Perturbation methods for two-point ray tracing in anisotropic inhomogeneous media

Summary

The problem of two-point ray tracing in a perturbed anisotropic inhomogeneous medium is discussed. It is assumed that the ray Omega in the perturbed medium is situated close to the ray Omega⁰, constructed in the background medium. Simple expressions for the initial-value slowness vector of the perturbed ray are found. These expressions are explicit; their application does not require a solution of any system of equations. The solution needs only the 6x6 ray propagator matrix in Cartesian coordinates to be known, determined along the ray Omega⁰ in the background medium. The results remain valid even for paraxial ray approximations (in which the perturbed and background media coincide, but the ray Omega is different from the ray Omega⁰).

Keywords

Anisotropic inhomogeneous media, ray perturbation methods, two-point ray tracing.

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