Weak-fluctuation memory equation for the coherent field

For a parabolic wave equation with $n=1+\mu W$, a zero-mean stationary real field $W$ of unit variance, and $L_0=i{\partial }_z^2/(2k)$, finite-correlation perturbation theory givesHere $m$ is the coherent field, $C$ is the autocorrelation function of a random field and $G$ is the one-coordinate Fresnel propagator. Expand the random solution once using the Duhamel principle, multiply by $W$ and average to obtain the memory term. The local phase term comes from the ${\mu }^2{W}^2$ term in $n^2$. The expansion is for fixed propagation distances with suitable covariance regularity and moment bounds. A Markov approximation is an additional scale assumption that can turn this integral equation into a local attenuation equation.

If the physical refractive index is $n=1+\mu W$, then $n^2-1=2\mu W+{\mu }^2{W}^2$. In the parabolic wave equation, the last term produces $ik{\mu }^2\mathbb{E}[W^{2}E]/2$ in the mean equation. For unit-variance, finite-correlation fluctuations, $\mathbb{E}[W^{2}E]=m+O(\mu )$ in a weak-fluctuation expansion, giving a coherent phase drift $ik{\mu }^{2}m/2$ to second order. This term is absent if the model deliberately linearizes $n^2-1$ to $2\mu W$. It is not obtained by squaring ideal Gaussian white noise, whose pointwise square is not the finite-variance random variable $W^2$.