wave that distinguishes it from a stream o f
particles. The wind blowing across a field sets up "waves o f
grain" that sweep by, even though each stalk only sways in
place. Leonardo da Vinci seems to have been the first person ....
to recognize that a wave does not transport the medium
through which it travels, and it is precisely this property that
allows waves to propagate at very great speeds. Figure 2.2 A wave on a strmg.
12 Chapter 2 Wave Motion

This then represents the most general form o f the one-dimen-

sional wavefunction. T o be more specific, we have only to
choose a shape, Eq. (2.2),and then substitute ( x - vt) for x in
f(x). The resulting expression describes a wave having the
desired profile, moving in the positive x-direction with a
speed v. Thus, $(x, t ) = e C " " C z " )is~ a bell-shaped wave.
T o see how this all works in a bit more detail, let's unfold
the analysis for a specific pulse, for example, $(x) =
3/[10x2+ 11 = f(x). That profile is plotted in Fig. 2.4a, and i f
it was a wave on a rope, rl, would be the vertical displacement
and we might even replace it by the symbol y. Whether rl, rep-
resents displacement or pressure or electric field, we now have

Figure 2.3 Moving reference frame.

a bell; that is, it is a Gaussian function. (Squaring the x makes

it symmetrical around the x = 0 axis.) Setting t = 0 is analo-
gous to taking a "photograph" o f the pulse as it travels by.
For the moment we limit ourselves to a wave that does not
change its shupe as it progresses through space. After a time t
the pulse has moved along the x-axis a distance vt, but in all
other respects it remains unaltered. W e now introduce a coor-
dinate system S', that travels along with the pulse (Fig. 2.36) at
the speed v. In this system rC, is no longer a function o f time,
and as we move along with S : we see a stationary constant
profile described by Eq. (2.2).Here, the coordinate is x' rather
than x, so that

The disturbance looks the same at any value o f t in St as it did

at t = 0 in S when S and S' had a common origin (Fig. 2 . 3 ~ ) .
W e now want to rewrite Eq. (2.3) in terms o f x to get the
wave as it would be described by someone at rest in S. It fol-
lows from Fig. 2 . 3 ~that

Figure 2.4 (a) The prof~leof a pulse glven by the funct~onf(xi =

and substituting into Eq. (2.3) 3 (10x2 + 1). ( b ) The prof~leshown In (a) IS now rnovlng as a wave,
+(x, t ) = 3 [10(x vt)' + 11, to the r~ght.It has a speed of 1 m s and
-

(2.5) advances In the posltlve x-d~rect~on.

 2.1 One-Dimensional Waves 13

the profile of the disturbance. To turn f(x) into +(x, t), that is, appears for the first time. This linear, homogeneous, second-
to turn it into the description of a wave moving in the positive order, partial differential equation is usually taken as the defin-
x-direction at a speed v, we replace x wherever it appears in ing expression for physical waves in a lossless medium. There
f(x) by (x - vt), thereby yielding +(x, t) = 3/[10(x - vt12 + are lots of different kinds of waves, and each is described by
11. If v is arbitrarily set equal to, say, 1.0 m/s and the function its own wavefunction +(x). Some are written in terms of pres-
is plotted successively at t = 0, t = 1 s, t = 2 s, and t = 3 s, we sure, or displacement, while others deal with electromagnetic
get Fig. 2.4b, which shows the pulse sailing off to the right at fields, but remarkably all such wavefunctions are solutions of
1.0 m/s, just the way it's supposed to. Incidentally, had we the same differential wave equation. The reason it's aparrial
+
substituted (x vt) for x in the profile function, the resulting differential equation is that the wave must be a function of
wave would move off to the left. several independent variables, namely, those of space and
If we check the form of Eq. (2.5) by examining after an + time. A linear differential equation is essentially one consist-
increase in time of At and a corresponding increase of v At in ing of two or more terms, each composed of a constant multi-
x, we find plying a function +(x) or its derivatives. The relevant point is
that each such term must appear only to the first power; nor
f [(x + v At) - v(t + At)] = f(x - vt) +
can there be any cross products of with its derivatives, or of
its derivatives. Recall that the order of a differential equation
and the profile is unaltered. equals the order of the highest derivative in that equation. Fur-
Similarly, if the wave was traveling in the negative x-direc- thermore, if a differential equation is of order N, the solution
tion, that is, to the left, Eq. (2.5) would become will contain N arbitrary constants.
We now derive the one-dimensional form of the wave
I+5 = f(x + vt), with v >0 (2.6) equation guided by the foreknowledge (p. 14) that the most
basic of waves traveling at a fixed speed requires two con-
We may conclude therefore that, regardless of the shape of the stants (amplitude and frequency or wavelength) to specify it,
disturbance, the variables x and t must appear in the function and this suggests second derivatives. Because there are two
as a unit, that is, as a single variable in the form (x 3 vt). independent variables (here, x and t) we can take the derivative
Equation (2.5) is often expressed equivalently as some func- of $(x, t) with respect to either x or t. This is done by just dif-
tion of (t - x/v), since ferentiating with respect to one variable and treating the other
as if it were constant. The usual rules for differentiation apply,
but to make the distinction evident the partial derivative is
(2.7) written as alax.
To relate the space and time dependencies of +(x, t ) , take
The pulse shown in Fig. 2.2 and the disturbance described the partial derivative of $(x, t) = f(xl) with respect to x, hold-
by Eq. (2.5) are spoken of as one-dimensional because the ing t constant. Using x' = x 3 vt, and inasmuch as
waves sweep over points lying on a line-it takes only one
space variable to specify them. Don't be confused by the fact a$
-- - af
that in this particular case the rope happens to rise up into a ax ax
second dimension. In contrast, a two-dimensional wave prop-
agates out across a surface, like the ripples on a pond, and can a+
- af ax1 - af
--
be described by two space variables.
ax ax! ax axt

because
2.1.1 The Differential Wave Equation
In 1747 Jean Le Rond d' Alembert introduced partial differen- Holding constant, the partial derivative with respect to time is
tial equations into the mathematical treatment of physics. That
same year, he wrote an article on the motion of vibrating a+ df
- - --
- =
ax' af
7(Tv) = 3v,
af
(2.9)
strings in which the so-called differential wave equation at ax' at ax ax
 14 Chapter 2 Wave Motion

Combining Eqs. (2.8) and (2.9) yields Combining this with Eq. (?.lo), we obtain

This says that the rate of change of @ with t and with x are
which is the desired one-dimensional differential wave equa-
equal, to within a multiplicative constant, as shown in Fig. 2.5.
tion. Note that this is a so-called homogerzeous differential
The second partial derivatives of Eqs. (2.8) and (2.9) are
equation: it doesn't contain a term (such as a "force" or a
"source") involving only independent variables. In other
words, rl, is in each term of the equation, and that means that if
+ i s a solution any multiple of 4 will also be a solution. Equa-
tion 2. l l is the wave equation for undamped systems that do
not contain sources in the region under consideration. The
effects of damping can be described by adding in a dg/at term
to form a more general wave equation, but we'll come back to
Since
that later (p. 71).
As a rule, partial differential equations arise when the sys-
tem being described is continuous. The fact that time is one of
the independent variables reflects the continuity of temporal
change in the process under analysis. Field theories, in gener-
at-
al, treat continuous distributions of quantities in space and
It follows, using Eq. (2.9), that time and so take the form of partial differential equations.
Maxwell's formulation of electromagnetism, which is a field
theory, yields a variation of Eq. (2.1 I), and from that the con-
cept of the electromagnetic wave arises in a completely natur-
al way (p. 45).
We began this discussion with the special case of waves that
have a constant shape as they propagate, even though, as a rule,
waves don't maintain a fixed profile. Still, that simple assump-
tion has led us to the general formulation, the differential wave
equation. If a function that represents a wave is a solution of
1 r = I, lime held constant
that equation, it will at the same time be a function of (x 3
vt)-specifically, one that is twice differentiable (in a nontriv-
ial way) with respect to both x and t.

2.2 Harmonic Waves

I
$(.ro.0 I
Let's now examine the simplest wave form, one for which the
1 I . = x, position held constanr profile is a sine or cosine curve. These are variously known as
sinusoidal waves, simple harmonic waves, or more succinctly
as harmonic waves. We shall see in Chapter 7 that any wave
shape can be synthesized by a superposition of harmonic
waves, and they therefore take on a special significance.
Choose as the profile the simple function

of 4 wlth x and t.
Figure 2.5 Var~at~on $(x, t ) , = = $(x) = A sin kr = f(x) (2.12)
 2.2 Harmonic Waves 15

Figure 2.6 A harmonic function, which serves as

the profile of a harmonic wave. One wavelength
corresponds to a change in phase cp of 2a rad.

where k is a positive constant known as the propagation

number. It's necessary to introduce the constant k simply
because we cannot take the sine of a quantity that has physical Figure 2.6 shows how to plot the profile given by Eq. (2.12)
units. The sine is the ratio of two lengths and is therefore unit- in terms of A. Here cp is the argument of the sine function, also
less. Accordingly, kr is properly in radians, which is not a real called the phase. Notice that +(x) = 0 whenever sin cp = 0,
physical unit. The sine varies from + 1 to - 1 so that the max- which happens when cp = 0, n, 2 n , 3 7 ~and, so on. That occurs
imum value of +(x) is A. This maximum disturbance is known at x = 0, A 2, A, and 3A 2, respectively.
as the amplitude of the wave (Fig. 2.6). To transform Eq. In an analogous fashion to the above discussion of A, we
(2.12) into a progressive wave traveling at speed v in the pos- now examine the temporal period, r . This is the amount of
itive x-direction, we need merely replace x by (x - vt), in time it takes for one complete wave to pass a stationary
which case observer. In this case, it is the repetitive behavior of the wave
in time that is of interest, so that
+(x, t) = A sin k(x - vt) = f(x - vt) (2.13)
$fx, t) = +(x, t 2 r ) (2.16)
This is clearly a solution of the differential wave equation (see
Problem 2.18). Holding either x or t fixed results in a sinu- and sin k(x - vt) = sin k[x - v(t -+ r)]
soidal disturbance; the wave is periodic in both space and
time. The spatial period is known as the wavelength and is sin k(x - vt) = sin [k(x - vt) -+ 27~1
denoted by A . Wavelength is the number of units of length p e r
w.ave. The customary measure of A is the nanometer, where 1 Therefore,
nm = m, although the micron (1 F m = m) is often
used and the older angstrom (1 A = 1 0 ~ m) ' ~ can still be
1 kvr1 = 2 7 ~
found in the literature. An increase or decrease in x by the B~~these are all positive quantities; hence
+
amount A should leave unaltered, that is,

or
In the case of a harmonic wave, this is equivalent to altering
the argument of the sine function by +-27~.Therefore,
from which it follows that
sin k(x - vt) = sin k[(x -+ A ) - vt] = sin [k(x - vt) -+ 27~1 T = Alv (2.18)

and so I k ~ l= 2 7 ~ The period is the number of units of time p e r bt3ave(Fig. 2.7),

the inverse of which is the temporal frequency v, or the num-
or, since both k and A are positive numbers, ber of wavesper unit of time (i.e., per second). Thus,
16 Chapter 2 Wave Motion

in units of cycles per second or Hertz. Equation (2.18) then

becomes

Imagine that you are at rest and a harmonic wave on a string is

progressing past you. The number of waves that sweep by per
second is v, and the length of each is A. In 1.0 s, the overall
length of the disturbance that passes you is the product vA. If,
for example, each wave is 2.0 m long and they come at a rate
of 5.0 per second, then in 1.0 s, 10 m of wave fly by. This is
just what we mean by the speed of the wave (v)-the rate, in
m/s, at which it advances. Said slightly differently, because a
length of wave A passes by in a time T , its speed must equal
A / T = vA. Incidentally, Newton derived this relationship in
the Principia (1 687) in a section called "To find the velocity
of waves."
Two other quantities are often used in the literature of wave
motion. One is the angular temporal frequency

given in units of radians per second. The other, which is

important in spectroscopy, is the wave number or spatial
frequency

measured in inverse meters. In other words, K is the number of

waves p e r unit of length (i.e., per meter). All of these quanti-
ties apply equally well to waves that are not harmonic, as long
as each such wave is made up of a single regularly repeated
profile-element (Fig. 2.8).
Using the above definitions a number of equivalent expres-
sions can be written for the traveling harmonic wave:

+ = A sin k(x 7 vt) [2.13]

+ = A sin 211;( 7 f)
+ A sin 2.rr(~x3 vt)
= (2.23)
Figure 2.7 A harmonic wave moving along the x-axis during a time of
one period. Note that if this 1s a picture of a rope any one point on it 4 =A sin (kx 7 w t ) (2.24)
only moves vertically. We'll discuss the significance of the rotating arrow
in Section 2.6.
 2.3 Phase and Phase Velocity 17

ably contain a range of frequencies, albeit a small one, just

because the wave does not extend back to t = - x . Thus all
waves comprise a band of frequencies, and when that band is
narrow the wave is said to be quasimonochromatic.
Before we move on, let's put some numbers into Eq. (2.13)
and see how to deal with each term. To that end, arbitrarily let
v = 1.0 m s and A = 2.0 m. Then the wavefunction
2IT
rl, = A sin -(x - vt)
A
in SI units becomes
Figure 2.8 (a) The waveform produced by a saxophone. Imagine any rl, = A sin IT (x - t )
number of profile-elements ( b ) that, when repeated, create the wave-
form (c). The distance over which the wave repeats itself is called the Figure 2.9 shows how the wave progresses to the right at 1.0
wavelength, A.
m s as the time goes from t = 0 [whereupon rl, = A sin ITX] to
t = 1.0 s [whereupon rl, = A sin IT(X - 1.0)] to t = 2.0 s
Of these, Eqs. (2.13) and (2.24) will be encountered most fre- [whereupon rl, = A sin ~ ( -x 2.0)].
quently. Note that all these idealized waves are of infinite
extent. That is, for any fixed value o f t , there is no mathemati-
cal limitation on x, which varies from - m to +m. Each such
wave has a single constant frequency and is therefore mono- 2.3 Phase and Phase Velocity
chromatic or, even better, monoenergetic. Real waves are
never monochromatic. Even a perfect sinusoidal generator Examine any one of the harmonic wavefunctions, such as
cannot have been operating forever. Its output will unavoid-
+(x, t ) = A sin ( k r - w t ) (2.26)

