Airy disk
E131279
An Airy disk is the central bright spot in the diffraction pattern formed when light passes through a circular aperture, fundamentally limiting the resolving power of optical systems.
All labels observed (4)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Airy disk canonical | 2 |
| Airy disc | 1 |
| Airy disk theory | 1 |
| Airy disk theory in optics | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1144868 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Airy disk Context triple: [Poisson spot, isRelatedTo, Airy disk]
-
A.
Fraunhofer diffraction
Fraunhofer diffraction is the far-field diffraction pattern of waves, typically light, observed when both the source and observation screen are effectively at infinite distance or made so with lenses, producing characteristic interference patterns.
-
B.
Poisson spot
Poisson spot is a bright point of light that appears at the center of the shadow of a circular object due to wave diffraction, providing striking evidence for the wave nature of light.
-
C.
Kirchhoff diffraction theory
Kirchhoff diffraction theory is a classical wave optics framework that models light propagation and diffraction by treating wavefronts as superpositions of secondary spherical waves emitted from an aperture.
-
D.
Fresnel diffraction theory
Fresnel diffraction theory is a wave-optics framework that describes how light diffracts when source or observation distances are finite, using near-field approximations derived from the Huygens–Fresnel principle.
-
E.
Huygens–Fresnel principle
The Huygens–Fresnel principle is a fundamental concept in wave optics that explains how every point on a wavefront acts as a source of secondary wavelets whose interference determines the wave’s subsequent propagation and diffraction.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Airy disk Target entity description: An Airy disk is the central bright spot in the diffraction pattern formed when light passes through a circular aperture, fundamentally limiting the resolving power of optical systems.
-
A.
Fraunhofer diffraction
Fraunhofer diffraction is the far-field diffraction pattern of waves, typically light, observed when both the source and observation screen are effectively at infinite distance or made so with lenses, producing characteristic interference patterns.
-
B.
Poisson spot
Poisson spot is a bright point of light that appears at the center of the shadow of a circular object due to wave diffraction, providing striking evidence for the wave nature of light.
-
C.
Kirchhoff diffraction theory
Kirchhoff diffraction theory is a classical wave optics framework that models light propagation and diffraction by treating wavefronts as superpositions of secondary spherical waves emitted from an aperture.
-
D.
Fresnel diffraction theory
Fresnel diffraction theory is a wave-optics framework that describes how light diffracts when source or observation distances are finite, using near-field approximations derived from the Huygens–Fresnel principle.
-
E.
Huygens–Fresnel principle
The Huygens–Fresnel principle is a fundamental concept in wave optics that explains how every point on a wavefront acts as a source of secondary wavelets whose interference determines the wave’s subsequent propagation and diffraction.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (46)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
diffraction pattern feature
ⓘ
optical phenomenon ⓘ |
| appearsIn |
cameras
ⓘ
diffraction-limited optical systems ⓘ microscopes ⓘ telescopes ⓘ |
| assumes | coherent monochromatic illumination ⓘ |
| belongsTo | wave optics ⓘ |
| constrains | minimum resolvable angle ⓘ |
| contrastsWith | geometrical point image ⓘ |
| dependsOn |
aperture diameter
ⓘ
wavelength of light ⓘ |
| describedBy | Bessel functions ⓘ |
| field |
astronomy
ⓘ
microscopy ⓘ optics ⓘ |
| hasAlternativeName |
Airy disc
ⓘ
linked to:
Airy disk
|
| hasAngularRadius | 1.22 λ / D ⓘ |
| hasCentralIntensity | maximum at center ⓘ |
| hasComponent | central maximum ⓘ |
| hasDiscoveryYear | 19th century ⓘ |
| hasFirstMinimumAt | 1.22 λ / D from center ⓘ |
| hasShape | circular bright spot ⓘ |
| intensityDistribution | Airy pattern ⓘ |
| isAssumedIn | ideal circular pupil models ⓘ |
| isCauseOf | diffraction-limited blur ⓘ |
| isIdealizationOf | real point spread function of circular aperture ⓘ |
| isLargerFor |
longer wavelengths
ⓘ
smaller apertures ⓘ |
| isMaximizedAt | optical axis ⓘ |
| isObservedAs | stellar images in telescopes ⓘ |
| isPartOf | diffraction pattern of a circular aperture ⓘ |
| isSmallerFor |
larger apertures
ⓘ
shorter wavelengths ⓘ |
| isSymmetric | azimuthally around optical axis ⓘ |
| limits | resolving power of optical systems ⓘ |
| mathematicallyModeledAs | square of first-order Bessel function over radius ⓘ |
| namedAfter |
George Biddell Airy
ⓘ
linked to:
Sir George Airy
|
| occursIn | Fraunhofer diffraction ⓘ |
| occursWhen | light passes through a circular aperture ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
optical transfer function
ⓘ
point spread function ⓘ |
| surroundedBy | concentric dark and bright rings ⓘ |
| usedIn |
Rayleigh criterion
ⓘ
definition of angular resolution ⓘ |
| usedToDefine | diffraction limit ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Airy disk Description of subject: An Airy disk is the central bright spot in the diffraction pattern formed when light passes through a circular aperture, fundamentally limiting the resolving power of optical systems.
Referenced by (5)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.