Fermat's principle

In optics, Fermat's principle or the principle of least time, named after

French mathematician Pierre de Fermat, is the principle that the path taken
between two points by a ray of light is the path that can be traversed in the
least time. This principle is sometimes taken as the definition of a ray of
light.[1] However, this version of the principle is not general; a more modern
statement of the principle is that rays of light traverse the path of stationary
optical length with respect to variations of the path.[2] In other words, a ray of
light prefers the path such that there are other paths, arbitrarily nearby on Fermat's principle leads toSnell's law;
either side, along which the ray would take almost exactly the same time to when the sines of the angles in the
traverse. different media are in the same proportion
as the propagation velocities, the time to
Fermat's principle can be used to describe the properties of light rays reflected get from P to Q is minimized.
off mirrors, refracted through different media, or undergoing total internal
reflection. It follows mathematically from Huygens' principle (at the limit of
small wavelength). Fermat's text Analyse des réfractionsexploits the technique of adequality to derive Snell's law of refraction[3] and
the law of reflection.

Fermat's principle has the same form asHamilton's principle and it is the basis of Hamiltonian optics.

Contents
Modern version
Derivation
History
See also
Notes

Modern version
The time T a point of the electromagnetic wave needs to cover a path between the points
A and B is given by:

c is the speed of light in vacuum, ds an infinitesimal displacement along the ray, v = ds/dt the speed of light in a medium and n = c/v
the refractive index of that medium, is the starting time (the wave front is in A), is the arrival time at B. The optical path length
of a ray from a point A to a point B is defined by:
and it is related to the travel time byS = cT. The optical path length is a purely geometrical quantity since time is not considered in its
calculation. An extremum in the light travel time between two points A and B is equivalent to an extremum of the optical path length
between those two points. The historical form proposed by Fermat is incomplete. A complete modern statement of the variational
Fermat principle is that

the optical length of the path followed by light between two fixed points,A and B, is an extremum. The optical length
[4]
is defined as the physical length multiplied by the refractive index of the material."

In the context of calculus of variations this can be written as

In general, the refractive index is a scalar field of position in space, that is, in 3D euclidean space. Assuming
now that light has a component that travels along the x3 axis, the path of a light ray may be parametrized as
and

where . The principle of Fermat can now be written as

which has the same form as Hamilton's principle but in which x3 takes the role of time in classical mechanics. Function
is the optical Lagrangian from which the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian (as in Hamiltonian mechanics)
[5]
formulations of geometrical optics may be derived.

Derivation
Classically, Fermat's principle can be considered as a mathematical consequence of Huygens' principle. Indeed, of all secondary
waves (along all possible paths) the waves with the extrema (stationary) paths contribute most due to constructive interference.
Suppose that light waves propagate from A to B by all possible routes ABj, unrestricted initially by rules of geometrical or physical
optics. The various optical paths ABj will vary by amounts greatly in excess of one wavelength, and so the waves arriving at B will
have a large range of phases and will tend to interfere destructively. But if there is a shortest route AB0, and the optical path varies
smoothly through it, then a considerable number of neighboring routes close to AB0 will have optical paths differing from AB0 by
second-order amounts only and will therefore interfere constructively. Waves along and close to this shortest route will thus dominate
[6]
and AB0 will be the route along which the light is seen to travel.

Fermat's principle is the main principle of quantum electrodynamics which states that any particle (e.g. a photon or an electron)
propagates over all available, unobstructed paths and that the interference, or superposition, of its wavefunction over all those paths at
the point of observation gives the probability of detecting the particle at this point. Thus, because the extremal paths (shortest,
longest, or stationary) cannot be completely canceled out, they contribute most to this interference. In humans, for example, Fermat's
principle can be demonstrated in a situation when a lifeguard has to find the fastest way to traverse both beach and water in order to
reach a drowning swimmer.[7] The principle has been tested in studies with ants, in which the ants' nest is on one end of a container
[8]
and food is on the opposite end, but the ants choose to follow the path of least time, rather than the most direct path.

In the classic mechanics of waves, Fermat's principle follows from theextremum principle of mechanics(see variational principle).