The entire argument of the sine is the phase cp of the wave,

where
cp = (kr - wt) (2.27)
Att=x=O,

which is certainly a special case. More generally, we can write

@(x,t ) = A sin ( k r - wt + E) (2.28)

where E is the initial phase. To get a sense of the physical

meaning of E, imagine that we wish to produce a progressive
harmonic wave on a stretched string, as in Fig. 2.10. In order
to generate harmonic waves, the hand holding the string would
have to move such that its vertical displacement y was propor-
tional to the negative of its acceleration, that is, in simple har-
monic motion (see Problem 2.21). But at t = 0 and x = 0, the
hand certainly need not be on the x-axis about to move down-
Figure 2.9 A progressive wave of the form @(x, ti = A sin k(x - vt), ward, as in Fig. 2.10. It could, of course, begin its motion on
t a speed of 1.0 m s.
movlng to the r ~ g h at an upward swing, in which case E = IT, as in Fig. 2.1 1 . In this
 18 Chapter 2 Wave Motion

icance in a given situation, either Eq. (2.26) or (2.29) or, if you

like, a cosine function can be used to represent the wave. Even
so, in some situations one expression for the phase may be
mathematically more appealing than another; the literature
abounds with both, and so we will use both.
The phase of a disturbance such as @(x, t ) given by Eq.
(2.28) is
p(x, t ) = (kw - wt + E)
and is obviously a function of x and t. In fact, the partial deriv-
ative of cp with respect to t, holding x constant, is the rate-of-
change of phase with time, or

The rate-of-change of phase at any fixed location is the angu-

lar frequency of the wave, the rate at which a point on the rope

Figure 2.10 W~thE = 0 note that at x = 0 and t = 7 4 = T ~ O J ,

y = A sln ( - T 22) = -A.

latter case,
@(x, t ) = y(x, t ) = A sin (kw - wt +7 ~ )

which is equivalent to

@(x, t ) = A sin (wt - kx) (2.29)

The initial phase angle is just the constant contribution to the

phase arising at the generator and is independent of how far in
space, or how long in time, the wave has traveled.
The phase in Eq. (2.26) is (kw - w t ) , whereas in Eq. (2.29)
it's ( w t - kx). Nonetheless, both of these equations describe
waves moving in the positive x-direction that are otherwise
identical except for a relative phase difference of 7 ~ As . is Figure 2.11 W~thE = T note that at x = 0 and t =T 4,y =
often the case, when the initial phase is of no particular signif- A sln (T 2 ) = A.
 2.3 Phase and Phase Velocity 19

in Fig. 2.10 oscillates up and down. That point must go As long as the two terms in the phase subtract from each oth-
through the same number of cycles per second as the wave. er, the wave travels in the positive x-direction. On the other
For each cycle, cp changes by 2 ~ . hand. for
Similarly, the rate-of-change of phase with distance, hold-
ing t constant, is cp = k(x + vt) = constant
as t increases x can be positive and decreasing or negative and
becoming more negative. In either case, the constant-phase
These two expressions should bring to mind an equation condition moves in the decreasing x-direction.
from the theory of partial derivatives, one used frequently in Any point on a harmonic wave having a fixed magnitude
Thermodynamics, namely, moves such that cp(x, t) is constant in time, in other words,
dcp(x, t)/dt = 0, or alternatively, d+(x, t)/dt = 0. This is true
for all waves, periodic or not, and it leads (Problem 2.27) to
the expression

The term on the left represents the speed ofpropagation ofthe

condition of constant phase. Imagine a harmonic wave and
choose any point on the profile, for example, a crest of the
wave. As the wave moves through space, the displacement y which can be used to conveniently provide v when we have
of the crest remains fixed. Since the only variable in the har- +(x, t). Note that because v is always a positive number, when
monic wavefunction is the phase, it too must be constant for the ratio on the right turns out negative the motion is in the
that moving point. That is, the phase is fixed at such a value as negative x-direction.
to yield the constant y corresponding to the chosen point. The Figure 2.12 depicts a source producing hypothetical two-
point moves along with the profile at the speed v, and so too dimensional waves on the surface of a liquid. The essentially
does the condition of constant phase. sinusoidal nature of the disturbance, as the medium rises and
Taking the appropriate partial derivatives of cp as given, for falls, is evident in the diagram. But there is another useful way
example, by Eq. (2.29) and substituting them into Eq. (2.32), to envision what's happening. The curves connecting all the
we get

This is the speed at which the profile moves and is known com-
monly as the phase velocity of the wave. The phase velocity is
accompanied by a positive sign when the wave moves in the
direction of increasing x and a negative one in the direction of
decreasing x. This is consistent with our development of v as
the magnitude of the wave velocity: v > 0.
Consider the idea of the propagation of constant phase
and how it relates to any one of the harmonic wave equa-
tions, say

$ = A sin k(x ? vt)

with cp = k(x - vt) = constant

As t increases, x must increase. Even if x < 0 so that cp < 0, x

must increase (i.e., become less negative). Here, then, the con-
dition of constant phase moves in the direction of increasing x. Figure 2.12 Circular waves. (Photo by E.H.)
20 Chapter 2 Wave Motion

poznts zth a given phase form a set of concentric. circles. Fur-

thermore, given that A is everywhere constant at any one dis-
tance from the source, if cp is constant over a circle, too must
be constant over that circle. In other words, all the corre-
sponding peaks and troughs fall on circles, and we speak of
these as circula~Naves, each of which expands outward at the
speed v.

k r (rad)

The form of the differential wave equation [Eq. (2.1 1 )] reveals

an intriguing property of waves, one that is quite unlike the
behavior of a stream of classical particles. Suppose that the
wavefunctions Gl and lC12 are each separate solutions of the
wave equation; it follows that (GI + G2) is also a solution.
This is known as the Superposition Principle, and it can eas-
ily be proven since it must be true that
Figure 2.13 The superposition of two equal-wavelength sinusoids
- 1 a2*1
a2*1 -
- --
a?@? - 1 a'*? and having amplitudes A, and A,, respectively. The resultant, 4, is a
and -- --
sinusoid with the same wavelength, which at every point equals the alge-
ax2 v2 at2 ax2 V' at2
braic sum of the constituent sinusoids. Thus at x = xo, @ ( x o i = @ l ( x o l
Adding these yields + @ 2 ( ~ o )the
; magnitudes add. The amplitude of @ is A and it can be
determined in several ways; see Fig. 2.17.

countless atoms (p. 86), a phenomenon that can only be treated

satisfactorily in terms of the overlapping of waves. It therefore
becomes crucial that we understand the process, at least quali-
+
which establishes that (GI $?) is indeed a solution. What this tatively, as soon as possible. Consequently, carefully examine
means is that when two separate waves arrive at the same place the two coexisting waves in Fig. 2.13. At every point (i.e., every
in space wherein they overlap, they will simply add to (or sub- value of kx) we simply add and G2, either of which could be
tract from) one another without permanently destroying or dis- positive or negative. As a quick check, keep in mind that wher-
rupting either wave. The resulting disturbance at each point ever either constituent wave is zero (e.g., = O), the resultant
in the region of overlap is the algebraic sum of the individual disturbance equals the value of the other nonzero constituent
constituent waves at that location (Fig. 2.1 3). Once having wave (rC, = 4 ~and ~ those
) ~ two curves cross at that location (e.g.,
passed through the region where the two waves coexist, each at kw = 0 and +3.14 rad). On the other hand, @ = 0 wherever
will move out and away unaffected by the encounter. the two constituent waves have equal magnitudes and opposite
Keep in mind that we are talking about a linear superposi- signs (e.g., at kx = +2.67 rad). Incidentally, notice how a rela-
tion of waves, a process that's widely valid and the most com- tive positive phase difference of 1.0 rad between the two curves
monly encountered. Nonetheless, it is also possible for the shifts $2 to the left with respect to by 1.0 rad.
wave amplitudes to be large enough to drive the medium in a Developing the illustration a bit further, Fig. 2.14 shows
nonlinear fashion (p. 639). For the time being we'll concen- how the resultant arising from the superposition of two nearly
trate on the linear differential wave equation, which results in equal-amplitude waves depends on the phase-angle diflerence
a linear Superposition Principle. between them. In Fig. 2 . 1 4 ~the two constituent waves have
Much of Optics involves the superposition of waves in one the same phase; that is, their phase-angle difference is zero,
way or another. Even the basic processes of reflection and and they are said to be in-phase; they rise and fall in-step,
refraction are manifestations of the scattering of light from reinforcing each other. The composite wave, which then has a
 2.5 The Complex Representation 21

Figure 2.14 The superposition of two s~nuso~ds w~th

amplitudes of A, = 1.0 and A, = 0.9. In (a) they are In-
phase. In (b) leads +, +, +,
by a 3. In ( c ) leads +? by
+,
2~ 3. And (d) and 14, are out-of-phase by a and almost
-2 I $I = 1.0 sin k x
C2 = 0.9 sin ( k x - 2 ~ / 3 ) -2
= 1.0 sin k x
= 0.9 sin ( k x - T ) cancel each other. To see how the ampl~tudescan be
determmed, go to Fig. 2.18.

substantial amplitude, is sinusoidal with the same frequency

and wavelength as the component waves (p. 285). Following
the sequence of the drawings, we see that the resultant ampli- where i = G. The real and imaginary parts of Z are, respec-
tude diminishes as the phase-angle difference increases until, tively, x and y, where both x and y are themselves real num-
in Fig. 2.14d, it almost vanishes when that difference equals T. bers. This is illustrated graphically in the Argand diagram in
The waves are then said to be 180" out-of-phase.The fact that Fig. 2 . 1 5 ~In
. terms of polar coordinates (r, 8),
waves which are out-of-phase tend to diminish each other has
given the name interference to the whole phenomenon.

and 2 =x + iy = r(cos 8 + i sin 8)

2.5 The Complex Representation The Euler formula*
eie = cos 8 + i sin 8
As we develop the analysis of wave phenomena, it will
become evident that the sine and cosine functions that describe
harmonic waves can be somewhat awkward for our purposes. leads to the expression eCie = cos 8 - i sin 8, and adding and
The expressions formulated will sometimes be rather involved subtracting these two equations yields
and the trigonometric manipulations required to cope with eie + e - ~ 8

them will be even more unattractive. The complex-number cos e= 2

representation offers an alternative description that is mathe-
matically simpler to process. In fact, complex exponentials are ...............,......,.,....,................
used extensively in both Classical and Quantum Mechanics, as 'If you have any doubts about this identity, take the differential of
well as in Optics. 4 = cos 6 + i sin 8, where r = 1. This yields dP = iP do, and integra-
The complex number 2 has the form tion gives 4 = exp (16).
22 Chapter 2 Wave Motion

(a) Imag~nary (b) ~m Notice that this process is very much like the component addi-
tion of vectors.

Multiplication and division are most simply expressed in

polar form
- -
zlz2 = r l r 2 ei(0,+Q2)
-
and z1---rl
- ei(e,-02)
-
-2 1'2

A number of facts that will be useful in future calculations are

well worth mentioning at this point. It follows from the ordi-
nary trigonometric addition formulas (Problem 2.37) that
- -
,i,+i, = ezlez'
Figure 2.15 An Argand diagram is a representation of a complex num-
ber in terms of its real and imaginary components. This can be done
and so, if ? l = x and Z2 = iy,
using either (a) x and y or ib) r a n d 6'. Moreover, when 6' IS a constantly
changing function of time (dl, the arrow rotates at a rate W .
et = ,x+iv =

,I0 - ,-lo The modulus of a complex quantity is given by

and sin 0 =
2i ,. = 1,l (??*)I12
Moreover, the Euler formula allows us (Fig. 2.15b) to write

, = re" = r cos 0 + ir sin 0

and lei/ =

Inasmuch as cos 2 7 ~= 1 and sin 2 7 ~= 0,

ex

where ,-is the magnitude o f ? and 0 is the phase angle of Z,in

= 1
radians. The magnitude is often denoted by / ?/ and referred to
ei2"

as the r~odulusor absolute value of the complex number. The Similarly,

cornplex conjugate, indicated by an asterisk (Fig. 2.15c), is
found by replacing i wherever it appears, with -i, so that ei" = eP'= = -
1 and p"/2 = +
-1
.

