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Graph."],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025,12]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Stokes parameters are the standard representation of polarized light intensity in Mueller calculus and are widely used in polarization-aware computer graphics. However, their reliance on local frames-aligned with ray propagation directions-introduces a fundamental limitation: numerical discontinuities in Stokes vectors despite physically continuous fields of polarized light. This issue originates from the Hairy Ball Theorem, which guarantees unavoidable singularities in any frame-dependent function defined over spherical directional domains. In this paper, we overcome this long-standing challenge by introducing the first frame-free representation of Stokes vectors. Our key idea is to reinterpret a Stokes vector as a Dirac delta function over the directional domain and project it onto spin-2 spherical harmonics, retaining only the lowest-frequency coefficients. This compact representation supports coordinate-invariant interpolation and distance computation between Stokes vectors across varying ray directions-without relying on local frames. We demonstrate the advantages of our approach in two representative applications: spherical resampling of polarized environment maps (e.g., between cube map and equirectangular formats), and view synthesis from polarized radiance fields. In both cases, conventional frame-dependent methods produce singularity artifacts. In contrast, our frame-free representation eliminates these artifacts, improves numerical robustness, and simplifies implementation by decoupling polarization encoding from local frames.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1145\/3763276","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,4]],"date-time":"2025-12-04T17:15:39Z","timestamp":1764868539000},"page":"1-16","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1145\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Frame-Free Representation of Polarized Light for Resolving Stokes Vector Singularities"],"prefix":"10.1145","volume":"44","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1312-657X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Shinyoung","family":"Yi","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, Republic of Korea"},{"name":"Kyung Hee University, Suwon, Republic of Korea"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9685-1146","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jiwoong","family":"Na","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, Republic of Korea"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0006-1266-6477","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Seungmin","family":"Hwang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, Republic of Korea"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9971-1202","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Inseung","family":"Hwang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, Republic of Korea"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5078-4005","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Min H.","family":"Kim","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, Republic of Korea"}]}],"member":"320","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,4]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_2_2_1_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/3272127.3275018"},{"key":"e_1_2_2_2_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/3587423.3595544"},{"key":"e_1_2_2_3_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/3386569.3392387"},{"volume-title":"Field guide to polarization","author":"Collett Edward","key":"e_1_2_2_4_1","unstructured":"Edward Collett. 2005. 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