Abstract

Branch points arise in propagation through strong turbulence or propagation over long distances in weak turbulence. Since branch points are zeros in the field amplitude, they can be represented as the intersection of the zero contours of the real and imaginary parts of the field. The relationship between complex analytic functions, the intersection angle of the zero contours and the irrotational and rotational (hidden) phase is considered.

© 2015 Optical Society of America