Ray Theory of Waves

In order to deal with the interaction of an electromagnetic wave with large homogeneous objects of arbitrary shape with smooth surface we develop the ray theory of waves (RTW) which is composed of the vectorial complex ray model (VCRM) and VCRM based singularity theory. By introducing the wavefront curvature as an intrinsic property of rays, VCRM permits to predict the amplitude and the phase of field at any point rigorously in the sense of ray model. Its combination with the singularity theory remedies the discontinuity in the ray model. In this letter, the wavefront equation, key physical law of VCRM describing the relation between the wavefront curvatures of the incident wave and the refracted/reflected wave, is derived for the most general case of three dimension scattering. The strategy of the calculation scheme in RTW is described. Typical applications to the prediction of the rainbow patterns of a spheroidal drop are presented. The comparison to a rigorous numerical method, multilevel fast multipole algorithm, shows that RTW can predict very fast and precisely the scattered field even in the vicinity of caustics.