000087612 001__ 87612 000087612 005__ 20200716101545.0 000087612 0247_ $$2doi$$a10.1364/OL.44.005715 000087612 0248_ $$2sideral$$a115823 000087612 037__ $$aART-2019-115823 000087612 041__ $$aeng 000087612 100__ $$0(orcid)0000-0003-1740-2244$$aGil, José J.$$uUniversidad de Zaragoza 000087612 245__ $$aArbitrary decomposition of a Mueller matrix 000087612 260__ $$c2019 000087612 5060_ $$aAccess copy available to the general public$$fUnrestricted 000087612 5203_ $$aMueller polarimetry involves a variety of instruments and technologies whose importance and scope of applications are rapidly increasing. The exploitation of these powerful resources depends strongly on the mathematical models that underlie the analysis and interpretation of the measured Mueller matrices and, very particularly, on the theorems for their serial and parallel decompositions. In this Letter, the most general formulation for the parallel decomposition of a Mueller matrix is presented, which overcomes certain critical limitations of the previous approaches, particularly the unnecessary exigency that the Mueller matrices of all parallel components have to be normalized in order to have equal transmittances for unpolarized light. In addition, the obtained results lead to a generalization of the polarimetric subtraction procedure and allow for a formulation of the arbitrary decomposition that integrates, in a natural way, the passivity criterion. 000087612 540__ $$9info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess$$aby$$uhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/ 000087612 590__ $$a3.714$$b2019 000087612 591__ $$aOPTICS$$b18 / 97 = 0.186$$c2019$$dQ1$$eT1 000087612 592__ $$a1.788$$b2019 000087612 593__ $$aAtomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics$$c2019$$dQ1 000087612 655_4 $$ainfo:eu-repo/semantics/article$$vinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 000087612 700__ $$aSan José, Ignacio 000087612 7102_ $$12002$$2385$$aUniversidad de Zaragoza$$bDpto. Física Aplicada$$cÁrea Física Aplicada 000087612 773__ $$g44, 23 (2019), 5715-5718$$pOpt. lett.$$tOptics Letters$$x0146-9592 000087612 8564_ $$s1310574$$uhttps://zaguan.unizar.es/record/87612/files/texto_completo.pdf$$yVersión publicada 000087612 8564_ $$s121198$$uhttps://zaguan.unizar.es/record/87612/files/texto_completo.jpg?subformat=icon$$xicon$$yVersión publicada 000087612 909CO $$ooai:zaguan.unizar.es:87612$$particulos$$pdriver 000087612 951__ $$a2020-07-16-09:42:56 000087612 980__ $$aARTICLE