Energy Velocity of Diffusing Waves in Strongly Scattering Media

Abstract

Measurements of the diffusive transport of multiply scattered ultrasonic waves show that the energy velocity is very similar in magnitude and frequency dependence to the group velocity. Our data are accurately described using a theoretical model that accounts for the renormalization of scattering by the coupling between neighboring scatterers, quantitatively predicting the scattering delay that causes the strong frequency dependence of these velocities seen in our experiments. This gives a unified physical picture of the velocities of energy transport by both diffusive and ballistic waves.