Y- * -
- (x + iy)* = (X - iy) The function e' is periodic; that is, it repeats itself every i27~:

-* = r(cos 8 - i sin 8) e S + i 2 v - eiei2.rr - e"

and E* = re -10 Any complex number can be represented as the sum of a

real part Re (Z)and an imaginary part Im (z)
The operations of addition and subtraction are quite straight-
forward: 2 = Re ),( + i Im (2)
z -
+ z
-2
-
- (XI+ iyl) +- (x? + iy2) such that
1
and therefore Re (2) = '(=
1 - + ?*) and Im(2) = -(,
2i
- ?*)

2 F2 = (XI 2 x2) + i(y +- y2) Both of these expressions follow immediately from the
 2.6 Phasors and the Addition of Waves 23

Argand diagram, Fig. 2 . 1 5 ~and c. For example, 2 2*= + express a phasor in terms of its amplitude, A, and phase, cp, as
2x because the imaginary parts cancel, and so Re ( 2 ) = x. ALq.
From the polar form where To see how this works, let's first examine each part of Fig.
2.16 separately. The phasor in Fig. 2 . 1 6 ~has a zero phase
Re (2) = r cos 0 and Im (2) = r sin 6 angle; that is, it lies along the reference axis; the associated
sine function can also serve as a reference. In Fig. 2.166 the
it is clear that either part could be chosen to describe a har- phasor has a phase angle of +.rr 3 rad, and the sine curve is
monic wave. It is customary, however, to choose the real part, shifted to the left by .rr 3 rad. That sine curve reaches its first
in which case a harmonic wave is written as peak at a smaller value of kw than does the reference curve in
part (a), and therefore it leads the reference by .rr 3 rad. In
parts ( c ) ,(d), and (e) of Fig. 2.16, the phase angles are +.rr 2
rad, +2.rr 3 rad, and +.rr rad, respectively. The entire
sequence of curves can be seen as a wave, i,b = A sin (kx +
which is, of course, equivalent to
wt), traveling to the left. It is equivalently represented by a
phasor rotating counterclockwise such that its phase angle at
@(x,t) = A cos (wt - kw + E)
Henceforth, wherever it's convenient, we shall write the wave- (a)
function as
,j(,., t) = ~ ~ l ( w f - h x + e-
) AdiF (2.37)
-A

and utilize this complex form in the required computations. (b)

:
.-
This is done to take advantage of the ease with which complex @ = A sm (kx +~ / 3 ) 3
exponentials can be manipulated. Only after arriving at a final
result, and then only if we want to represent the actual wave,
must we take the real part. It has, accordingly, become quite ~ / 3
common to write $(x, t), as in Eq. (2.37), where it is under-
(c)
stood that the actual wave is the real part. @=AL I ~ ( ~ A + T / ~ )

2.6 Phasors and the Addition

of Waves (4
@=A sin (kx +2 ~ 1 3 )

The arrow in the Argand diagram (Fig. 2.15d) is set rotating

at a frequency w by letting the angle equal wt. This suggests
a scheme for representing (and ultimately adding) waves
that we will introduce here qualitatively and develop later
(p. 287) quantitatively. Figure 2.16 depicts a harmonic wave
of amplitude A traveling to the left. The arrow in the diagram
has a length A and revolves at a constant rate such that the
changing angle it makes with the reference x-axis is wt. This
rotating arrow and its associated phase angle together consti- Figure 2.16 A plot of the function @ = A s ~ n(kx + w t ) and the corre-
tute a phasor, which tells us everything we need to know spondmg phasor d~agrams.In (a), (b), ( c ) , ( d ) , and ( e ) , the values of w t
about the corresponding harmonic wave. It's common to are 0, T 3, T 2, 2~ 3, and T ,respectively.
24 Chapter 2 Wave Motion

together at a rate w , we can simply freeze them at t = 0 and not

Figure 2.17 The sum of two
phasors AILql and A g q , worry about their time dependence, which makes them a lot
equals ALP. Go back and look easier to draw.
at Fig. 2.13 which depicts the The four phasor diagrams in Fig. 2.18 correspond to the
overlapping of two sinusoids four wave combinations taking place sequentially in Fig. 2.14.
having amplitudes of A, = 1.0, When the waves are in-phase (as in Fig. 2.14a), we take the
and A, = 0.9 and phases of (p,
= 0 and cp, = 1.0 rad.
phases of both wave-1 and wave-2 to be zero (Fig. 2 . 1 8 ~ and
)
position the corresponding phasors tip-to-tail along the zero-cp
reference axis. When the waves differ in phase by 7713 (as in
any moment is wt. Much the same thing happens in Fig. 2.7, Fig. 2.14b), the phasors have a relative phase (Fig. 2.18b) of
but there the wave advances to the right and the phasor rotates 7713. The resultant, which has an appropriately reduced ampli-
clockwise. tude, has a phase cp that is between 0 and 7713, as can be seen
When wavefunctions are combined, we are usually inter- in both Figs. 2.14b and 2.186. When the two waves differ in
ested in the resulting amplitude and phase. With that in mind, phase by 27713 (as in Fig. 2.14c), the corresponding phasors
reexamine the way waves add together in Fig. 2.14. Apparent- almost form an equilateral triangle in Fig. 2 . 1 8 ~(but for the
ly, for disturbances that are in-phase (Fig. 2 . 1 4 ~ the
) ampli- fact that A , > A,), and so A now lies between A , and A,. Final-
tude of the resultant wave, A , is the sum of the constituent ly, when the phase-angle difference for the two waves (and the
+
amplitudes: A = A + A, = 1.0 0.9 = 1.9. This is the same two phasors) is 77 rad (i.e., 180°), they almost cancel and the
resulting amplitude is a minimum. Notice (in Fig. 2.18d) that
thing we would get if we added two colinear vectors pointing
in the same direction. Similarly (Fig. 2.14d), when the com- the resultant phasor points along the reference axis and so has
ponent waves are 180" out-of-phase A = A , - A, = 1.0 - 0.9 the same phase (i.e., zero) as A ,Lcp,.Thus it is 180" out-of-
= 0.1 as if two colinear oppositely directed vectors were
phase with A2Lcp2; the same thing is true of the corresponding
added. Although phasors are not vectors, they do add in a sim- waves in Fig. 2.14d.
ilar way. Later, we'll prove that two arbitrary phasors, AILcpI
and A,&,, combine tip-to-tail, as vectors would (Fig. 2.17),
to produce a resultant ALcp. Because both phasors rotate 2.7 Plane Waves
The plane wave is perhaps the simplest example of a three-
dimensional wave. It exists at a given time, when all the sur-
Figure 2.18 The addition of
faces on which a disturbance has constant phase form a set of
phasors representing two waves
having amplitudes of A, = 1.0, planes, each generally perpendicular to the propagation direc-
and A, = 0.9 with four different tion. There are quite practical reasons for studying this sort of
relative phases, as shown in Fig. disturbance, one of which is that by using optical devices, we
2.14. can readily produce light resembling plane waves.
The mathematical eyression for a plane that is perpendic-
ular to a given vector k and that passes through some point
(x0, yo, zo) is rather easy to derive (Fig. 2.19). First we write
the position vector in Cartesian coordinates in terms of the unit
basis vectors (Fig. 2.19a),

It begins at some arbitrary origin 0 and ends at the point

(x, J , z ) , which can, for the moment, be anywhere in space.
Similarly,
ALO AILO
 2.7 Plane Waves 25

We can now construct a set of planes over which 1/42)

varies in space sinusoidally, namely,

$(?) = A sin ( 2 . 7 ) (2.44)

Q(3) = A cos (2.7 ) (2.45)

For each of these+ expressions I,!(?) is constant over every

plane defined by k n I : = constant. Since we are dealing with
harmonic functions, they should repeat theyelves in space
after a displacement of A in the direction of k. Figure 2.20 is
a rather humble representation of this kind of expression. We
have drawn only a few of the infinite number of planes, each
having a different $(T). The planes should also have been
drawn with an infinite spatial extent, since no limits were put
Figure 2.19 (a) The on 2. The disturbance clearly occupies all of space.
Cartesian unit basis vectors.
y (b) A_ plane wave moving in
x the k-direction. The spatially repetitive nature of these harmonic functions
can be expressed by

By setting
+
(I: - I:,).k = 0 (2.38)
where k is the magnitude of 2 and vk is a unit vector parallel
to it (Fig. 2.21). In the exponential form, this is equivalent to
we fo%e the vector (I: - Z0) to sweep out a plane perpendicu-
lar to k , as its endpoint ( x , y, z ) takes on all allowed values.
With
-
k = kxi + ky7+ k,k (2.39)
Figure 2.20 Wavefronts
Equation (2.38)can be expressed in the form for a harmonic plane
wave.
kX(x- X O ) + ky(y - yo) + k,(z - ZO) = 0 (2.40)

or as k~ + kyy + k,z = a (2.41)

where
a = kgo + k,yo + k,zo = constant (2.42)

The m2st concise form of the equation of a plane perpendicu-

lar to k is then just
-
k-I: = constant = a (2.43)

The plane is the locus of all points :hose position vectors each
have the same projection onto the k-direction.
 26 Chapter 2 Wave Motion

Fig. 2.21, the scalar component of I:in the direction of 2 is rk.

The disturbance on a wavefro$ is constant, so that after a time
dt, if the front moves along k a distance drk, we must have

$(;, t) = +(rk + drk, t + dl) = $(rk, t) (2.49)

In exponential form, this is

A e l ( j ; . ~7 w t ) = Aei(kr,+kdr,Twtiw dt) = Aer(kr,Twt)

and so it must be that kdrk = ?w dl

The magnitude of the wave velocity, drk/dt, is then

Figure 2.21 Plane waves.

For this to be true, we must have We could have anticipated thizresult by rotating the coordi-
nate system in Fig. 2.21 so that k was parallel to the x-axis. For
-
eiAk - 1 = ei2n
that orientation
Therefore,
Ak = 2.rr
and +
k = 2.rrlA since k . ? = krk = kx. The wave has thereby been effectively
+ reduced to the one-dimensional disturbance already dis-
The vector k, whose magnitude is the propagation number k cussed.
(already introduced), is called the propagation vector. Now consider the two waves in Fig. 2.22; both have the
At any fixed point in space where i: is constant, the phase is same wavelength A such that k , = k2 = k = 2.rrlh. Wave-1
constant as is +(;); in short, the planes are motionless. To get propagating along the z-axis can be written as
things moving, +(;) must be made to vary in time, something
we can accomplish by introducing the time dependence in an
analogous fashion to that of the one-dimensional wave. Here
then
+(;, t ) = A e i ( Z . ~ ~ W t ) (2.48)

with A, w , and k constant. As this disturbance travels along in

the 2-direction, we can assign a phase corresponding to it at
each point in space and time. At any given time, the surfaces
joining allpoints of equalphase are known as wavefronts.
Note that the wavefunction will have a constant value over the
wavefront only if the amplitude A has a fixed value at every
point on the wavefront. In general, A is a function of I: and
may not be constant over all space or even over a wavefront.
In the latter case, the wave is said to be inhomogeneous. We
will not be concerned with this sort of disturbance until later,
when we consider laserbeams and total internal reflection.
The phase velocity of a plane wave given by Eq. (2.48) is Figure 2.22 Two overlapping waves of the same wavelength traveling
equivalent to the propagation velocity of the wavefront. In in different directions.
 2.8 The Three-D~mens~onal Wave Equat~on27
D~fferent~al

-+ -+ +
where, because k t and c a r e parallel, k l .r = X; = (2m A);. er than harmonically (see photo). It will be seen in the next
Similarly for wave-', k 2 . i Z= X-; + k , ) = (X coc 9): + 4ection that harmonic plane waves are. indeed, a special case
(k sin %)yand of a more general plane-wave solution.

We'll return to these expressions and what happens in the

2.8 The Three-Dimensional
region of overlap when we consider interference in more Differential Wave Equation
detail.
The plane harmonic wave is often written in Cartesian Of all the three-dimensional waves, only the plane wave (har-
coordinates as monic or not) can move through space with an unchanging
profile. Clearly, the idea of a wave as a disturbance whose pro-
file is unaltered is somewhat lacking. Alternatively, we can
define a wave as any solution of the differential wave equa-
tion. What we need now is a three-dimensional wave equation.
This should be rather easy to obtain, since we can guess at its
-+ form by generalizing from the one-dimensional expression,
where a , p, and y are the direction cosines of k (see Problem
Eq. (2.1 I ). In Cartesian coordinates, the position variables A, y,
2.39). In terms of its components, the magnitude of the propa-
and :must certainly appear symmetrically* in the three-
gation vector is
dimensional equation, a fact to be kept in mind. The wave-
function +(x, y, z, t ) given by Eq. (2.52) is a particular solution
of the differential equation we are looking for. In analogy with
and of course the derivation of Eq. (2.1 l), we compute the following partial
a' + p2 + y2 = I (2.54)
derivatives from Eq. (2.52):

We have examined plane waves with a particular emphasis

on harmonic functions. The special significance of these
waves is twofold: first, physically, sinusoidal waves can be
generated relatively simply by using some form of harmonic
oscillator; second, any three-dimensional wave can be
expressed as a combination of plane waves, each having a
distinct amplitude and propagation direction.
We can certainly imagine a series of plane waves like those
in Fig. 2.20 where the disturbance varies in some fashion oth-
and

Adding the three spatial derivatives and utilizing the fact that
a' + p2 + y2 = 1, we obtain

The image of a single collhated laser pulse caught as it swept along

the surface of a ruler. T h ~ sultrashort burst of light corresponded to a 'There is no distinguishing characteristic for any one of the axes In
port~onof a plane wave. It extended In time for 300 x 10 ''
s and was Cartesian coordinates. We should therefore be able to change the
only a fraction of a mltlimeter long. (Photo courtesy J. Valdman~sand N.H. names of, say, x to z, y to x, and z to y (keep~ngthe system r~ght-
Abramson. 1 handed) without altering the differential wave equation.
28 Chapter 2 Wave Motion

Combining this with the time derivative, Eq. (2.58), and 2.9 Spherical Waves
remembering that v = w k, we arrive at
Toss a stone into a tank of water. The surface ripples that
emanate from the point of impact spread out in two-dimen-
sional circular waves. Extending this imagery to three dimen-
sions, envision a small pulsating sphere surrounded by a fluid.
the three-dimensional differential wave equation. Note that x, As the source expands and contracts, it generates pressure
J, and :do appear symmetrically, and the form is precisely variations that propagate outward as spherical waves.
what one might expect from the generalization of Eq. (2.11). Consider now an idealized point source of light. The radia-
Equation (2.60) is usually written in a more concise form tion emanating from it streams out radially, uniformly in all
by introducing the Luplacian operator directions. The source is said to be isotropic, and the resulting
wavefronts are again concentric spheres that increase in diam-
eter as they expand out into the surrounding space. The obvi-
ous symmetry of the wavefronts suggests that it might be more
whereupon it becomes simply convenient to describe them in terms of spherical polar coor-
dinates (Fig. 2.23). In this representation the Laplacian opera-
tor is

Now that we have this most important equation, let's briefly

return to the plane wave and see how it fits into the scheme of
things. A function of the form

where r, 8, r$ are defined by

is equivalent to Eq. (2.52) and, as such, is a solution of Eq.
(2.62). It can also be shown (Problem 2.40) that

are both plane-wave solutions of the differential wave equa-

tion. The functions f and g , which are twice differentiable, are
otherwise arbitrary and certainly need not be harmonic. A lin-
ear combination of these solutions is also a solution, and we
can write this in a slightly different manner as

where C, and C2 are constants.

