2-DIMENSIONAL IMAGE THEORY FOR THE CONDUCTING WEDGE

Image theory, previously developed for the analysis of a conducting ha lf plane by the present authors, is extended to problems involving a c onducting wedge. It is shown that the classical two-dimensional electr omagnetic field problem of a perfectly conducting wedge can be solved by interpreting the contribution due to the wedge as arising from a su itably defined image source consisting of a discrete and a continuous part located in complex space. The image currents give the exact field , do not depend on the point where the field is calculated and can be expressed in terms of simple trigonometric functions in contrast to mo re complicated functions characterizing the physical surface currents on the wedge or non-physical approximate currents applied in the Physi cal Diffraction Theory. Also, the image theory applies to the corner r eflectors of any comer angle. The classical image theory with discrete images for comer angles of the form pi/n is obtained as a special cas e.