Customer Reviews

Natural Focusing and Fine Structure of Light: Caustics and Wave Dislocations

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This book is somewhat difficult to review because I think the book will appeal mostly to readers with a somewhat specialist interest in the subject. Those readers will discover that the book is very well-written and thought through. It contains numerous interesting discussions, elaborations, etc. Everything very nicely illustrated. The author clearly demonstrates how to present specialist material in a lively manner.

For the more general public (i.e. scientists, physicists, mathematicians) it will appear as a specialized book, which may draw and keep their attention because the material is well presented. It may also be that they quickly lose interest, because of the specialist character of the book. But then, the author is not to blame.

John Nye published with Sir Michael Berry a paper titled "Dislocations in Wave Trains" [Proc. Royal Soc. London A, _336_ 165 (1974)]. This work helped catapult optics into a new realm, part of which is explored in this book.

The first chapter or so can easily capture the interest of anyone (with a strong scientific background). Patterns on the bottom of swimmings pools and reflections in coffee cups are mathematically analyzed in a clear way. Subsequent chapters are much more "deep" but equally fascinating.

This is an incredibly specialized book. That said, it is a treasure to anyone interested in this or related fields (singular optics, mathematical optics, wave optics, etc). It would be a valuable addition to a library (university, lab, etc.).