Cartesian coordinates are particularly suitable for describ-
ing plane wa\ es. Howel er, as \ arious physical situations
arise. we can often take better advantage of existing symme-
tries by making use of some other coordinate representations. FIGURE 2.23 The geometry of spherical coordinates.
 2.9 Spher~calWaves 29

in a slightlb diff'erent form:

Remember that we are looking for a description of spherical

waves, waves that are spherically symmetrical ii.e.. ones that
d o not depend on 0 and d ) so that The d ~ f f e r e n t ~ wa\
a l e equatlon can then be wntten .I\

The Laplacian of $(r) is then simply Multipl\ mg both s ~ d e by

s I, 4 ~elds

W e can obtain this result without being familiar with Eq. Notice that this expression is now just the one-dimensional
(2.67). Start with the Cartesian form of the Laplacian, Eq. differential wa\ e equation. Eq. (2.1 1 1. where the space vari-
(2.61), operate on the spherically symmetrical wavefunction able is r a n d the wajefunction is the product (I.$). The solution
*(r), and convert each term to polar coordinates. Examining of Eq. (2.71) is then simply
only the x-dependence, we have

This represents a spherical wa\ e progressins radially outward

from the origin. at a constant speed v,and having an arbitrary
functional form f : Another solution i \ g i \ e n by

and in this case the w a \ e is con\erging toward the origin.':

The fact that this expression blows up at I- = 0 is of little prac-
we have tical concern.
A specid u s e of the general solut~on

d'$ ' d'dj

s 1
and \o -
dx' r' i,rL r

Now having i,'$ d.1" we form d'$ i,x2 and dl$ d;', m d on
adding get

'Other more compl~catedsolutions exist when the wave is not spherically

which i\ equivalent to Eq. (2.68). This rewlt can be expressed symmetrical. See C. A. Coulson, Waves, Chapter 1.
 30 Chapter 2 Wave Motion

Figure 2.24 A "quadruple exposure" of a spherlcal pulse

wherein the constant .d is called the .sourcxJ.streri,yth. At any

fixed value of time, this represents a cluster of concentric
spheres filling all space. Each wavefront, or surface of con-
stant phase, is given by
Figure 2.25 Spher~calwavefronts
kr = constant

Notice that the amplitude of any spherical wave is a function

'
of r , where the term r serves as an attenuation factor. Unlike pulse at two different times, as the wave expands outward.
the plane wave, a spherical wave decreases in amplitude. Remember that these results would obtain regardless of the
thereby changing its profile, as it expands and moves out from direction of r . because of the spherical symmetry. We could
the origin." Figure 2.24 illustrates this graphically by showing also have drawn a harmonic wave, rather than a pulse, in Figs.
a "multiple exposure" of a spherical pulse at four different 2.24 and 2.25. In this case. the sinusoidal disturbance would
times. The pulse has the same extent in space at any point have been bounded by the curves
along any radius r ; that is, the width of the pulse along the r -
axis is a constant. Figure 2.25 is an attempt to relate the dia-
grammatic representation of $(r, t ) in the previous figure to its
actual form as a spherical wave. It depicts half the spherical The outgoing spherical wave emanating from a point
source and the incoming wave converging to a point are ideal-
...............................................
izations. In actuality, light only approximates spherical waves,
'The attenuation factor IS a direct consequence of energy conservation.
Chapter 3 contains a discuss~onof how these ideas apply specifically to as it also only approximates plane waves.
electromagnetlc radiation. As a spherical wavefront propagates out, its radius increas-

FIGURE 2.26 The flattenmg of spherlcal

waves w ~ t hdlstance
 2.10 Cylindrical Waves 31

es. Far enough away from the source, a small area of the uave- ther restricts the wavefront to a right circular cylinder centered
front will closely resemble a portion of a plane wave (Fig. on the z-axis and having infinite length. The differential wave
2.26). equation becomes

2.10 Cvlindrical Waves

After a bit of manipulation, in which the time dependence is
W e will now briefly examine another idealized waveform, the separated out, Eq. (2.77) becomes something called Bessel's
infinite circular cylinder. Unfortunately, a precise mathemati- equation. The solutions of Bessel's equation for large values
cal treatment is far too involved to do here. We shall, instead, of r gradually approach simple trigonometric forms. When r is
just outline the procedure. The Laplacian of $ in cylindrical sufficiently large,
coordinates (Fig. 2.27) is

where
x = r cos 0, y = r sin 0, and z = z
This represents a set of coaxial circular cylinders filling all
The simple case of cylindrical symmetry requires that space and traveling toward or away from an infinite line
source. No solutions in terms of arbitrary functions can now
be found as there were for both spherical [Eq. (2.73)] and
plane [Eq. (2.66)] waves.
The 0-independence means that a plane perpendicular to the z- A plane wave impinging on the back of a flat opaque screen
axis will intersect the wavefront in a circle, which may vary in containing a long, thin slit will result in the emission, from that
r , at different values of z. In addition, the z-independence fur- slit, of a disturbance resembling a cylindrical wave (see Fig.
2.28). Extensive use has been made of this technique to gener-
ate cylindrical lightwaves (p. 394).

Figure 2.28 Cylindrical waves emerging from a long, narrow slit.

Figure 2.27 The geometry of cylindrical coordinates.

32 Chapter 2 Wave Motion

PROBLEMS
Complete solutrons to ail problems-except those with an asterisk- 2.10* Make up a table uith columns headed by values of kx running
can be found 1n the back of the book. from x = -A 2 to x = +A in intervals of x of A 4-of course, k =
27r A. In each column place the corresponding values of cos (kx -
2.1 Hou many "yellou" lightuaves (A = 580 nm) uill fit into a dis-
tance in space equal to the thickness of a piece of paper (0.003 in.)?
7r 4) and beneath that the values of cos (kx +
3 n 4) Next plot the
functions 15 cos (kx - 7i 4) and 25 cos (kx + 37i 4).
How far will the same number of microuaves (v = 10"' Hz, i.e.. 10
GHz, and z1 = 3 X 10' m S ) extend? 2.11* Make up a table with columns headed by values of wt running
from t = - T 2 to t = + T in intervals of t of T 4-of course, w =
2.2* Thc speed of light in vacuum is approximately 3 X 10' m s.
27i T In each column place the corresponding values of sin (wt +
Find the wavelength of red light having a frequency of 5 X 10" Hz.
7r 4) and sin (7r 4 - wt) and then plot these two functions
Compare this with the uavelength of a 60-Hz electromagnetic wave.
2.12* The profile of a transverse harmonic wave, traveling at 1.2
2.3* It is possible to generate ultrasonic uaves in crystals uith
m s on a strlng, is given by
uakelengths similar to light (5 X 10-%m) but with lower frequen-
? = (0.02 m) sin (157 m p ' ) x
cies (6 X 1 0 % ~ ) .Compute the corresponding speed of such a uave.
Determine its amplitude, uavelength, frequency, and period.
2.4* A youngster in a boat on a lake uatches uaves that seem to be
an endless succession of identical crests passing uith a half-second 2.13* Figure P.2.13 represents the profile (t = 0) of a transverse
interval betueen each. If every disturbance takes 1.5 s to sueep n a v e on a string traveling in the positive x-direction at a speed of
straight along the length of her 4.5-m-long boat, u hat are the fre- 20.0 111 S. (a) Determine its wavelength. (b) What is the frequency
quency. period, and u a\ elength of the u aves? of the uave? (c) Write down the wavefunction for the disturbance.
(d) Notice that as the n a v e passes any fixed point on the x-axis the
2.5* A ~ibratinghammer strikes the end of a long metal rod in such
string at that location oscillates in time. Draw a graph of the I) versus
a n a y that a periodic compression wa\e uith a uavelength of 4.3 m
t showing how a point on the rope at x = 0 oscillates.
travels d o u n the rod's length at a speed of 3.5 km s. What u a s the
frequency of the \ ibration?
Figure P.2.13 IIIIX,
0 5 ) (ml
2.6 A violin is submerged in a suimming pool at the uedding of two
scuba d i ~ e r s Giken
. that the speed of compression waves in pure
uater is 1498 m s. what is the uavelength of an A-note of 440 Hz
played on the instrument?

2.7* A wavepulse trakels 10 m along the length of a string in 2.0 s.

A harmonic disturbance of uavelength 0.50 m is then generated on
the string. What is its frequency?

2.8* Show that for a periodic uave w = (27i A)z.

2.9* Make up a table uith columns headed by \ d u e s of 0 running
from -7i 2 to 27r in intervals of 7r 4. In each column place the cor-
responding k alue of sin 0, beneath those the k alues of cos 0. beneath
those the values of sin ( 0 - 7i 4). and similarly uith the functions
sin ( 0 - n 2), sin ( 0 37r 41, and sin ( 0 + 7i 2). Plot each of these
-

functions. noting the effect of the phase shift. Does sin 0 lead or lag 2.14* Figure P.2.14 represents the profile ( t = 0) of a transverse
sin ( 0 - 7i 2). In other uords, does one of the functions reach a par- uake on a string traveling in the positive z-direction at a speed of 100
ticular magnitude at a smaller ~ a l u eof 0 than the other and therefore cm s . (a) Determine its uavelength. (b) Notice that as the wave
lead the othel. ( a \ co.; 0 lead.; sin O)? passes any fixed point on the :-axis the string at that location oscil-
 Problems 33

+
lates in time. Draw a graph of the versus t showing how a point on determine in each case the values of (a) frequency, (b) wavelength,
the rope at x = 0 oscillates. (c) What is the frequency of the wave? (c) period, (d) amplitude, (e) phase velocity, and (f) direction of
motion. Time is in seconds and .x is in meters.

2.17* The wavefunction of a transverse wave on a string is

+(x, t) = (30.0 cm) cos [(6.28 rad! m)x - (20.0 rad s)t]

Compute the (a) frequency, (b) wavelength, (c) period, (d) ampli-
tude, (e) phase velocity, and (f) direction of motion.

2.18* Show that

$(x, t) = A sin k(x - vt)

is a solution of the differential wave equation.

2.19* Show that

+(x, t) =A cos (kx - wt)

is a solution of the differential wave equation.

2.15* A transverse wave on a string travels in the negative y-direc- 2.20* Prove that
tion at a speed of 40.0 cm s. Figure P.2.15 is a graph of $ versus t
showing how a point on the rope at y = 0 oscillates. (a) Determine
+(x, t) = A cos (kx - wt - TI 2)
the wave's period. (b) What is the frequency of the wave? (b) What
is the wavelength of the wave? (d) Sketch the profile of the wave (I)
is equivalent to
versus y).
+(x, t) = A sin (kx - wt)
Figure P.2.15
2.21 Show that if the displacement of the string in Fig. 2.7 is given by
y(x, t ) = A sin [kx - wt + E]
then the hand generating the wave must be moving vertically in sim-
ple harmonic motion.

2.22 Write the expression for the wavefunction of a harmonlc wave

of amplitude 1 o3V m, penod 2 2 X I 0 1 5 s, and speed 3 X 10' m s
The wave 1s propagating In the negatlve x-direction and has a value
of l o 3 v m a t t = O a n d x = O

2.23 Consider the pulse described in terms of its displacement at

t=Oby
C
v(x, 4 , = o =
where C i s a constant. Draw the wave profile. Write an expression for
2.16 Given the wavefunctions the wave, having a speed v in the negative x-direction, as a function
GI = 4 sin 2 ~ ( 0 . 2 x- 3t) of time t. If v = 1 m Is, sketch the profile at t = 2 s.

and 2.24* Please determlne the magnitude of the wavefunctlon +(z, t) =

+
sin (7x 3.5t) +
A cos [k(z + vt) T] at the point z = 0, when t = T 2 and when t =
*2 = 2.5 37 4.
34 Chapter 2 Wave Mot~on

2.25 Doc\ the l'ollowing function. in which A is a constant, 2.34* I m a g ~ n ca w u n d wavc w ~ t ha frcqucncy of I I0 kH7 propa-
g d t ~ n gw ~ t hd \peed of 730 m \ Dctermme the p h a w d~fterenceIn
rad1an5 betwccn any two point\ on the wavc q a r a t c d by 10 O cm
represent a wavc? Explain your rc;isoning.
2.35 Consider a lightwave having a phasc velocity of 3 X 10' m s
2.26* Use Eq. (3.33) to calculate the \peed o l the wavc whow rcp- and a frequency of 6 X l0I4 HI,. What is the shortest distance along
rcsentation in SI units is the wavc b c t ~ c e nany two points that havc a phasc diffcrcnce of 30°?
What phasc \hift occurs at a given point in 1 V " s, and how many
wavcs havc passed by in that time?
2.27 Beginning with the I h l l o ~ i n gthcorc~n:If: = fi \. v) and .w =
g(r). v = / / ( I )then
, 2.36 Write an expression for the wave shown in Fig. P.2.36. Find its
d: -d: +
=
d\ -[I: A dv wavelength, velocity, frequency, and period.
1 ;I.\ (It ;I), (11
Derive Eq. ( 3 . 1 4 ) . Figure P.2.36 A harmonic wave

2.28 U\ing the re\uIt\ of the previous problem, \ h o ~that for a har-
monic wave with a p h a x (F( t , r J k - r l r ) we can determine the

\peed by setting riq tlt = O. Apply the technique to Problem 2.76 to

find the \peed of that wave.

2.29* A (iatssian wave has the form i(i(.r. I ) = Ar """ "" . Usc the
h c t that I/I(.Y,1 ) = J7 F u t J to cletcr~nincits speed and then verify
yoill- answer ~lsingEq. ( 2 . 3 3 ) .

2.30 c'reatc an expression for the prnfi'lc of :I har~nonicNabc travel-

ing in the :-direction whose magnituclc at ;= A 12 is 0.866, at z =
t A 6 i \ 1 7 . and at := A 3 is 0 .

