Confronta i metodi

	Calcolo di Jones	ABCD Matrix	Calcolo di Mueller-Stokes
Campo	Ottica	Ottica	Ottica
Famiglia	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Anno di origine	1941	1966	1852
Ideatore	Robert Clark Jones	Herwig Kogelnik and Tingye Li	George Gabriel Stokes and Hans Mueller
Tipo	Vector-matrix formalism	Ray optics formalism	Vector-matrix formalism
Fonte seminale	Jones, R. C. (1941). A new calculus for the treatment of optical systems: I. Description and discussion of the calculus. Journal of the Optical Society of America, 31(7), 488-493.	Kogelnik, H., & Li, T. (1966). Laser beams and resonators. Applied Optics, 5(10), 1550-1567.	Stokes, G. G. (1852). On the composition and resolution of streams of polarized light from different sources. Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, 9, 399-416.
Alias	Jones vector method, Jones matrix, polarization calculus	ray transfer matrix, ABCD method, system matrix	Mueller matrix method, Stokes parameters, Mueller calculus
Correlati	3	3	3
Sintesi	Jones calculus is a mathematical formalism for analyzing the propagation and manipulation of polarized light using vectors and matrices. Developed by Robert Clark Jones in 1941, it represents the electric field of a coherent optical beam as a two-component complex vector (Jones vector) and optical elements as matrices (Jones matrices), enabling elegant tracking of polarization through optical systems.	The ABCD matrix, or ray transfer matrix method, is a compact algebraic framework for analyzing optical systems. Introduced by Kogelnik and Li in 1966, it represents the linear transformation of ray position and angle (or Gaussian beam parameters) through optical elements. This method is foundational in laser physics, Gaussian optics, and optical design, enabling rapid calculation of resonator stability, beam propagation, and system performance.	Mueller-Stokes calculus is a mathematical framework for describing and analyzing the polarization properties of light, including partially polarized and unpolarized light. Grounded in George Gabriel Stokes' 1852 work on polarization parameters and extended by Hans Mueller in 1948, this formalism uses the four-component Stokes vector and the 4×4 Mueller matrix to track how optical systems transform polarization states.