Polarization of Diffraction Radiation on a Conducting Sphere and a Hemispheric Bulge in a Conducting Plane

The polarization characteristics of diffraction radiation appearing during the uniform motion of a nonrelativistic charged particle near an ideally conducting sphere and also a hemispherical bulge in a conducting plane are calculated. Our previously developed approach based on the method of images, which is known in electrostatics, is used. It is shown that, in the low-frequency range, radiation at a hemisphere is always linearly polarized, while radiation at a sphere is generally characterized by elliptical polarization.