New solution to Airy's equation for modeling beams near turning points

Abstract

Here I present a summarised description of the general behavior of waves near turning points. I show that when asymptotic matching to a prescribed incident wavefield is performed, the solution changes from being the Airy function to being more generally the hyperbolic umbilic function. This solution accounts for (de-)focusing of the incident wavefield due to gradient-index lensing in addition to the familiar Airy physics, which importantly do not superimpose. Possible applications to fusion research are discussed.

Proceeding for 2023 EPS plasma physics conference