Kirchhoff's law of thermal radiation rarefied material such as air, or transparent material, through which observations can be made. The interface is not a material body and can neither emit nor absorb. It is a mathematical surface belonging jointly to the two media that touch it. It is the site of refraction of radiation that penetrates it and of reflection of radiation that does not. As such it obeys the Helmholtz reciprocity principle. The opaque body is considered to have a material interior that absorbs all and scatters or transmits none of the radiation that reaches it through refraction at the interface. In this sense
Refraction wave vector depend on the wave speed this requires a change in direction of the wave vector. The relevant wave speed in the discussion above is the phase velocity of the wave. This is typically close to the group velocity which can be seen as the truer speed of a wave, but when they differ it is important to use the phase velocity in all calculations relating to refraction. A wave traveling perpendicular to a boundary, i.e. having its wavefronts parallel to the boundary, will not change direction even if the speed of the wave changes. Refraction of light can