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While dealing with the nontrivial task of classifying Mueller matrices, of special interest is the study of the degenerate Mueller matrices (matrices with vanishing determinant, for which the law of multiplication holds, but there exists no inverse elements). Earlier, it was developed a special technique of parameterizing arbitrary 4-dimensional matrices with the use of a four 4-dimensional vector (k,m,l,n). In the following, a classification of degenerate 4-dimensional real matrices of rank 1, 2, and 3 is elaborated. To separate possible classes of degenerate matrices of ranks 1 and 2, we impose linear restrictions on (k,m, l,n), which are compatible with the group multiplication law. All the subsets of matrices obtained by this method, form either subgroups or semi-groups. To obtain singular matrices of rank 3, we specify 16 independent possibilities to get the 4-dimensional matrices with zero determinant, Comment: 41 pages. Chapter from the Book: O.V. Veko, E.M. Ovsiyuk, A. Oana, M. Neagu, V. Balan, V.M. Red'kov. Spinor Structures in Geometry and Physics. Nova Science Publishers, Inc., New York, 2014-215 (in press)

The paper discusses the role played by Mueller and Jones formalisms in polarization optics, by addressing the following aspects: restriction to the SU(2) symmetry, non-relativistic Stokes 3-vectors; Cartan 2-spinors in polarization optics; Jones 4-spinors for partially polarized light; the linear group SL(4,R) and the classification of 1-parametric Mueller matrices; semi-group structure and classification of degenerate Mueller matrices., Comment: 13 pages, Report to: Finsler Extensions of Relativity Theory (FERT-2013), 26 - 30 September 2013. Debrecen, Hungary