Polarization - in The Physical Sciences

In The Physical Sciences

• Polarization (waves), the orientation of oscillations in the plane perpendicular to a transverse wave's direction of travel which may include:
  • Polarization (antenna), the orientation of electromagnetic waves from e.g. a radio antenna
• Dielectric polarization, charge separation in insulating materials:
  • Polarization density, volume dielectric polarization
  • Dipolar polarization, orientation of permanent dipoles
  • Ionic polarization, displacement of ions in a crystal
  • Maxwell-Wagner-Sillars polarization, slow long-distance charge separation in dielectric spectroscopy on inhomogeneous soft matter
• Polarization (electrochemistry), a change in the equilibrium potential of an electrochemical reaction
• Spin polarization, the degree by which the spin of elementary particles is aligned to a given direction
• Polarizability, an electrical property of atoms or molecules and a separate magnetic property of subatomic particles
  • Polarization function, a feature of some molecular modelling methods
• Photon polarization, the mathematical link between wave polarization and spin polarization
• Vacuum polarization, a process in which a background electromagnetic field produces virtual electron-positron pairs
• Polarity in embryogenesis, during development, an embryo has an animal pole and a vegetal pole