Related papers: Modeling Scattering Polarization for Probing Solar…
The surfaces of neutron stars are likely sources of strongly polarized soft X rays due to the presence of strong magnetic fields. Scattering transport in the surface layers is critical to the determination of the emergent anisotropy of…
This paper presents an overview of the radiative transfer problem of calculating the spectral line intensity and polarization that emerges from a (generally magnetized) astrophysical plasma composed of atoms and molecules whose excitation…
Population of levels of the hyperfine and fine split ground state of an atom is affected by radiative transitions induced by anisotropic radiation flux. Such aligned atoms precess in the external magnetic field and this affects properties…
Scattering of anisotropic radiation by atoms, ions or molecules is sufficient to generate linear polarization observable in stars and planets atmospheres, circumstellar environments, and in particular in the Sun's atmosphere. This kind of…
Scattering measurements with incident linearly polarized $\gamma$ rays provide information on spins, parities, and $\gamma$-ray multipolarity mixing coefficients, and, therefore, on the nuclear matrix elements involved in the transitions.…
This paper reviews some recent advances in the development and application of polarized radiation diagnostics to infer the mean magnetization of the quiet solar atmosphere, from the near equilibrium photosphere to the highly non-equilibrium…
The polarization of radiation by scattering on an atom embedded in combined external quadrupole electric and uniform magnetic fields is studied theoretically. Analytic formulae are derived for the scattering phase matrix. Limiting cases of…
Scattering of light from an anisotropic source produces linear polarization in spectral lines and the continuum. In the outer layers of a stellar atmosphere the anisotropy of the radiation field is typically dominated by the radiation…
We realized a laboratory experiment to study the scattering polarization of the Na I D-doublet at 589.0 and 589.6 nm in the presence of a magnetic field. This work was stimulated by solar observations of that doublet, which have proven…
The Hanle effect in strong spectral lines is the physical mechanism that should be increasingly exploited for quantitative explorations of the magnetism of the quiet solar chromospheric plasma. Here we show, by means of multilevel radiative…
The intense magnetic fields of neutron stars naturally lead to strong anisotropy and polarization of radiation emanating from their surfaces, both being sensitive to the hot spot position on the surface. Accordingly, pulse phase-resolved…
The scattering and transformation of the waves propagating in magnetized plasma on a heavy stationary charged particle located at a plane plasma-vacuum boundary is considered. The scattering (transformation) occurs due to the nonlinear…
This paper provides testable predictions about starlight polarizations to constrain the geometry of the Galactic magnetic field, in particular the nature of the poloidal component. Galactic dynamo simulations and Galactic dust distributions…
Polarizability tensor of a strongly magnetized plasma and the polarization vectors and opacities of normal electromagnetic waves are studied for the conditions typical of neutron star atmospheres, taking account of partial ionization…
Interference between magnetic substates of the hyperfine structure states belonging to different fine structure states of the same term influences the polarization for some of the diagnostically important lines of the Sun's spectrum, like…
In this work we present a method for generating random matrices describing electromagnetic scattering from disordered media containing dielectric particles with prescribed single particle scattering characteristics. Resulting scattering…
We consider the polarization arising from scattering in an envelope illuminated by a central anisotropic source. Spherical harmonics are used to describe both the light source anisotropy and the envelope density distribution functions of…
There is an ongoing debate about the origin and even the very existence of a high degree of linear polarization of some chromospheric spectral lines observed in solar flares. The standard explanation of these measurements is in terms of the…
Polarimetric observations of the twilight sky are effective for the investigations of scattering properties of the atmosphere at different altitudes. Modern computer technique allows to reduce the influence of multiple scattering on the…
This article presents an introduction to optical pumping, atomic polarization and the Hanle effect in weakly magnetized stellar atmospheres. Although the physical processes and the theoretical framework described here are of interest for…