What is permittivity, and what role does it play in the context of Dr. Zypmans research?
Permittivity is a property related to refraction and measures the opposition a material offers against an electric field. It depends on the atomic electric response of a material, specifically its polarizability, which is the tendency of a materials atomic electrons to become distorted when placed in an electric field. Dr. Zypmans research focuses on establishing a conceptual pathway between atomic polarization and refraction, aiming to produce exact expressions for the permittivity to all orders of an electric field, applicable to any intensity of light.