Lorentz invariance of normalized plane-wave polarization

ID: lorentz-invariance-of-normalized-plane-wave-polarization

For a vacuum plane electromagnetic wave, a Lorentz boost multiplies both transverse Jones vector amplitudes by the same positive Doppler factor when the basis is carried to the aberrated ray. Their ratio and phase difference therefore remain unchanged. All Stokes parameters gain the same squared factor, leaving normalized parameters, ellipse shape, handedness and degree of polarization unchanged. This does not mean the propagation direction or the components in an arbitrarily fixed pair of spatial axes remain unchanged.

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