Measuring properties of superposed light beams carrying different frequencies

When two electromagnetic fields of different frequencies are physically superposed, the linear superposition equation implies that the fields readjust themselves into a new mean frequency whose common amplitude undulates at half their difference frequency. Neither of these mathematical frequencies are measurable quantities. We present a set of experiments underscoring that optical fields do not interfere with each other or modify themselves into a new frequency even when they are physically superposed. The multi-frequency interference effects are manifest only in materials with broad absorption bands as their constituent diploes attempt to respond collectively and simultaneously to all the optical frequencies of the superposed fields. Interference is causal and real since the dipoles carry out the operation of summation dictated by their quantum mechanical properties.