3D polarimetric purity

From our previous definition of the indices of polarimetric purity for 3D light beams [J.J. Gil, J.M. Correas, P.A. Melero and C. Ferreira, Monogr. Semin. Mat. G. de Galdeano 31, 161 (2004)], an analysis of their geometric and physical interpretation is presented. It is found that, in agreement with previous results, the first parameter is a measure of the degree of polarization, whereas the second parameter (called the degree of directionality) is a measure of the mean angular aperture of the direction of propagation of the corresponding light beam. This pair of invariant, non-dimensional, indices of polarimetric purity contains complete information about the polarimetric purity of a light beam. The overall degree of polarimetric purity is obtained as a weighted quadratic average of the degree of polarization and the degree of directionality.