Abstract
Transient acoustic wave fields in the vicinity of caustics in both two and three space dimensions are considered. In the vicinity of some possible caustics, the time history of the wave field due to an impulsive source includes a precursor. This noncausal behavior is reconciled with the physical principle of causality by requiring that such caustics be a part of certain higher dimensional caustics. With this constraint all noncausal arrivals are preceded by a causal arrival and the total time history is causal. This constraint is used to derive some simple general properties of transient wave fields in the short wave limit, e.g., the number of arrivals must be an odd number.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 251-255 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Journal of the Acoustical Society of America |
| Volume | 80 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 1986 |
Fingerprint
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Acoustics and Ultrasonics
- Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
Cite this
Causality, caustics, and the structure of transient wave fields. / Brown, Michael G; Tappert, Frederick D.
In: Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Vol. 80, No. 1, 1986, p. 251-255.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Causality, caustics, and the structure of transient wave fields
AU - Brown, Michael G
AU - Tappert, Frederick D.
PY - 1986
Y1 - 1986
N2 - Transient acoustic wave fields in the vicinity of caustics in both two and three space dimensions are considered. In the vicinity of some possible caustics, the time history of the wave field due to an impulsive source includes a precursor. This noncausal behavior is reconciled with the physical principle of causality by requiring that such caustics be a part of certain higher dimensional caustics. With this constraint all noncausal arrivals are preceded by a causal arrival and the total time history is causal. This constraint is used to derive some simple general properties of transient wave fields in the short wave limit, e.g., the number of arrivals must be an odd number.
AB - Transient acoustic wave fields in the vicinity of caustics in both two and three space dimensions are considered. In the vicinity of some possible caustics, the time history of the wave field due to an impulsive source includes a precursor. This noncausal behavior is reconciled with the physical principle of causality by requiring that such caustics be a part of certain higher dimensional caustics. With this constraint all noncausal arrivals are preceded by a causal arrival and the total time history is causal. This constraint is used to derive some simple general properties of transient wave fields in the short wave limit, e.g., the number of arrivals must be an odd number.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0006127594&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=0006127594&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1121/1.394181
DO - 10.1121/1.394181
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0006127594
VL - 80
SP - 251
EP - 255
JO - Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
JF - Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
SN - 0001-4966
IS - 1
ER -