the present book discusses the physics of electromagnetic scattering. it is intended as a reference book for engineering and physics graduate students as well as researchers in these fields. in addition to electromagnetic scattering, the acoustic or scalar scattering is also occasionally discussed, as related to the electromagnetic phenomena. traditional textbooks treat the subject of polarization less than fully, despite the fact that it bears fundamentally on electromagnetic scattering, for example in radar detection of scatterers. this book addresses this phenomena in a systematic way. much of the material of the book is drawn from the authors own research at the university of michigan.