Polarization singularity anarchy in three dimensional ellipse fields

Abstract

Lines of circular polarization, C lines, and lines of linear polarization, L lines, are studied in a computer simulated random three-dimensional ellipse field. Although we verify existing predictions for the location of particular points on these lines at which the sign of the topological index of the line inverts, we show that from the point of view of foliations of the field such points are better described as points of pair production. We find a new set of true sign inversion points, and show that when all possible foliations are considered this set includes all points on the line. We also find three new families of polarization singularities whose members include all polarization ellipses. The recently described polarization singularity democracy in two-dimensional fields evidently explodes into polarization singularity anarchy in three-dimensional fields.