Related papers: Chromospheric Polarization in the Photospheric Sol…
Context: The scattering polarization of the infrared (IR) triplet of neutral oxygen (O\,\textsc{i}) near 777\,nm provides a powerful diagnostic of solar atmospheric conditions. However, interpreting such polarization requires a rigorous…
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 main goal of this thesis has been to investigate the effects that the macroscopic vertical velocity fields have on the scattering polarization signals formed in the solar chromosphere. Until now, the impact of macroscopic motions had…
The chromosphere of the quiet Sun is an important stellar atmospheric region whose thermal and magnetic structure we need to decipher for unlocking new discoveries in solar and stellar physics. To this end, we must identify and exploit…
A particularly interesting line for exploring the physical conditions of the quiet solar chromosphere is H$\alpha$, but its intensity profile is magnetically insensitive and the small circular polarization signatures produced by the…
The bulk of the quiet solar photosphere is thought to be significantly magnetized, due to the ubiquitous presence of a tangled magnetic field at subresolution scales with an average strength <B> ~ 100 G. This conclusion was reached through…
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…
The linear polarization produced by scattering processes in the hydrogen Lyman alpha line of the solar disk radiation is a key observable for probing the chromosphere-corona transition region (TR) and the underlying chromospheric plasma.…
Oxygen is the most abundant element on the Sun after Hydrogen and Helium. The intensity spectrum of resonance lines of neutral Oxygen namely O {\sc i} (1302, 1305 and 1306 \AA\,) has been studied in the literature for chromospheric…
Solar magnetic fields leave their fingerprints in the polarization signatures of the emergent spectral line radiation. This occurs through a variety of rather unfamiliar physical mechanisms, not only via the Zeeman effect. In particular,…
Velocity gradients in a stellar atmospheric plasma have an impact on the anisotropy of the radiation field that illuminates each point within the medium, and this may in principle influence the scattering line polarization that results from…
Is it physically feasible to perform chromospheric diagnosis using spatial maps of scattering polarization at the solar disk center? To investigate it we synthesized polarization maps (in 8542 Angstroms) resulting from MHD solar models and…
The polarization of radiation by scattering on an atom embedded in combined external quadrupole electric and uniform magnetic fields is studied theoretically. Limiting cases of scattering under Zeeman effect and Hanle effect in weak…
The sizable linear polarization signals produced by the scattering of anisotropic radiation in the core of the Ca I 4227 $\mathrm{\r{A}}$ line constitute an important observable for probing the inhomogeneous and dynamic plasma of the lower…
Magnetic field topology, thermal structure and plasma motions are the three main factors affecting the polarization signals used to understand our star. In this theoretical investigation, we focus on the effect that gradients in the…
Magnetic fields in turbulent, convective high-$\beta$ plasma naturally develop highly tangled and complex topologies---the solar photosphere being the paradigmatic example. These fields are mostly undetectable by standard diagnostic…
There is a thin transition region (TR) in the solar atmosphere where the temperature rises from 10,000 K in the chromosphere to millions of degrees in the corona. Little is known about the mechanisms that dominate this enigmatic region…
Solar magnetic fields alter scattering polarization in spectral lines like Sr I at 4607 {\AA} via the Hanle effect, making it a potential diagnostic for small-scale mixed-polarity photospheric magnetic fields. Recently, observational…
We present some theoretical predictions concerning the amplitude and magnetic sensitivity of the linear polarization signals produced by scattering processes in the hydrogen Ly-alpha line of the solar transition region. To this end, we have…
Although the spectral lines of hydrogen contain valuable information on the physical properties of a variety of astrophysical plasmas, including the upper solar chromosphere, relatively little is known about their scattering polarization…