Page:Scientific Papers of Josiah Willard Gibbs - Volume 2.djvu/225

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IN PERFECTLY TRANSPARENT MEDIA.

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22. The manner in which the ellipsoid (24) may be partially determined by the relations of symmetry which the medium may possess, has been sufficiently discussed in the former paper.

With respect to the quantity $\phi ,$ and the surfaces which determine it, the following principle is of fundamental importance. If one body is identical in its internal structure with the image by reflection of another, the values of $\phi$ in corresponding lines in the two bodies will be numerically equal but have opposite signs.^[1]

It follows that if a body is identical in internal structiure with its own image by reflection, the value of $\phi$ (if not zero for all directions) must be positive for some directions and negative for others. Moreover, the above described surface by which $\phi$ is represented must consist of two conjugate hyperboloids, of which one is identical in form with the image by reflection of the other. This requires that the hyperboloids shall be light cylinders with conjugate rectangular hyperbolas for bases. A crystal characterized by such properties will belong to the tetragonal system. Since $\phi =0$ for the optic axis, it would be difficult to distinguish a case of this kind from an ordinary uniaxial crystal, unless the ellipsoid (24) should approach very closely to a sphere.^[2]

It is only in the very limited case described in the last paragraph that a medium which is identical in its internal structure with its image by reflection can have the property of circular or elliptic polarization. To media which are unlike their images by reflection, and have the property of circular polarization, we may apply the following general principles.

If the medium has any axis of symmetry, the ellipsoid or hyperboloids which represent the values of $\phi$ will have an axis in the same direction. If the medium after a revolution of less than 180° about any axis is equivalent to the medium in its first position, the ellipsoid or hyperboloids will have an axis of revolution in that direction.

23. The laws of the propagation of light in plane waves, which

↑ The necessity of the opposite signs will perhaps appear most readily from the consideration that the direction of rotation of the plane of polarization must be opposite in the two bodies.
↑ There is no difficulty in conceiving of the constitution of a body which would have the properties described above. Thus, we may imagine a body with molecules of a spiral form, of which one-half are right-handed and one-half left-handed, and we may suppose that the motion of electricity is opposed by a less resistance within them than without. If the axes of the right-handed molecules are parallel to the axis of X, and those of the left-handed molecules to the axis of Y, their effects would counterbalance one another when the wave-normal is parallel to the axis of Z. But when the wave-normal (of a beam of linearly polarized light) is parallel to the axis of X, the left-handed molecules would produce a left-handed (negative) rotation of the plane of polarization, the right-handed molecules having no effect; and when the wave-normal is parallel to the axis of Y, the reverse would be the case.

[1] The necessity of the opposite signs will perhaps appear most readily from the consideration that the direction of rotation of the plane of polarization must be opposite in the two bodies.

[2] There is no difficulty in conceiving of the constitution of a body which would have the properties described above. Thus, we may imagine a body with molecules of a spiral form, of which one-half are right-handed and one-half left-handed, and we may suppose that the motion of electricity is opposed by a less resistance within them than without. If the axes of the right-handed molecules are parallel to the axis of X, and those of the left-handed molecules to the axis of Y, their effects would counterbalance one another when the wave-normal is parallel to the axis of Z. But when the wave-normal (of a beam of linearly polarized light) is parallel to the axis of X, the left-handed molecules would produce a left-handed (negative) rotation of the plane of polarization, the right-handed molecules having no effect; and when the wave-normal is parallel to the axis of Y, the reverse would be the case.

[1]

[2]