2.31 Which ol' the following expres\ions correyontl to traveling

Naves'? For each of those, what is the spced ofthe wave? The quanti-
ties ti. h. and (, arc po\itibe conatant\.

2.32* Dctcrminc ~ h i c hof the l ' o l l o ~ i n gdcscrihc traveling Navcs:

) ( , , (
i t t I - I
I<i/>l\

2.37* Working with cxponcntials directly, show that the magnitude

of I/J = Ac'"' is A . Then redcrive the same result using Eulcr's formu-
la, prove that r"'c'li = c'i"+/3'
Whcre appropriate. draw the profile and rind the spced and direction
of motion. 2.38* Show that the imaginary part of a complex numbcr I is given
by (? ;-*) 3;.
-

2.33 Given the traveling w ~ ( / I~( \ , tc) 5.0 cxp (-(I.\-'

- 171' - -

7\'~i%xt), determine ~ t ds ~ r c c t ~ ool'pl-opag:it~on.

n <'alcul:ite a few val-
2.39 Beginning with Eq. (3.5 I), verify that
ues of ((I and make a shctch of the L\.:IVC at r = 0. taking ti = 35 m '
and 1) = 0.0 s '. What is the speed ol the \ ~ a \ e ' . '
 Problems 35

and that cw' + fi' + v' = I 2.45* Make up a table u ith columns hcaclcd hy values ol' H running
1'1-orn-7r 2 to 2.rr in intcl-\al\ of TT 4. In cacti column place the cor-
Draw a sketch showing all the pertinent quantities e \In 8. anel hcnealh tho\e the value\ ol' 2 sin 8.
rc\poncliny ~ a l u of
2.40* S h o w that Eqs. (2.04) and (2.65). which arc plane waves o f Next aclcl these, col~1n111by column. to yield the corre~pondiny\:due\
arbitrary form, \ati\fy the three-dimen\ional differential wabe equa- o f the function sin H + 2 sin 0. PI01 each of these three function, not-
tion. iny their relative amplit~lclcsand pha\e\.

2.41 D e Broglie's hypothesis states that cbery partlclc has aswciat- 2.46* Make up a table w ~ t hcolunln\ he;~clcdh) \aluc\ ol HI-~mning
cd with it a wavelength given by Planck's constant ( h = 6.6 X 10 from -7r 2 t o 77r i l l intcl-\al\ of 7r 4. In each column placc the
J . a) divided by the particlc's momentum. Compare the wavelength r c ~ p o n d i n gvalue ol' sin 8. and beneath thaw thc bnluc\ ol \in ( 8 -

of a 6.0-kg stone moving at a speed of I .0 In s with that of light. 7r 2 ) . Next add these. column by column. to yiclcl the col-rc\ponding

values o f t h e function sin H i\In ( H 7r 2 ) . Plot each o l t h e w three

-

2.42 Writc an exprcs\ion in Cartesian coordinates for a harmonic functions. noting their relative amplitucle\ uncl phases.
plane wave of amplitude A and frequency w propagating in the clirec-
+
tion of thc vector k, which in turn lie\ on a line drawn f~romthe origin 2.47* With the laht two problems in mind. d r a b a plot ol.thc thrcc
+
to the point (4. 2, 1). Hint: First determine k and then dot it with F. functions (:I) sin 8. ( b ) sin ( 0 37r 3). anel ( c ) sin H + sin ( H -
-

37r 3).( ' o ~ n p a r cthe amplitucle o f t h e combined l'unction ( c ) in this

2.43* Writc an cxprcssion in Cartesian coordinates for a harmonic case with that of the prcb ioua pl-oblem.
plane wave of amplitude A and frequency w pl-opagatiny in the posi-
2.48* Make LIPa table ~ i t columnsh heacled by \ a l u c \ ol' X t run-
tivc x-direction.
- +
2.44 Show that c/~(k$7,r) may represent a plane wave wherc k is nor-
ning from .l- = A 7 to.\ = t A in intcr\al\ of r ol A 4. In cach col-
umn placc the corrc\poncling value\ o f c o s X.1- anti hencatti that the
mal to the wavefront. Hirlt: Let F, and F, be position vectors drawn to values of c o s (X.r + 7r). Next plot thc thl-ee function\ coy h r .
any two point\ on the planc and \how that $(7,, t ) = I / I ( ~ - ' , , r). co\ (X.r + 7r), and cos X.4- ic o \ (X.1 + 7r).
 Electromagnetic
.. ,* ..,. ,
,y .-.--
6,,..;.
,
. . .
. ... ..-'
. , ?
- ' '+t

Theory, Photons,
and Light
The work of J. Clerk Maxwell and subsequent developments the physical object. but on the experimental device set up to
since the late 1800s have made it evident that light is most cer- examine it."
tainly electromagnetic in nature. Classical electrodynamics, as
The quantum-mechanical treatment associates a wave
we shall see, unalterably leads to the picture of a continuous
equation with a particle, be it a photon, electron, proton, or
transfer of energy by way of electromagnetic waves. In con-
whatever. In the case of material particles, the wave aspects
trast, the more modern view of Quantum Electrodynamics
are introduced by way of the field equation known as
(p. 80) describes electromagnetic interactions and the trans-
Schrodinger's Equation. For light we have a representation of
port of energy in terms of massless elementary "particles"
the wave nature in the form of the classical electromagnetic
known as photons. The quantum nature of radiant energy is
field equations of Maxwell. With these as a starting point one
not always apparent, nor is it always of practical concern in
can construct a quantum-mechanical theory of photons and
Optics. There is a range of situations in which the detecting
their interaction with charges. The dual nature of light is evi-
equipment is such that it is impossible, and desirably so, to
denced by the fact that it propagates through space in a wave-
distinguish individual quanta.
like fashion and yet displays particlelike behavior during the
If the wavelength of light is small in comparison to the size
processes of emission and absorption. Electromagnetic radiant
of the apparatus (lenses, mirrors, etc.), one may use, as a first
energy is created and destroyed in quanta or photons and not
approximation, the techniques of Geometrical Optics. A
continuously as a classical wave. Nonetheless, its motion
somewhat more precise treatment, which is applicable as well
through a lens, a hole, or a set of slits is governed by wave
when the dimensions of the apparatus are small, is that of
characteristica. If we're unfamiliar with this kind of behavior
Physicd Optics. In Physical Optics the dominant property of
in the macroscopic world, it's because the wavelength of a
light is its wave nature. It is even possible to develop most of
material object varies inversely with its momentum (p. 56),
the treatment without ever specifying the kind of wave one is
and even :I grain of sand (which is barely moving) has a wave-
dealing with. Certainly, as far as the classical study of Physi-
length so small as to be indiscernible in any conceivable
cal Optics is concerned, it will suffice admirably to treat light
experiment.
as an electromagnetic wave.
The photon has zero mass, and therefore exceedingly large
We can think of light as the most tenuous form of matter.
numbers of' low-energy photons can be envisioned as present
Indeed, one of the basic tenets of Quantum Mechanics is that
in a beam of light. Within that model, dense streams of pho-
both light and material particles display similar wave-particle
tons act o n the average to produce well-defined classical fields
properties. As Erwin C. Schrodinger ( 1 887-1 96 1 ). one of the
(p. 52). We can draw a rough analogy with the flow of com-
founders of quantum theory, put it:
muters through a train station during rush hour. Each com-
In the new setting of ideas the distinction [between parti- muter presumably behaves individually as a quantum of
cles and waves] has vanished, because it was discovered that humanity, but all have the same intent and follow fairly simi-
all particles have also wave properties, and \,ice w r s n .
Neither of the two concepts must be discarded. they must be
amalgamated. Which aspect obtrudes itself depends not on 'Erw~n C. Schrodmger. Sc~enceTheory and Man.
 3.1 Basic Laws of Electromagnetic Theory 37

lar trajectories. T o a distant, myopic observer there is a seem- tion. Alternativel), we can take the classical approach and
ingly smooth and continuous flow. The behavior of the stream imagine instead that every charge is surrounded by something
en r m s s e is predictable from day to day, and so the precise called an electric field. W e then need only suppose that each
motion of each commuter is unimportant, at least to the charge interacts directly with the electric field in which c i s
observer. The energy transported by a large number of pho- immersed. Thus if a point charge (1. experiences a force F,,
tons is, on the average, equivalent to the energy transferred by
a classical electromagnetic wave. For these reasons the classi-
-
the ~ l r c+
t t ~ i c , f ~ e l ratl the position of the charge is defined by
F, = y.E. In addition, we observe +
that a moving charge may
cal field representation of electromagnetic phenomena has experience another force F,, which is proportional to its
been, and will continue to be, so useful. Nonetheless, it should velocity ?. W e are thus led to define yet another fie$ namely,
be understood that the apparent continuous nature of electro-
magnetic waves is a fiction of the macroscopic world. just as
-
the ~ ~ ~ ~ i ~ ~ r z e t iorjust c~ ~ ~B. such that
c ~ ~ ct hl ei ~ n~q~n tr it icfield
F , = y.? x B. If forces F, and F, occur concurrently, the
the apparent continuous nature of ordinary matter is a fic- charge is moving through a regi2n pervaded by b 2 h electric
tion-it just isn't that simple. and magnetic fields, whereupon F = q.z + q.? x B.
Quite pragmatically, then, w e can consider light to be a As we'll see, electric fields are generated by both electric
classical electromagnetic wave, keeping in mind that there are charges and t i t w - ~ w r j i n gmagnetic,fields. Similarly, magnetic
situations for which this description is woefully inadequate. fields are generated by electric currents and by titne-~~crr?itzg
electt-ic~,firlds.This interdependence of 8 and B is a key point
in the description of light.

3.1 Basic Laws of Electromagnetic

Theory 3.1.1 Faraday's Induction Law
"Convert magnetism into electricity" was the brief remark
Our intent in this section is to review and develop some of the
Michael Faraday jotted in his notebook in 1822, a challenge he
ideas needed to appreciate the concept of electromagnetic
waves. set himself with an easy confidence that made it seem so
W e know from experiments that charges, even though sep- attainable. After several years doing other research, Faraday
arated in vacuum, experience a mutual interaction. Recall the returned to the problem of electromagnetic induction in 183 1.
familiar electrostatics demonstration in which a pith ball His first apparatus made use of two coils mounted on a wood-
somehow senses the presence of a charged rod without actual- en spool (Fig. 3.It7). One, called the primary, was attached to
ly touching it. As a possible explanation w e might speculate a battery and a switch; the other, the secondary, was attached
that each charge emits (and absorbs) a stream of undetected to a gal\,anometer. He found that the galvanometer deflected
particles (virtu11photons). T h e exchange of these particles in one direction just for a moment whenever the switch was
among the charges may b e regarded as the mode of interac- closed, returning to zero almost immediately. despite the con-

(4 Wooden core Gal\anometrr

Iron Lore

Figure 3.1 ( a ) The start of a current in one coil produces a t ~ m evarylng magnetic f~eldthat Induces
a current in the other c o ~ l . ib) An Iron core couples the primary coil to the secondary.
38 Chapter 3 Electromagnetic Theory, Photons, and Light

stant current still in the primary. Whenever the switch was tional to B. In summary, when A, = constant, emf x A L I B I
opened, interrupting the primary current, the galvanometer in I t and, when B = constant, emf x BIA,/It.
the secondary circuit momentarily swung in the opposite All of this suggests that the emf depends on the rate-of-
direction and then promptly returned to zero. change of both A, and B, that is, on the rate of change of their
Using a ferromagnetic core to concentrate the "magnetic product. This should bring to mind the notion of the flux of the
force." Faraday wound two coil\ around opposing section5 of field-the product of field and area where the penetration is
a \oft iron ring (Fig. 3.1b). N o u the effect was unmistak- perpendicular. Accordingly, the flux of t h e m a g n e t i c field
able-+ changing magnetic field generated a current. through the wire loop is
Indeed. as he would continue to discover, c h m g e was the
essential aspect of electromagnetic induction. @ , = B,A = BA, = BA cos 6
By thrusting a magnet into a coil, Faraday showed that
there is a voltage-otherwise known as the intluc,ed elwrro- More generally, if B varies in space as it's likely to, the flux of
t~ioti\,e,fi~rce
or emf-across the coil's terminals. (Electromo- the magnetic field through any open area A bounded by the
tive force is a dreadful, outmoded term-it's not a force. but a conducting loop (Fig. 3.4) is given by
voltage-so we'll avoid it and just use emf.) Furthermore, the
amplitude of the emf depends on how rapidly the magnet is
moved. The itzduced e r ~ df e p t ~ d os n the r-utt.-of-cIurr~geof B
through the coil and not on B itself. A weak magnet moved The induced emf, developed around the loop, is then
rapidly can induce a greater emf than a strong magnet moved
slowly.
When the same changing B-field passes through two dif-
ferent wire loops. as in Fig. 3.2, the induced emf is larger
across the terminals of the larger loop. In other words, here
where the B-field is changing, the induced emf isproportion-
a1 to the area A of the looppenetratedperpendicularly by the
field. If the loop is successively tilted over, as is shown in Fig.
3.3. the area presented perpendicularly to the field (A,) varies
as A cos H. and. when H = YO", the induced emf is zero
because no amount of B-field then penetrates the loop: when
1 B / I r f 0, emf A,. The converse also holds: when the
field is constant, the induced emf is proportional to the rate-
of-change of the perpendicular area penetrated. If a coil is
twisted 01-rotated or even squashed while in a constant B-field
so that the perpendicular area initially penetrated is altered.
there will be an induced emf x I A , / I r and it will be propor-

Figure 3.2 A larger time-vary-

ing magnet~cflux passes
through the larger loop and
induces a greater emf across
its terminals.

Figure 3.3 ( a ) The induced emf is proportional to the perpendicular

area intercepted by the magnet~cf~eld.( b ) That perpendicular area
varies as cos 0.
Another Random Scribd Document
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of Lord of a
Thousand Suns
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Title: Lord of a Thousand Suns

Author: Poul Anderson

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Most recently updated: October 18, 2024

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LORD OF A

THOUSAND SUNS ***
LORD of a THOUSAND SUNS
 By POUL ANDERSON

A Man without a World, this 1,000,000-year-old

Daryesh! Once Lord of a Thousand Suns, now condemned
to rove the spaceways in alien form, searching
for love, for life, for the great lost Vwyrdda.

