Superposition of the radiation from N independent sources and the problem of random flights Export

@article{citeulike:1510571, abstract = {It is often stated that the intensity of the signal produced by superposition of N equally intense, but randomly phased, monochromatic coherent waves tends to N as N becomes large. An examination (first made by Rayleigh) of the distribution of intensities obtained by superposing N independent monochromatic waves shows that the mean intensity is N and the variance is N2\&\#150;N. Exploiting the analogy of this problem to random walk in two dimensions (''random flight''), we have recalculated the distribution for N=2 to 6 and compared it with the results from a computer experiment.}, author = {Merzbacher, E. and Feagin, J. M. and Wu, T. H.}, citeulike-article-id = {1510571}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://scitation.aip.org/getabs/servlet/GetabsServlet?prog=normal&id=AJPIAS000045000010000964000001&idtype=cvips&gifs=yes}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://link.aip.org/link/?AJP/45/964}, citeulike-linkout-2 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/1.10860}, doi = {10.1119/1.10860}, journal = {American Journal of Physics}, keywords = {acoustics, favorite\_papers, random}, number = {10}, pages = {964--969}, posted-at = {2007-07-28 21:28:42}, priority = {2}, publisher = {AAPT}, title = {Superposition of the radiation from N independent sources and the problem of random flights}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/1.10860}, volume = {45}, year = {1977} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:1510571 L3 - citeulike-article-id:1510571 N2 - It is often stated that the intensity of the signal produced by superposition of N equally intense, but randomly phased, monochromatic coherent waves tends to N as N becomes large. An examination (first made by Rayleigh) of the distribution of intensities obtained by superposing N independent monochromatic waves shows that the mean intensity is N and the variance is N2–N. Exploiting the analogy of this problem to random walk in two dimensions (''random flight''), we have recalculated the distribution for N=2 to 6 and compared it with the results from a computer experiment. IS - 10 JF - American Journal of Physics EP - 969 TI - Superposition of the radiation from N independent sources and the problem of random flights PB - AAPT VL - 45 SP - 964 KW - acoustics KW - favorite_papers KW - random AU - Merzbacher, E AU - Feagin, JM AU - Wu, TH PY - 1977/// UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/1.10860 ER -