History
Euclid, c. 320 BCE in his Catoptrics (on mirrors, including spherical mirrors) and Optics, laid the foundations for reflection, which
was repeated by Ptolemy, and then in his more detailed books that have surfaced, Hero of Alexandria (Heron) (c. 60) described the
principle of reflection, which stated that a ray of light that goes from point A to point B, suffering any number of reflections on flat
mirrors in the same medium, has a smaller path length than any nearby path.[9] In fact, the very basic principle is in the myth of the
Allegory of the Cave by Plato.

Ibn al-Haytham (Alhacen), in his Book of Optics (1021), expanded the principle to both reflection and refraction, and expressed an
early version of the principle of least time. His experiments were based on earlier works on refraction carried out by the Greek
scientist Ptolemy.[10]

The generalized principle of least time in its modern form was stated by Fermat in a letter dated
January 1, 1662, to Cureau de la Chambre.[11] It was met with objections by Claude Clerselier in
May 1662, an expert in optics and leading spokesman for the Cartesians at the time. Amongst his
objections, Clerselier states:

... The principle which you take as the basis for your proof, namely that Nature
always acts by using the simplest and shortest paths, is merely a moral, and not a
physical one. It is not, and cannot be, the cause of any effect in Natur
e.
Pierre de Fermat

The original French, from Mahoney, is as follows:

Le principe que vous prenez pour fondement de votre démonstration, à savoir que la nature agit toujours par les voies
les plus courtes et les plus simples, n’est qu’un principe moral et non point physique, qui n’est point et qui ne peut
être la cause d’aucun effet de la nature.

Although Fermat's principle does not hold standing alone, we now know it can be derived from earlier principles such as Huygens'
principle.

Historically, Fermat's principle has served as a guiding principle in the formulation of physical laws with the use of variational
calculus (see Principle of least action).

See also
Adequality
Eikonal equation
Fermat’s and energy variation principles in field theory
Geodesic
Hamilton's principle
Huygens' principle
Path integral formulation
Pierre de Fermat
Principle of least action
Snell's law
Notes
1. Arthur Schuster, An Introduction to the Theory of Optics, London: Edward Arnold, 1904online (https://books.google.
com/books?vid=OCLC03146755&id=X0AcBd-bcCwC&pg=P A41&lpg=PA41&dq=fermat%27s-principle).
2. Ghatak, Ajoy (2009), Optics (4th ed.), ISBN 0-07-338048-2
3. Katz, Mikhail G.; Schaps, David; Shnider, Steve (2013), "Almost Equal: The Method of Adequality from Diophantus
to Fermat and Beyond",Perspectives on Science, 21 (3): 7750, arXiv:1210.7750 (https://arxiv.org/abs/1210.7750) ,
Bibcode:2012arXiv1210.7750K (http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012arXiv1210.7750K)
4. R. Marques, F. Martin, and M. Sorolla. Metamaterials with Negative Parameters. Wiley
, 2008.
5. Chaves, Julio (2015). Introduction to Nonimaging Optics, Second Edition(https://books.google.com/books?id=e11E
CgAAQBAJ). CRC Press. ISBN 978-1482206739.
6. Ariel Lipson, Stephen G. Lipson, Henry Lipson,Optical Physics 4th Edition, Cambridge University Press,ISBN 978-
0-521-49345-1.
7. Aatish Bhatia (24 March 2014)."To Save Drowning People, Ask Yourself "What Would Light Do?" " (http://nautil.us/bl
og/to-save-drowning-people-ask-yourself-what-would-light-do)
. Nautilus. Retrieved 11 July 2016.
8. Lisa Zyga (1 April 2013)."Ants follow Fermat's principle of least time"(http://phys.org/news/2013-04-ants-fermat-prin
ciple.html). Phys.org. Retrieved 11 July 2016.
9. History of Geometric Optics/Richard Fitzpatrick
10. Pavlos Mihas (2005). Use of History in Developing ideas of refraction, lenses and rainbow(http://www.ihpst2005.lee
ds.ac.uk/papers/Mihas.pdf)Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20070927032208/http://www .ihpst2005.leeds.ac.u
k/papers/Mihas.pdf) 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine., Demokritus University, Thrace, Greece.
11. Michael Sean Mahoney, The Mathematical Career of Pierre de Fermat, 1601-1665
, 2nd edition (Princeton University
Press, 1994), p. 401

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