Caustics through the looking glass
This is mainly a description of results published elsewhere. It contains interesting illustrations. If light emanating from a point source P in the plane is reflected from a smooth mirror M, what does the caustic, its real and virtual part, look like? Genericity is discussed with respect to M and P. The latter question is related to conics which have 5-point contact with M. Corresponding questions in 3-space and relations to catastrophe theory are also discussed.
scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3872321
scientific article