The Relation between the Covariant and the Non-covariant Pictures of Totally Polarized Light Beams

Abstract A unified treatment of the covariant and non-covariant descriptions of totally polarized light beams is proposed and the connection between the two methods of description is treated in detail. The covariant picture of total polarization in the vectorial representation is reviewed and a discussion of classical helicity is given. The non-covariant picture, in both the real and the complex representations, is then derived from the covariant picture.