Dispersion

Dispersion may refer to:

In physics:

• The dependence of wave velocity on frequency or wavelength:
  • Dispersion (optics), for light waves
  • Dispersion (water waves)
  • Acoustic dispersion, for sound waves
  • Dispersion relation, the mathematical description of dispersion in a system
  • Modal dispersion, spreading of signals in multimode fibers and waveguides by a distortion mechanism
    • Polarization mode dispersion, a form of modal dispersion
  • Dielectric dispersion, the dependence of the permittivity of a dielectric material on the frequency of an applied electric field
• Dispersive mass transfer, in fluid dynamics, the spreading of mass from areas of high to low concentration
  • Atmospheric dispersion modeling, mathematical simulation of how air pollutants disperse in the ambient atmosphere
• London dispersion force, an instantaneous induced dipole-induced dipole

In other sciences:

• Dispersion (chemistry), a system in which particles are dispersed in a continuous phase of a different composition
• Dispersion (geology), a process whereby sodic soil disperses when exposed to water
• Dispersion (materials science), the fraction of atoms of a material exposed to the surface
• Biological dispersal, the distribution of animals, spores, fruits and their seeds, etc.

Other uses:

• Dispersion (finance), a measure for the statistical distribution of portfolio returns
• Statistical dispersion, a quantifiable variation of measurements of differing members of a population
  • Index of dispersion, a normalized measure of the dispersion of a probability distribution
• Price dispersion, a variation in prices across sellers of the same item
• Wage dispersion, the amount of variation in wages encountered in an economy