English

Rayleigh Scattering Cross Section Redward of Ly$\alpha$ by Atomic Hydrogen

Astrophysics 2009-11-10 v1

Abstract

We present a low energy expansion of the Kramers-Heisenberg formula for atomic hydrogen in terms of (ω/ωl)(\omega/\omega_l), where ωl\omega_l and ω\omega are the angular frequencies corresponding to the Lyman limit and the incident radiation, respectively. The leading term is proportional to (ω/ωl)4(\omega/\omega_l)^4, which admits a well-known classical interpretation. With higher order terms we achieve accuracy with errors less than 4 % of the scattering cross sections in the region ω/ωl0.6\omega/\omega_l\le 0.6. In the neighboring region around Lyα\alpha (ω/ωl>0.6\omega/\omega_l >0.6), we also present an explicit expansion of the Kramers-Heisenberg formula in terms of Δω(ωωLyα)/ωLyα\Delta\omega\equiv (\omega-\omega_{Ly\alpha})/\omega_{Ly\alpha}. The accuracy with errors less than 4 % can be attained for ω/ωl0.6\omega/\omega_l \ge 0.6 with the expansion up to the fifth order of Δω\Delta\omega. We expect that these formulae will be usefully applied to the radiative transfer in high neutral column density regions, including the Gunn-Peterson absorption troughs and Rayleigh scattering in the atmospheres of giants.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0402023,
  title  = {Rayleigh Scattering Cross Section Redward of Ly$\alpha$ by Atomic Hydrogen},
  author = {Hee-Won Lee and Hee Il Kim},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0402023},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

5 pages, 2 figures