Polarization
# Polarization

Polarization or polarisation may refer to:

## Mathematics

* 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 (Lie algebra)

## Physical sciences

* Polarization (physics), the ability of waves to oscillate in more than one direction, in particular polarization of light, responsible for example for the glare-reducing effect of polarized sunglasses
   * Polarization (antenna), the state of polarization (in the above sense) of electromagnetic waves transmitted by or received by 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
* Concentration polarization, the shift of the electrochemical potential difference across an electrochemical cell from its equilibrium value
* 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
   * Polarization function, a feature of some molecular modelling methods
* 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

## Social sciences

* Polarization (economics), faster decrease of moderate-skill jobs relative to low-skill and high-skill jobs
* Political polarization, when public opinion divides and becomes oppositional
* Social polarization, segregation of society into social groups, from high-income to low-income
* Group polarization, tendency of a group to make more extreme decisions than individuals' initial inclinations
   * Attitude polarization, when disagreement becomes more extreme as different parties consider evidence
* Racial polarization, when a population with varying ancestry is divided into distinct racial groups

## Others

* Polarization (album), an album by American jazz trombonist and composer Julian Priester
* Polarization, in many disciplines, is a tendency to be located close to one of the opposite ends of a continuum
