Basic theory of partial coherence

The structure for a fundamental treatment of image formation problems already exists in the formalism of modern coherence theory as introduced by Wolf. An adequate introduction to the subject is provided by Born and Wolf, (Chap. 10), and a detailed description of most of the results of the theory to date may be found in Beran and Parrent. Therefore it will not be necessary to review the subject extensively here. Rather, we shall limit ourselves to a statement of the pertinent definitions and a summary of the treatment of the imaging problem in coherence theory.