Wednesday 18 November 2020

spectroscopy - How to define the light "color" from a given spectral distribution?


The following question may be naive and incomplete in some way I don't know. I'm not a specialist on spectroscopy, colours and light curves, color spaces, etc.


Suppose you have a simple power-law function ; $f(\omega, \alpha) = \omega^{\alpha}$, which describes the spectral distribution of light angular frequencies as this : $$\tag{1} I = \kappa \int_0^{\omega_{\text{max}}} f(\omega, \alpha) \, d\omega, $$ where the exponent $\alpha$ is a given constant (a characteristic of the spectral distribution) and $\omega_{\text{max}}$ is another constant (the maximal value of the angular frequency allowed). $I$ is the total bolometric intensity of light at the detector's location, in watt/m^2 (the detector is a theoretical ideal device). $\kappa$ is just another arbitrary constant.


Then the question is this :



Assuming that $\omega_{\text{max}}$ is an angular frequency (rad/sec) which is in the visible spectrum or above it (i.e. ultra-violet), how can we define the color of the light described by the $\alpha$ index and the maximal value $\omega_{\text{max}}$ ?




By color, I mean something that could be compared in some way with the perception that we would have of that "$\alpha$-light", in the visible spectrum only.


For example, if $\alpha = 0$, the spectral distribution would be "flat" (i.e. uniform). What would be the color of light if $\omega_{\text{max}}$ corresponds to pure violet light, and $0 \le \omega \le \omega_{\text{max}}$ ? I guess white light !


If $\alpha = 2$, then the distribution would favour the violet and blue frequencies over the orange and red frequencies, so the light would look like blueish in some way, isn't ?


I hope the question is clear enough and doesn't bring me to the all messy/complicated problems of human/eye/brain/psychology perception ! I'm looking for something simple and "physical" only, if it exists ! In other words : is there a simple approximate "trick" to define a "color" from $\alpha$ and $\omega_{\text{max}}$ alone ? I'm just looking for some kind of approximation, to give an idea of what color the light might have.




No comments:

Post a Comment

Understanding Stagnation point in pitot fluid

What is stagnation point in fluid mechanics. At the open end of the pitot tube the velocity of the fluid becomes zero.But that should result...