Introduction to general relativity in a setting with comparatively strong gravitational fields. This has become possible thanks to precision observations of binary pulsars. In such a star system, two highly compact neutron stars orbit each other. At least one of them is a pulsar – an astronomical object that emits a tight beam of radiowaves. These beams strike the Earth at very regular intervals, similarly to the way that the rotating beam of a lighthouse means that an observer sees the lighthouse blink, and can be observed as a highly regular series of pulses. General relativity predicts specific deviations from the regularity of these
Gaussian beam exceed the bounds of a laser's resonator (cavity). "Gaussian beam" normally implies radiation confined to the fundamental (TEM) Gaussian mode. The Gaussian beam is a transverse electromagnetic (TEM) mode. The mathematical expression for the electric field amplitude is a solution to the paraxial Helmholtz equation. Assuming polarization in the "x" direction and propagation in the +"z" direction, the electric field in phasor (complex) notation is given by: where There is also an understood time dependence formula_11 multiplying such phasor quantities; the actual field at a point in time and space is given by the real part of that complex quantity.