1. F. M. Grimaldi:Physico-mathesis de lumine, coloribus et iride (Bologna, 1665).
2. A. Fresnel:Mémoire couronné (1818),Oeuvres, Vol.1. Next to Young’s fundamental observation of double-slit interference, the crucial experiment was Arago’s demonstration of a bright spot in the centre of the shadow of a circular obstacle, predicted byPoisson from Fresnel’s theory. A quantal analogue of this phenomenon, the diffraction peak in high-energy hadron scattering, appears to play a similarly crucial role for elucidating the nature of « asymptopia » (wherever it may be) in particle physics!
3. See,e.g.,M. Born andE. Wolf:Principles of Optics, IV ed. (Oxford, 1970).
4. These advances include the modern theory of image formation, optical transforms, optical information transfer, optical data processing and holography; see,e.g.,J. W. Goodman:Introduction to Fourier Optics (New York, N. Y., 1968).
5. L. de Broglie:Compt. Rend.,177, 548 (1923);W. Elsasser:Naturwiss.,13, 711 (1925);E. Schrödinger:Ann. der Phys.,79, 489 (1926).