Electromagnetic Pulse Reflection on P and T Mirrors

摘要

Time reversal is an operation that transforms divergent waves into convergent waves with practical applications in acoustics and electromagnetism. So what is the behavior of time-reversed electromagnetic fields? To investigate this question we suppose the existence of T mirrors, performing exactly the time inversion T; t => - t, on which impinges a pulse of finite duration, launched at t = 0, from a height h above the mirror located in the z = 0 plane. We prove that the T-reflected waves generate a real source at height h, corroborating the interest of time reversal For the sake of comparison the same job is done with P mirrors performing exactly the space inversion P : x => -x, giving a virtual image of the incident pulse.