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Anonymous at Tue, 26 Nov 2024 14:40:46 UTC No. 16494090
Are electromagnetic wave wavefronts exactly parallel?
Or are they like in this visualization of gravitational waves pictured - spiral-like - so close to parallel but slanted slightly in relation to each other?
Anonymous at Tue, 26 Nov 2024 14:52:13 UTC No. 16494097
>>16494090
EM waves have vector polarization. Grav waves have tensor polarization. Vector polarization curls in two linearly-independent directions (clockwise and counterclockwise), whereas tensor polarization squeezes in two linearly-independent directions (see pic)
Anonymous at Tue, 26 Nov 2024 15:04:59 UTC No. 16494110
>>16494097
Polarization is unrelated to wavefront shape.
Polarization is direction of the amplitude.
Wavefront is a (virtual) line created by connecting points on the wave of the same phase.
Anonymous at Tue, 26 Nov 2024 15:47:52 UTC No. 16494154
it's spherical generally. Less beam divergence = bigger sphere radius up to being flat-ish.