Talk:Coherence (physics)

Coherence area
Why don't you first explain the concept (it's never done in the article) and then use it? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Koitus~nlwiki (talk • contribs) 05:19, 15 January 2022 (UTC)

Figure 1 under Temporal Coherence
shouldn't the delay be half T, not T? Kaitattersall (talk) 15:39, 16 November 2022 (UTC)

Definition of coherence.
The first sentence of the lede seems incorrect to me:

"In physics, two wave sources are coherent if their frequency and waveform are identical."

If I vary the phase of one wave randomly with respect to another wave of the same frequency, these waves would be incoherent, AFAIK.

Further down in the lede we read:

"Two waves are said to be coherent if they have a constant relative phase."

Constant relative phase implies identical frequency, the reverse is not true.

The waveform has no role in coherence. If the composite waves have constant relative phase then all of the Fourier components would also have constant relative phase. Johnjbarton (talk) 18:58, 7 June 2023 (UTC)


 * I reorganized, streamlined, and cited the lede. Please take a look. Johnjbarton (talk) 00:46, 8 June 2023 (UTC)

Rewrote the quantum coherence section.
The quantum coherence section was a muddle and poorly referenced. I subdivided it into topics that could grow into proper summaries of other articles.

The macroscopic section and resource theory sections need work, esp. just proper links to other articles to start.

Please let me know if you have any concerns or suggestions. Johnjbarton (talk) 16:16, 13 June 2023 (UTC)