A GEOMETRICAL MODEL FOR THE PROPAGATION OF RAYS IN AN ANISOTROPIC INHOMOGENEOUS-MEDIUM

The propagation of light in an anisotropic inhomogeneous medium is stu died in the frame of geometrical optics. A novel method is proposed wh ereby the ray trajectories are shown to be the geodesics of an anisotr opic metric space (Finsler space). Explicit equations for the rays are deduced. The model is applied to the calculation of the path of extra ordinary rays and of the associated wave front inside a layer of nemat ic liquid crystal whose molecular alignment is strongly deformed by a convective flow.