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Just wondering about an experiment that should be easy to perform on an optical bench:

A coherent beam is polarized. It then hits another polarizer which is set to permit a polarization angle off that of the incident beam. The distance of this second polarizer is varied in steps much smaller than the wavelength of the light. The intensity of the re-polarized beam exiting the backside of the second polarizer, vs distance is plotted.

Is it constant?

Is there a cite of such an experiment so I can read it?

Improve this question
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  • $\begingroup$ Why do you expect there to be a position dependence? By which mechanism would the second polarizer know where it is relative to the first one? $\endgroup$
    – CuriousOne
    Commented Apr 12, 2016 at 22:19
  • $\begingroup$ I don't necessarily expect there to be a position dependence. This is just an experiment that is somewhat cheaper than say aLIGO or the LHC, hence might not demand as much in the way of theoretic justification. However, having said that, it would be interesting to know what the Standard Model says should happen and then test this prediction the way, for example, everyone knows GR is true but large amounts of money are spent testing it nevertheless. $\endgroup$
    – James Bowery
    Commented Apr 13, 2016 at 0:10
  • $\begingroup$ The second polarizer would know where it was relative to the first by the wave number between the two. $\endgroup$
    – James Bowery
    Commented Apr 13, 2016 at 0:10
  • $\begingroup$ The standard model? That's about high energy behavior of quantum fields. You don't have any of that here, this is a simple optical experiment and the only relevant question is "How does the polarizer know where it is relative to the other one?". How would the polarize measure the number of waves? I don't see any interference between two beams in here. $\endgroup$
    – CuriousOne
    Commented Apr 13, 2016 at 0:11
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    $\begingroup$ I don't see why saying "the standard model" implies only high energy. '...the Standard Model is sometimes regarded as the "theory of almost everything".' en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Model $\endgroup$
    – James Bowery
    Commented Apr 13, 2016 at 1:57

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