Topological charge conservation in stochastic optical fields
Filippus Stefanus Roux · Journal of Optics · 2016
Abstract The fact that phase singularities in scalar stochastic optical fields are topologically conserved implies the existence of an associated conserved current, which can be expressed in terms of local correlation functions of the optical field and its transverse derivatives. Here, we derive the topological charge current for scalar stochastic optical fields and show that it obeys a conservation equation. We use the expression for the topological charge current to investigate the topological charge flow in inhomogeneous stochastic optical fields with a one-dimensional topological charge density.