Polarized Radiation Observables for Probing the Magnetism of the Outer Solar Atmosphere

摘要

The basic idea of optical pumping, for which Alfred Kastler received the 1966 Nobel Prize in Physics, is that the absorption and scattering of anisotropic radiation can produce population imbalances and quantum coherence among the magnetic substates of atomic levels. The degree of this radiatively-induced atomic level polarization, which is very sensitive to the presence of magnetic fields, can be determined by observing the polarization of the scattered or transmitted spectral line radiation. The most important point for solar physics is that the outer solar atmosphere is an optically pumped vapor and that the polarization of the emergent spectral line radiation can be exploited to obtain quantitative information on the strength and/or geometry of magnetic fields within the chromosphere, transition region, and corona. Here we review some recent investigations of the polarization produced by optical pumping in selected IR, FUV, and EUV spectral lines, showing that their magnetic sensitivity is suitable for probing the magnetism of the outer solar atmosphere.