Dislocation lines in the hyperbolic umbilic diffraction catastrophe

Abstract

The three-dimensional pattern of the hyperbolic umbilic diffraction catastrophe is computed from an integral representation. A detailed description is given of the geometrical arrangement of the wave dislocation lines (optical vortices) on which the diffraction pattern is based. From a crossed grid of nodal lines in the focal plane, two bundles of dislocation lines spring out symmetrically into the regions of 4-wave interference. Each dislocation line then follows a chain of curved segments which approximate successive steps along lattice vectors in the space group Fmmm . The result is a bundle of helices of non-circular cross-section that gradually straighten out until, far from the focal plane, they become the dislocations of the Pearcey diffraction pattern for the cusp catastrophe. A new phenomenon is the multiple puncturing of the caustic surface by a series of helical dislocations.