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IIUC, the article seems to define the term "light phase" to mean what a layman light me would call "brightness". But it seems crazy to me that they'd overload the term "phase", when it has a very obvious alternative definition in the field of optics.

Can someone clarify if that's what the article is actually saying?

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Had to look up Quantitative phase-contrast microscopy:

> Conventional phase contrast microscopy and related methods, such as differential interference contrast microscopy, visualize phase shifts by transforming phase shift gradients into intensity variations.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantitative_phase-contrast_...

To detect phase changes you have to turn them into amplitude changes. It then makes sense to call the phase-change-turned-amplitude-change a "phase change." Yes, this elides a critical part of the interpretation, but if we were to insist on carrying around a complete interpretation with every noun we'd wind up with nouns as long as textbooks. Even Germans don't take it that far.

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