Polarization

Look up polarization in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

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
• 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)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Polarization.
If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.