[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from

Planet Stories September 1951.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
"Yes, you'll find almost anything man has ever imagined, somewhere
out in the Galaxy," I said. "There are so damned many millions of
planets, and such a fantastic variety of surface conditions and of life
evolving to meet them, and of intelligence and civilization appearing
in that life. Why, I've been on worlds with fire-breathing dragons,
and on worlds where dwarfs fought things that could pass for the
goblins our mothers used to scare us with, and on a planet where a
race of witches lived—telepathic pseudohypnosis, you know—oh, I'll
bet there's not a tall story or fairy tale ever told which doesn't have
some kind of counterpart somewhere in the universe."
Laird nodded. "Uh-huh," he answered, in that oddly slow and soft
voice of his. "I once let a genie out of a bottle."
"Eh? What happened?"
"It killed me."
I opened my mouth to laugh, and then took a second glance at him
and shut it again. He was just too dead-pan serious about it. Not
poker-faced, the way a good actor can be when he's slipping over a
tall one—no, there was a sudden misery behind his eyes, and
somehow it was mixed with the damnedest cold humor.
I didn't know Laird very well. Nobody did. He was out most of the
time on Galactic Survey, prowling a thousand eldritch planets never
meant for human eyes. He came back to the Solar System more
rarely and for briefer visits than anyone else in his job, and had less
to say about what he had found.
A huge man, six-and-a-half feet tall, with dark aquiline features and
curiously brilliant greenish-grey eyes, middle-aged now though it
didn't show except at the temples. He was courteous enough to
everyone, but shortspoken and slow to laugh. Old friends, who had
known him thirty years before when he was the gayest and most
reckless officer in the Solar Navy, thought something during the
Revolt had changed him more than any psychologist would admit
was possible. But he had never said anything about it, merely
resigning his commission after the war and going into Survey.
We were sitting alone in a corner of the lounge. The Lunar branch of
the Explorers' Club maintains its building outside the main dome of
Selene Center, and we were sitting beside one of the great windows,
drinking Centaurian sidecars and swapping the inevitable shop-talk.
Even Laird indulged in that, though I suspected more because of the
information he could get than for any desire of companionship.
Behind us, the long quiet room was almost empty. Before us, the
window opened on the raw magnificence of moonscape, a sweep of
crags and cliffs down the crater wall to the riven black plains,
washed in the eerie blue of Earth's light. Space blazed above us,
utter black and a million sparks of frozen flame.
"Come again?" I said.

He laughed, without much humor. "I might as well tell you," he said.
"You won't believe it, and even if you did it'd make no difference.
Sometimes I tell the story—alcohol makes me feel like it—I start
remembering old times...."
He settled farther back in his chair. "Maybe it wasn't a real genie," he
went on. "More of a ghost, perhaps. That was a haunted planet.
They were great a million years before man existed on Earth. They
spanned the stars and they knew things the present civilization
hasn't even guessed at. And then they died. Their own weapons
swept them away in one burst of fire, and only broken ruins were
left—ruins and desert, and the ghost who lay waiting in that bottle."
I signalled for another round of drinks, wondering what he meant,
wondering just how sane that big man with the worn rocky face
was. Still—you never know. I've seen things out beyond that veil of
stars which your maddest dreams never hinted at. I've seen men
carried home mumbling and empty-eyed, the hollow cold of space
filling their brains where something had broken the thin taut wall of
their reason. They say spacemen are a credulous breed. Before
Heaven, they have to be!
"You don't mean New Egypt?" I asked.
"Stupid name. Just because there are remnants of a great dead
culture, they have to name it after an insignificant valley of
ephemeral peasants. I tell you, the men of Vwyrdda were like gods,
and when they were destroyed whole suns were darkened by the
forces they used. Why, they killed off Earth's dinosaurs in a day,
millions of years ago, and only used one ship to do it."
"How in hell do you know that? I didn't think the archeologists had
deciphered their records."
"They haven't. All our archeologists will ever know is that the
Vwyrddans were a race of remarkably humanoid appearance, with a
highly advanced interstellar culture wiped out about a million Earth-
years ago. Matter of fact, I don't really know that they did it to
Earth, but I do know that they had a regular policy of exterminating
the great reptiles of terrestroid planets with an eye to later
colonization, and I know that they got this far, so I suppose our
planet got the treatment too." Laird accepted his fresh drink and
raised the glass to me. "Thanks. But now do be a good fellow and
let me ramble on in my own way.
"It was—let me see—thirty-three years ago now, when I was a
bright young lieutenant with bright young ideas. The Revolt was in
full swing then, and the Janyards held all that region of space, out
Sagittari way you know. Things looked bad for Sol then—I don't
think it's ever been appreciated how close we were to defeat. They
were poised to drive right through our lines with their battle-fleets,
slash past our frontiers, and hit Earth itself with the rain of hell that
had already sterilized a score of planets. We were fighting on the
defensive, spread over several million cubic light-years, spread
horribly thin. Oh, bad!
"Vwyrdda—New Egypt—had been discovered and some excavation
done shortly before the war began. We knew about as much then as
we do now. Especially, we knew that the so-called Valley of the Gods
held more relics than any other spot on the surface. I'd been quite
interested in the work, visited the planet myself, even worked with
the crew that found and restored that gravitomagnetic generator—
the one which taught us half of what we know now about g-m fields.
"It was my young and fanciful notion that there might be more to be
found, somewhere in that labyrinth—and from study of the reports I
even thought I knew about what and where it would be. One of the
weapons that had novaed suns, a million years ago—
"The planet was far behind the Janyard lines, but militarily valueless.
They wouldn't garrison it, and I was sure that such semi-barbarians
wouldn't have my idea, especially with victory so close. A one-man
sneakboat could get in readily enough—it just isn't possible to
blockade a region of space; too damned inhumanly big. We had
nothing to lose but me, and maybe a lot to gain, so in I went.
"I made the planet without trouble and landed in the Valley of the
Gods and began work. And that's where the fun started."
Laird laughed again, with no more mirth than before.

There was a moon hanging low over the hills, a great scarred shield
thrice the size of Earth's, and its chill white radiance filled the Valley
with colorless light and long shadows. Overhead flamed the
incredible sky of the Sagittarian regions, thousands upon thousands
of great blazing suns swarming in strings and clusters and
constellations strange to human eyes, blinking and glittering in the
thin cold air. It was so bright that Laird could see the fine patterns of
his skin, loops and whorls on the numbed fingers that groped
against the pyramid. He shivered in the wind that streamed past
him, blowing dust devils with a dry whisper, searching under his
clothes to sheathe his flesh in cold. His breath was ghostly white
before him, the bitter air felt liquid when he breathed.
Around him loomed the fragments of what must have been a city,
now reduced to a few columns and crumbling walls held up by the
lava which had flowed. The stones reared high in the unreal
moonlight, seeming almost to move as the shadows and the drifting
sand passed them. Ghost city. Ghost planet. He was the last life that
stirred on its bleak surface.
But somewhere above that surface—
What was it, that descending hum high in the sky, sweeping closer
out of stars and moon and wind? Minutes ago the needle on his
gravitomagnetic detector had wavered down in the depths of the
pyramid. He had hurried up and now stood looking and listening and
feeling his heart turn stiff.
No, no, no—not a Janyard ship, not now—it was the end of
everything if they came.
Laird cursed with a hopeless fury. The wind caught his mouthings
and blew them away with the scudding sand, buried them under the
everlasting silence of the valley. His eyes traveled to his sneakboat.
It was invisible against the great pyramid—he'd taken that much
precaution, shoveling a low grave of sand over it—but, if they used
metal detectors that was valueless. He was fast, yes, but almost
unarmed; they could easily follow his trail down into the labyrinth
and locate the vault.
Lord if he had led them here—if his planning and striving had only
resulted in giving the enemy the weapon which would destroy Earth
—
His hand closed about the butt of his blaster. Silly weapon, stupid
popgun—what could he do?
Decision came. With a curse, he whirled and ran back into the
pyramid.
His flash lit the endless downward passages with a dim bobbing
radiance, and the shadows swept above and behind and marched
beside, the shadows of a million years closing in to smother him. His
boots slammed against the stone floor, thud-thud-thud—the echoes
caught the rhythm and rolled it boomingly ahead of him. A primitive
terror rose to drown his dismay; he was going down into the grave
of a thousand millennia, the grave of the gods, and it took all the
nerve he had to keep running and never look back. He didn't dare
look back.
Down and down and down, past this winding tunnel, along this
ramp, through this passageway into the guts of the planet. A man
could get lost here. A man could wander in the cold and the dark
and the echoes till he died. It had taken him weeks to find his way
into the great vault, and only the clues given by Murchison's reports
had made it possible at all. Now—

He burst into a narrow antechamber. The door he had blasted open

leaned drunkenly against a well of night. It was fifty feet high, that
door. He fled past it like an ant and came into the pyramid
storehouse.
His flash gleamed off metal, glass, substances he could not identify
that had lain sealed against a million years till he came to wake the
machines. What they were, he did not know. He had energized some
of the units, and they had hummed and flickered, but he had not
dared experiment. His idea had been to rig an antigrav unit which
would enable him to haul the entire mass of it up to his boat. Once
he was home, the scientists could take over. But now—
He skinned his teeth in a wolfish grin and switched on the big lamp
he had installed. White light flooded the tomb, shining darkly back
from the monstrous bulks of things he could not use, the wisdom
and techniques of a race which had spanned the stars and moved
planets and endured for fifty million years. Maybe he could puzzle
out the use of something before the enemy came. Maybe he could
wipe them out in one demoniac sweep—just like a stereofilm hero,
jeered his mind—or maybe he could simply destroy it all, keep it
from Janyard hands.
He should have provided against this. He should have rigged a
bomb, to blow the whole pyramid to hell—
With an effort, he stopped the frantic racing of his mind and looked
around. There were paintings on the walls, dim with age but still
legible, pictographs, meant perhaps for the one who finally found
this treasure. The men of New Egypt were shown, hardly
distinguishable from humans—dark of skin and hair, keen of feature,
tall and stately and robed in living light. He had paid special
attention to one representation. It showed a series of actions, like an
old time comic-strip—a man taking up a glassy object, fitting it over
his head, throwing a small switch. He had been tempted to try it,
but—gods, what would it do?
He found the helmet and slipped it gingerly over his skull. It might
be some kind of last-ditch chance for him. The thing was cold and
smooth and hard, it settled on his head with a slow massiveness that
was strangely—living. He shuddered and turned back to the
machines.
This thing now with the long coil-wrapped barrel—an energy
projector of some sort? How did you activate it? Hell-fire, which was
the muzzle end?
He heard the faint banging of feet, winding closer down the endless
passageways. Gods, his mind groaned. They didn't waste any time,
did they?
But they hadn't needed to ... a metal detector would have located
his boat, told them that he was in this pyramid rather than one of
the dozen others scattered through the valley. And energy tracers
would spot him down here....
He doused the light and crouched in darkness behind one of the
machines. The blaster was heavy in his hand.
A voice hailed him from outside the door. "It's useless, Solman.
Come out of there!"
He bit back a reply and lay waiting.
A woman's voice took up the refrain. It was a good voice, he
thought irrelevantly, low and well modulated, but it had an iron ring
to it. They were hard, these Janyards, even their women led troops
and piloted ships and killed men.
"You may as well surrender, Solman. All you have done has been to
accomplish our work for us. We suspected such an attempt might be
made. Lacking the archeological records, we couldn't hope for much
success ourselves, but since my force was stationed near this sun I
had a boat lie in an orbit around the planet with detectors wide
open. We trailed you down, and let you work, and now we are here
to get what you have found."
"Go back," he bluffed desperately. "I planted a bomb. Go back or I'll
set it off."
The laugh was hard with scorn. "Do you think we wouldn't know it if
you had? You haven't even a spacesuit on. Come out with your
hands up or we'll flood the vault with gas."
Laird's teeth flashed in a snarling grin. "All right," he shouted, only
half aware of what he was saying. "All right, you asked for it!"
He threw the switch on his helmet.

