Polarization

Polarization or polarisation may refer to:

Mathematics

• Polarization of an Abelian variety, in the mathematics of complex manifolds
• Polarization of an algebraic form, a technique for expressing a homogeneous polynomial in a simpler fashion by adjoining more variables
• Polarization identity, expresses an inner product in terms of its associated norm
• Polarization (Lie algebra)

Physical sciences

• Polarization (physics), the ability of waves to oscillate in more than one direction; polarization of light allows the glare-reducing effect of polarized sunglasses
  • Polarization (antenna), the state of polarization (in the above sense) of electromagnetic waves transmitted by or received by 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
  • Circular polarization, polarization state in which, at each point, the electromagnetic field of the wave has a constant magnitude and is rotating at a constant rate in a plane perpendicular to the direction of the wave
  • Linear polarization, confinement of the electric field vector or magnetic field vector to a given plane along the direction of propagation
• Polarization (electrochemistry), a change in the equilibrium potential of an electrochemical reaction
• Concentration polarization, the shift of the electrochemical potential difference across an electrochemical cell from its equilibrium value
• 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

Social sciences

• Polarization (economics), faster decrease of moderate-skill jobs relative to low-skill and high-skill jobs
• Political polarization, when public opinion divides and becomes oppositional
• Social polarization, segregation of society into social groups, from high-income to low-income
• Group polarization, tendency of a group to make more extreme decisions than individuals' initial inclinations
  • Attitude polarization, when disagreement becomes more extreme as different parties consider evidence
• Racial polarization, when a population with varying ancestry is divided into distinct racial groups

Others

• Polarization (album), an album by American jazz trombonist and composer Julian Priester
• Polarization, in many disciplines, is a tendency to be located close to one of the opposite ends of a continuum

See also

• Polar (disambiguation)
• Polar opposite (disambiguation)
• Polarity (disambiguation)
• Pole (disambiguation)
• Reversal (disambiguation)