Use the unfolded propagation convention after reflection. Free-space propagation and a concave spherical mirror have matricesThe mirror is equivalent in this paraxial convention to a thin lens of focal length . The excursion from the reference plane to mirror 1 and back isLikewise . Multiplying , or using cyclic invariance of the trace to move the reference plane, givesConsequently the strict criterion of a isThe trace is independent of , as a change of reference plane only conjugates the round-trip matrix. For the concrete confocal counterexample , , each excursion is and its square is . This gives and the degenerate boundary exception already explained.
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