It was like a burst of fire in his brain, a soundless roar of splintering

darkness. He screamed, half crazy with the fury that poured into
him, feeling the hideous thrumming along every nerve and sinew,
feeling his muscles cave in and his body hit the floor. The shadows
closed in, roaring and rolling, night and death and the wreck of the
universe, and high above it all he heard—laughter.
He lay sprawled behind the machine, twitching and whimpering.
They had heard him, out in the tunnels, and with slow caution they
entered and stood over him and watched his spasms jerk toward
stillness.
They were tall and well-formed, the Janyard rebels—Earth had sent
her best out to colonize the Sagittarian worlds, three hundred years
ago. But the long cruel struggle, conquering and building and
adapting to planets that never were and never could be Earth, had
changed them, hardened their metal and frozen something in their
souls.
Ostensibly it was a quarrel over tariff and trade rights which had led
to their revolt against the Empire; actually, it was a new culture
yelling to life, a thing born of fire and loneliness and the great empty
reaches between the stars, the savage rebellion of a mutant child.
They stood impassively watching the body until it lay quiet. Then
one of them stooped over and removed the shining glassy helmet.
"He must have taken it for something he could use against us," said
the Janyard, turning the helmet in his hands; "but it wasn't adapted
to his sort of life. The old dwellers here looked human, but I don't
think it went any deeper than their skins."
The woman commander looked down with a certain pity. "He was a
brave man," she said.
"Wait—he's still alive, ma'm—he's sitting up—"
Daryesh forced the shaking body to hands and knees. He felt its
sickness, wretched and cold in throat and nerves and muscles, and
he felt the roiling of fear and urgency in the brain. These were
enemies. There was death for a world and a civilization here. Most of
all, he felt the horrible numbness of the nervous system, deaf and
dumb and blind, cut off in its house of bone and peering out through
five weak senses....
Vwyrdda, Vwyrdda, he was a prisoner in a brain without a telepathy
transceiver lobe. He was a ghost reincarnated in a thing that was
half a corpse!
Strong arms helped him to his feet. "That was a foolish thing to try,"
said the woman's cool voice.
Daryesh felt strength flowing back as the nervous and muscular and
endocrine systems found a new balance, as his mind took over and
fought down the gibbering madness which had been Laird. He drew
a shuddering breath. Air in his nostrils after—how long? How long
had he been dead?
His eyes focused on the woman. She was tall and handsome. Ruddy
hair spilled from under a peaked cap, wide-set blue eyes regarded
him frankly out of a face sculptured in clean lines and strong curves
and fresh young coloring. For a moment he thought of Ilorna, and
the old sickness rose—then he throttled it and looked again at the
woman and smiled.
It was an insolent grin, and she stiffened angrily. "Who are you,
Solman?" she asked.
The meaning was dear enough to Daryesh, who had his—host's—
memory patterns and linguistic habits as well as those of Vwyrdda.
He replied steadily, "Lieutenant John Laird of the Imperial Solar
Navy, at your service. And your name?"
"You are exceeding yourself," she replied with frost in her voice. "But
since I will wish to question you at length ... I am Captain Joana
Rostov of the Janyard Fleet. Conduct yourself accordingly."
Daryesh looked around him. This wasn't good. He hadn't the chance
now to search Laird's memories in detail, but it was clear enough
that this was a force of enemies. The rights and wrongs of a quarrel
ages after the death of all that had been Vwyrdda meant nothing to
him, but he had to learn more of the situation, and be free to act as
he chose. Especially since Laird would presently be reviving and start
to resist.
The familiar sight of the machines was at once steadying and
unnerving. There were powers here which could smash planets! It
looked barbaric, this successor culture, and in any event the decision
as to the use of this leashed hell had to be his. His head lifted in
unconscious arrogance. His! For he was the last man of Vwyrdda,
and they had wrought the machines, and the heritage was his.
He had to escape.

Joana Rostov was looking at him with an odd blend of hard suspicion
and half-frightened puzzlement. "There's something wrong about
you, Lieutenant," she said. "You don't behave like a man whose
project has just gone to smash. What was that helmet for?"
Daryesh shrugged. "Part of a control device," he said easily. "In my
excitement I failed to adjust it properly. No matter. There are plenty
of other machines here."
"What use to you?"
"Oh—all sorts of uses. For instance, that one over there is a
nucleonic disintegrator, and this is a shield projector, and—"
"You're lying. You can't know any more about this than we do."
"Shall I prove it?"
"Certainly not. Come back from there!"
Coldly, Daryesh estimated distances. He had all the superb
psychosomatic coordination of his race, the training evolved through
millions of years, but the sub-cellular components would be lacking
in this body. Still—he had to take the chance.
He launched himself against the Janyard who stood beside him. One
hand chopped into the man's larynx, the other grabbed him by the
tunic and threw him into the man beyond. In the same movement,
Daryesh stepped over the falling bodies, picked up the machine rifle
which one had dropped, and slammed over the switch of the
magnetic shield projector with its long barrel.
Guns blazed in the dimness. Bullets exploded into molten spray as
they hit that fantastic magnetic field. Daryesh, behind it, raced
through the door and out the tunnel.
They'd be after him in seconds, but this was a strong longlegged
body and he was getting the feel of it. He ran easily, breathing in
coordination with every movement, conserving his strength. He
couldn't master control of the involuntary functions yet, the nervous
system was too different, but he could last for a long while at this
pace.
He ducked into a remembered side passage. A rifle spewed a rain of
slugs after him as someone came through the magnetic field. He
chuckled in the dark. Unless they had mapped every labyrinthine
twist and turn of the tunnels, or had life-energy detectors, they'd
never dare trail him. They'd get lost and wander in here till they
starved.
Still, that woman had a brain. She'd guess he was making for the
surface and the boats, and try to cut him off. It would be a near
thing. He settled down to running.
It was long and black and hollow here, cold with age. The air was
dry and dusty, little moisture could be left on Vwyrdda. How long has
it been? How long has it been?

John Laird stirred back toward consciousness, stunned neurons

lapsing into familiar pathways of synapse, the pattern which was
personality fighting to restore itself. Daryesh stumbled as the
groping mind flashed a random command to his muscles, cursed,
and willed the other self back to blankness. Hold on, Daryesh, hold
on, a few minutes only—
He burst out of a small side entrance and stood in the tumbled
desolation of the valley. The keen tenuous air raked his sobbing
lungs as he looked wildly around at sand and stone and the alien
stars. New constellations—Gods, it had been a long time! The moon
was larger than he remembered, flooding the dead landscape with a
frosty argence. It must have spiraled close in all those uncounted
ages.
The boat! Hellblaze, where was the boat?
He saw the Janyard ship not far away, a long lean torpedo resting on
the dunes, but it would be guarded—no use trying to steal it. Where
was this Laird's vessel, then?
Tumbling through a confusion of alien memories, he recalled burying
it on the west side.... No, it wasn't he who had done that but Laird.
Damnation, he had to work fast. He plunged around the monstrous
eroded shape of the pyramid, found the long mound, saw the
moongleam where the wind had blown sand off the metal. What a
clumsy pup this Laird was.
He shoveled the sand away from the airlock, scooping with his
hands, the breath raw in throat and lungs. Any second now they'd
be on him, any instant, and now that they really believed he
understood the machines—
The lock shone dully before him, cold under his hands. He spun the
outer dog, swearing with a frantic emotion foreign to old Vwyrdda,
but that was the habit of his host, untrained psychosomatically,
unevolved—There they came!
Scooping up the stolen rifle, Daryesh fired a chattering burst at the
group that swarmed around the edge of the pyramid. They tumbled
like jointed dolls, screaming in the death-white moonlight. Bullets
howled around him and ricocheted off the boat-hull.
He got the lock open as they retreated for another charge. For an
instant his teeth flashed under the moon, the cold grin of Daryesh
the warrior who had ruled a thousand suns in his day and led the
fleets of Vwyrdda.
"Farewell, my lovelies," he murmured, and the remembered syllables
of the old planet were soft on his tongue.
Slamming the lock behind him, he ran to the control room, letting
John Laird's almost unconscious habits carry him along. He got off to
a clumsy start—but then he was climbing for the sky, free and away
—
A fist slammed into his back, tossed him in his pilot chair to the
screaming roar of sundered metal. Gods, O gods, the Janyards had
fired a heavy ship's gun, they'd scored a direct hit on his engines
and the boat was whistling groundward again.
Grimly, he estimated that the initial impetus had given him a good
trajectory, that he'd come down in the hills about a hundred miles
north of the valley. But then he'd have to run for it, they'd be after
him like beasts of prey in their ship—and John Laird would not be
denied, muscles were twitching and sinews tightening and throat
mumbling insanity as the resurgent personality fought to regain
itself. That was one battle he'd have to have out soon!
Well—mentally, Daryesh shrugged. At worst, he could surrender to
the Janyards, make common cause with them. It really didn't matter
who won this idiotic little war. He had other things to do.

Nightmare. John Laird crouched in a wind-worn cave and looked out

over hills lit by icy moonlight. Through a stranger's eyes, he saw the
Janyard ship landing near the down-glided wreck of his boat, saw
the glitter of steel as they poured out and started hunting. Hunting
him.
Or was it him any longer, was he more than a prisoner in his own
skull? He thought back to memories that were not his, memories of
himself thinking thoughts that were not his own, himself escaping
from the enemy while he, Laird, whirled in a black abyss of half-
conscious madness. Beyond that, he recalled his own life, and he
recalled another life which had endured a thousand years before it
died. He looked out on the wilderness of rock and sand and blowing
dust, and remembered it as it had been, green and fair, and
remembered that he was Daryesh of Tollogh, who had ruled over
whole planetary systems in the Empire of Vwyrdda. And at the same
time he was John Laird of Earth, and two streams of thought flowed
through the brain, listening to each other, shouting at each other in
the darkness of his skull.
A million years! Horror and loneliness and a wrenching sorrow were
in the mind of Daryesh as he looked upon the ruin of Vwyrdda. A
million years ago!
Who are you? cried Laird. What have you done to me? And even as
he asked, memories which were his own now rose to answer him.
It had been the Erai who rebelled, the Erai whose fathers came from
Vwyrdda the fair but who had been strangely altered by centuries of
environment. They had revolted against the static rule of the
Immortals, and in a century of warfare they had overrun half the
Empire and rallied its populations under them. And the Immortals
had unleashed their most terrible powers, the sun-smashing ultimate
weapons which had lain forbidden in the vaults of Vwyrdda for ten
million years. Only—the Erai had known about it. And they had had
the weapons too.
In the end, Vwyrdda went under, her fleets broken and her armies
reeling in retreat over ten thousand scorched planets. The
triumphant Erai had roared in to make an end of the mother world,
and nothing in all the mighty Imperial arsenals could stop them now.
Theirs was an unstable culture, it could not endure as that of
Vwyrdda had. In ten thousand years or so, they would be gone, and
the Galaxy would not have even a memory of that which had been.
Which was small help to us, thought Laird grimly, and realized with
an icy shock that it had been the thought of Daryesh.
The Vwyrddan's mental tone was, suddenly, almost conversational,
and Laird realized what an immensity of trained effort it must have
taken to overcome that loneliness of a million years. "See here,
Laird, we are apparently doomed to occupy the same body till one of
us gets rid of the other, and it is a body which the Janyards seem to
want. Rather than fight each other, which would leave the body
helpless, we'd better cooperate."
"But—Lord, man! What do you think I am? Do you think I want a
vampire like you up there in my brain?"
The answer was fierce and cold. "What of me, Laird? I, who was
Daryesh of Tollogh, lord of a thousand suns and lover of Ilorna the
Fair, immortalized noble of the greatest empire the universe has ever
seen—I am now trapped in the half-evolved body of a hunted alien,
a million years after the death of all which mattered. Better be glad
I'm here, Laird. I can handle those weapons, you know."
The eyes looked out over the bleak windy hillscape, and the double
mind watched distance-dwarfed forms clambering in the rocks,
searching for a trail. "A hell of a lot of good that does us now," said
Laird. "Besides, I can hear you thinking, you know, and I can
remember your own past thoughts. Sol or Janya, it's the same to
you. How do I know you'll play ball with me?"
The answer was instant, but dark with an unpleasant laughter. "Why
—read my mind, Laird! It's your mind too, isn't it?" Then, more
soberly: "Apparently history is repeating itself in the revolt of the
barbarians against the mother planet, though on a smaller scale and
with a less developed science. I do not expect the result to be any
happier for civilization than before. So perhaps I may take a more
effective hand than I did before."
It was ghostly, lying here in the wind-grieved remnants of a world,
watching the hunters move through a bitter haze of moonlight, and
having thoughts which were not one's own, thoughts over which
there was no control. Laird clenched his fists, fighting for stability.
"That's better," said Daryesh's sardonic mind. "But relax. Breathe
slowly and deeply, concentrate only on the breathing for a while—
and then search my mind which is also yours."
"Shut up! Shut up!"
"I am afraid that is impossible. We're in the same brain, you know,
and we'll have to get used to each other's streams of consciousness.
Relax, man, lie still; think over the thing which has happened to you
and know it for the wonder it is."
Man, they say, is a time-binding animal. But only the mighty will and
yearning of Vwyrdda had ever leaped across the borders of death
itself, waited a million years that that which was a world might not
die out of all history.
What is the personality? It is not a thing, discrete and material, it is
a pattern and a process. The body starts with a certain genetic
inheritance and meets all the manifold complexities of environment.
The whole organism is a set of reactions between the two. The
primarily mental component, sometimes called the ego, is not
separable from the body but can in some ways be studied apart.
The scientists had found a way to save something of that which was
Daryesh. While the enemy was blazing and thundering at the gates
of Vwyrdda, while all the planet waited for the last battle and the
ultimate night, quiet men in laboratories had perfected the molecular
scanner so that the pattern of synapses which made up all memory,
habit, reflex, instinct, the continuity of the ego, could be recorded
upon the electronic structure of certain crystals. They took the
pattern of Daryesh and of none other, for only he of the remaining
Immortals was willing. Who else would want a pattern to be
repeated, ages after he himself was dead, ages after all the world
and all history and meaning were lost? But Daryesh had always been
reckless, and Ilorna was dead, and he didn't care much for what
happened.
Ilorna, Ilorna! Laird saw the unforgotten image rise in his memory,
golden-eyed and laughing, the long dark hair flowing around the
lovely suppleness of her. He remembered the sound of her voice and
the sweetness of her lips, and he loved her. A million years, and she
was dust blowing on the night wind, and he loved her with that part
of him which was Daryesh and with more than a little of John
Laird.... O Ilorna....
And Daryesh the man had gone to die with his planet, but the
crystal pattern which reproduced the ego of Daryesh lay in the vault
they had made, surrounded by all the mightiest works of Vwyrdda.
Sooner or later, sometime in the infinite future of the universe,
someone would come; someone or something would put the helmet
on his head and activate it. And the pattern would be reproduced on
the neurons, the mind of Daryesh would live again, and he would
speak for dead Vwyrdda and seek to renew the tradition of fifty
million years. It would be the will of Vwyrdda, reaching across time
—But Vwyrdda is dead, thought Laird frantically. Vwyrdda is gone—
this is a new history—you've got no business telling us what to do!
The reply was cold with arrogance. "I shall do as I see fit.
Meanwhile, I advise that you lie passive and do not attempt to
interfere with me."
"Cram it, Daryesh!" Laird's mouth drew back in a snarl. "I won't be
dictated to by anyone, let alone a ghost."
Persuasively, the answer came, "At the moment, neither of us has
much choice. We are hunted, and if they have energy trackers—yes,
I see they do—they'll find us by this body's thermal radiation alone.
Best we surrender peaceably. Once aboard the ship, loaded with all
the might of Vwyrdda, our chance should come."
Laird lay quietly, watching the hunters move closer, and the sense of
defeat came down on him like a falling world. What else could he
do? What other chance was there?
"All right," he said at last, audibly. "All right. But I'll be watching your
every thought, understand? I don't think you can stop me from
committing suicide if I must."
"I think I can. But opposing signals to the body will only neutralize
each other, leave it helplessly fighting itself. Relax, Laird, lie back
and let me handle this. I am Daryesh the warrior, and I have come
through harder battles than this."
They rose and began walking down the hillside with arms lifted.
Daryesh's thought ran on, "Besides—that's a nice-looking wench in
command. It could be interesting!"
His laughter rang out under the moon, and it was not the laughter of
a human being.

