Polarization

Polarization or polarisation can refer to:

In the physical sciences

Polarization (waves), the orientation of oscillations in the plane perpendicular to a transverse wave's direction of travel which may include:
- Polarization (antenna), the orientation of electromagnetic waves from e.g. a radio antenna
Dielectric polarization, charge separation in insulating materials:
- Polarization density, volume dielectric polarization
- Dipolar polarization, orientation of permanent dipoles
- Ionic polarization, displacement of ions in a crystal
- Maxwell-Wagner-Sillars polarization, slow long-distance charge separation in dielectric spectroscopy on inhomogeneous soft matter
Polarization (electrochemistry), a change in the equilibrium potential of an electrochemical reaction
Spin polarization, the degree by which the spin of elementary particles is aligned to a given direction
Polarizability, an electrical property of atoms or molecules and a separate magnetic property of subatomic particles
Photon polarization, the mathematical link between wave polarization and spin polarization
Vacuum polarization, a process in which a background electromagnetic field produces virtual electron-positron pairs
Polarity in embryogenesis, during development, an embryo has an animal pole and a vegetal pole

Polarization of an Abelian variety, in the mathematics of complex manifolds
Polarization of an algebraic form, a technique for expressing a homogeneous polynomial in a simpler fashion by adjoining more variables
Polarization identity expresses an inner product in terms of its associated norm

Polarization (politics), the process by which the public opinion divides and goes to the extremes
Polarization (psychology), the process whereby a social or political group is divided into opposing sub-groups
Social polarization
- Group polarization
- Attitude polarization
- Racial polarization, the process whereby a population with varyingly diverse ancestry is divided into distinct, homogenous racial groups