"I can't understand you, John Laird," said Joana.

"Sometimes," replied Daryesh lightly, "I don't understand myself very
well—or you, my dear."
She stiffened a little. "That will do, Lieutenant. Remember your
position here."
"Oh, the devil with our ranks and countries. Let's be live entities for
a change."
Her glance was quizzical. "That's an odd way for a Solman to phrase
it."
Mentally, Daryesh swore. Damn this body, anyway! The strength, the
fineness of coordination and perception, half the senses he had
known, were missing from it. The gross brain structure couldn't hold
the reasoning powers he had once had. His thinking was dull and
sluggish. He made blunders the old Daryesh would never have
committed. And this young woman was quick to see them, and he
was a prisoner of John Laird's deadly enemies, and the mind of Laird
himself was tangled in thought and will and memory, ready to fight
him if he gave the least sign of—
The Solarian's ego chuckled nastily. Easy, Daryesh, easy!
Shut up! his mind snapped back, and he knew drearily that his own
trained nervous system would not have been guilty of such a
childishly emotional response.
"I may as well tell you the truth, Captain Rostov," he said aloud. "I
am not Laird at all. Not any more."
She made no response, merely drooped the lids over her eyes and
leaned back in her chair. He noticed abstractedly how long her
lashes were—or was that Laird's appreciative mind, unhindered by
too much remembrance of Ilorna?
They sat alone, the two of them, in her small cabin aboard the
Janyard cruiser. A guard stood outside the door, but it was closed.
From time to time they would hear a dull thump or clang as the
heavy machines of Vwyrdda were dragged aboard—otherwise they
might have been the last two alive on the scarred old planet.
The room was austerely furnished, but there were touches of the
feminine here and there—curtains, a small pot of flowers, a formal
dress hung in a half-open closet. And the woman who sat across the
desk from him was very beautiful, with the loosened ruddy hair
streaming to her shoulders and the brilliant eyes never wavering
from his. But one slender hand rested on a pistol.
She had told him frankly, "I want to talk privately with you. There is
something I don't understand ... but I'll be ready to shoot at the first
suspicion of a false move. And even if you should somehow
overpower me, I'd be no good as a hostage. We're Janyards here,
and the ship is more than the life of any one of us."
Now she waited for him to go on talking.
He took a cigarette from the box on her desk—Laird's habits again—
and lit it and took a slow drag of smoke into his lungs. All right,
Daryesh, go ahead. I suppose your idea is the best, if anything can
be made to work at all. But I'm listening, remember.
"I am all that is left of this planet," he said tonelessly. "This is the
ego of Daryesh of Tollogh, Immortal of Vwyrdda, and in one sense I
died a million years ago."
She remained quiet, but he saw how her hands clenched and he
heard the sharp small hiss of breath sucked between the teeth.
Briefly, then, he explained how his mental pattern had been
preserved, and how it had entered the brain of John Laird.
"You don't expect me to believe that story," she said
contemptuously.
"Do you have a lie detector aboard?"
"I have one in this cabin, and I can operate it myself." She got up
and fetched the machine from a cabinet. He watched her, noticing
the grace of her movements. You died long ago, Ilorna—you died
and the universe will never know another like you. But I go on, and
she reminds me somehow of you.

It was a small black thing that hummed and glowed on the desk
between them. He put the metal cap on his head, and took the
knobs in his hands, and waited while she adjusted the controls.
From Laird's memories, he recalled the principle of the thing, the
measurement of activity in separate brain-centers, the precise
detection of the slight extra energy needed in the higher cerebral
cortex to invent a falsehood.
"I have to calibrate," she said, "Make up something I know to be a
lie."
"New Egypt has rings," he smiled, "which are made of Limburger
cheese. However, the main body of the planet is a delicious
Camembert—"
"That will do. Now repeat your previous statements."
Relax, Laird, damn it—blank yourself! I can't control this thing with
you interfering.
He told his story again in a firm voice, and meanwhile he was
working within the brain of Laird, getting the feel of it, applying the
lessons of nerve control which had been part of his Vwyrddan
education. It should certainly be possible to fool a simple electronic
gadget, to heighten activity in all centers to such an extent that the
added effort of his creative cells could not be spotted.
He went on without hesitation, wondering if the flickering needles
would betray him and if her gun would spit death into his heart in
the next moment: "Naturally, Laird's personality was completely lost,
its fixed patterns obliterated by the superimposition of my own. I
have his memories, but otherwise I am Daryesh of Vwyrdda, at your
service."
She bit her lip. "What service! You shot four of my men."
"Consider my situation, woman. I came into instantaneous
existence. I remember sitting in the laboratory under the scanner, a
slight dizziness, and then immediately I was in an alien body. Its
nervous system was stunned by the shock of my entry, I couldn't
think clearly. All I had to go on was Laird's remembered conviction
that these were deadly foes surrounding me, murderous creatures
bent on killing me and wiping out my planet. I acted half-
instinctively. Also, I wanted, in my own personality, to be a free
agent, to get away and think this out for myself. So I did. I regret
the death of your men, but I think they will be amply compensated
for."
"H'm—you surrendered when we all but had you anyway."
"Yes, of course, but I had about decided to do so in all events." Her
eyes never lifted from the dials that wavered life or death. "I was,
after all, in your territory, with little or no hope of getting clear, and
you were the winning side of this war, which meant nothing to me
emotionally. Insofar as I have any convictions in this matter, it is that
the human race will best be served by a Janyard victory. History has
shown that when the frontier cultures—which the old empire calls
barbaric but which are actually new and better adapted civilizations
—when they win out over the older and more conservative nations,
the result is a synthesis and a period of unusual achievement."
He saw her visibly relaxing, and inwardly he smiled. It was so easy,
so easy. They were such children in this later age. All he had to do
was hand her a smooth lie which fitted in with the propaganda that
had been her mental environment from birth, and she could not
seriously think of him as an enemy.
The blue gaze lifted to his, and the lips were parted. "You will help
us?" she whispered.
Daryesh nodded. "I know the principles and construction and use of
those engines, and in truth there is in them the force that molds
planets. Your scientists would never work out the half of all that
there is to be found. I will show you the proper operation of them
all." He shrugged. "Naturally, I will expect commensurate rewards.
But even altruistically speaking, this is the best thing I can do. Those
energies should remain under the direction of one who understands
them, and not be misused in ignorance. That could lead to
unimaginable catastrophes."
Suddenly she picked up her gun and shoved it back into its holster.
She stood up, smiling, and held out her hand.
He shook it vigorously, and then bent over and kissed it. When he
looked up, she stood uncertain, half afraid and half glad.
It's not fair! protested Laird. The poor girl has never known anything
of this sort. She's never heard of coquetry. To her love isn't a game,
it's something mysterious and earnest and decent—
I told you to shut up, answered Daryesh coldly. Look, man, even if
we do have an official safe-conduct, this is still a ship full of watchful
hostility. We have to consolidate our position by every means at
hand. Now relax and enjoy this.

He walked around the desk and took her hands again. "You know,"
he said, and the crooked smile on his mouth reminded him that this
was more than half a truth, "you make me think of the woman I
loved, a million years ago on Vwyrdda."
She shrank back a little. "I can't get over it," she whispered. "You—
you're old, and you don't belong to this cycle of time at all, and what
you must think and know makes me feel like a child—Daryesh, it
frightens me."
"Don't let it, Joana," he said gently. "My mind is young, and very
lonely." He put a wistfulness in his voice. "Joana, I need someone to
talk to. You can't imagine what it is to wake up a million years after
all your world is dead, more alone than—oh, let me come in once in
awhile and talk to you, as one friend to another. Let's forget time
and death and loneliness. I need someone like you."
She lowered her eyes, and said with a stubborn honesty, "I think
that would be good too, Daryesh. A ship's captain doesn't have
friends, you know. They put me in this service because I had the
aptitude, and that's really all I've ever had. Oh, comets!" She forced
a laugh. "To space with all that self-pity. Certainly you may come in
whenever you like. I hope it'll be often."
They talked for quite a while longer, and when he kissed her
goodnight it was the most natural thing in the universe. He walked
to his bunk—transferred from the brig to a tiny unused compartment
—with his mind in pleasant haze.
Lying in the dark, he began the silent argument with Laird anew.
"Now what?" demanded the Solarian.
"We play it slow and easy," said Daryesh patiently—as if the fool
couldn't read it directly in their common brain. "We watch our
chance, but don't act for a while yet. Under the pretext of rigging
the energy projectors for action, we'll arrange a setup which can
destroy the ship at the flick of a switch. They won't know it. They
haven't an inkling about subspatial flows. Then, when an opportunity
to escape offers itself, we throw that switch and get away and try to
return to Sol. With my knowledge of Vwyrddan science, we can turn
the tide of the war. It's risky—sure—but it's the only chance I see.
And for Heaven's sake let me handle matters. You're supposed to be
dead."
"And what happens when we finally settle this business? How can I
get rid of you?"
"Frankly, I don't see any way to do it. Our patterns have become too
entangled. The scanners necessarily work on the whole nervous
system. We'll just have to learn to live together." Persuasively: "It
will be to your own advantage. Think, man! We can do as we choose
with Sol. With the Galaxy. And I'll set up a life-tank and make us a
new body to which we'll transfer the pattern, a body with all the
intelligence and abilities of a Vwyrddan, and I'll immortalize it. Man,
you'll never die!"
It wasn't too happy a prospect, thought Laird skeptically. His own
chances of dominating that combination were small. In time, his own
personality might be completely absorbed by Daryesh's greater one.
Of course—a psychiatrist—narcosis, hypnosis—
"No, you don't!" said Daryesh grimly. "I'm just as fond of my own
individuality as you are."
The mouth which was theirs twisted wryly in the dark. "Guess we'll
just have to learn to love each other," thought Laird.
The body dropped into slumber. Presently Laird's cells were asleep,
his personality faded into a shadowland of dreams. Daryesh
remained awake a while longer. Sleep—waste of time—the
Immortals had never been plagued by fatigue—
He chuckled to himself. What a web of lies and counterlies he had
woven. If Joana and Laird both knew—

The mind is an intricate thing. It can conceal facts from itself, make
itself forget that which is painful to remember, persuade its own
higher components of whatever the subconscious deems right.
Rationalization, schizophrenia, autohypnosis, they are but pale
indications of the self-deception which the brain practices. And the
training of the Immortals included full neural coordination; they
could consciously utilize the powers latent in themselves. They could
by an act of conscious will stop the heart, or block off pain, or split
their own personalities.
Daryesh had known his ego would be fighting whatever host it
found, and he had made preparations before he was scanned. Only
a part of his mind was in full contact with Laird's. Another section,
split off from the main stream of consciousness by deliberate and
controlled schizophrenia, was thinking its own thoughts and making
its own plans. Self-hypnotized, he automatically reunited his ego at
such times as Laird was not aware, otherwise there was only
subconscious contact. In effect a private compartment of his mind,
inaccessible to the Solarian, was making its own plans.
That destructive switch would have to be installed to satisfy Laird's
waking personality, he thought. But it would never be thrown. For he
had been telling Joana that much of the truth—his own advantage
lay with the Janyards, and he meant to see them through to final
victory.
It would be simple enough to get rid of Laird temporarily. Persuade
him that for some reason it was advisable to get dead drunk.
Daryesh's more controlled ego would remain conscious after Laird's
had passed out. Then he could make all arrangements with Joana,
who by that time should be ready to do whatever he wanted.
Psychiatry—yes, Laird's brief idea had been the right one. The
methods of treating schizophrenia could, with some modifications,
be applied to suppressing Daryesh's extra personality. He'd blank out
that Solarian ... permanently.
And after that would come his undying new body, and centuries and
millennia in which he could do what he wanted with this young
civilization.
The demon exorcising the man—He grinned drowsily. Presently he
slept.
The ship drove through a night of stars and distance. Time was
meaningless, was the position of the hands on a clock, was the
succession of sleeps and meals, was the slow shift in the
constellations as they gulped the light-years.
On and on, the mighty drone of the second-order drive filling their
bones and their days, the round of work and food and sleep and
Joana. Laird wondered if it would ever end. He wondered if he might
not be the Flying Dutchman, outward bound for eternity, locked in
his own skull with the thing that had possessed him. At such times
the only comfort was in Joana's arms. He drew of the wild young
strength of her, and he and Daryesh were one. But afterward—
We're going to join the Grand Fleet. You heard her, Daryesh. She's
making a triumphal pilgrimage to the gathered power of Janya,
bringing the invincible weapons of Vwyrdda to her admiral.
Why not? She's young and ambitious, she wants glory as much as
you do. What of it?
We have to escape before she gets there. We have to steal a lifeboat
and destroy this ship and all in it soon.
All in it? Joana Rostov, too?
Damn it, we'll kidnap her or something. You know I'm in love with
the girl, you devil. But it's a matter of all Earth. This one cruiser has
enough stuff in it now to wreck a planet. I have parents, brothers,
friends—a civilization. We've got to act!
All right, all right, Laird. But take it easy. We have to get the energy
devices installed first. We'll have to give them enough of a
demonstration to allay their suspicions. Joana's the only one aboard
here who trusts us. None of her officers do.
The body and the double mind labored as the slow days passed,
directing Janyard technicians who could not understand what it was
they built. Laird, drawing on Daryesh's memories, knew what a giant
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