Physics – Quantum Physics
Scientific paper
Jun 2009
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009aspc..405..113t&link_type=abstract
Solar Polarization 5: In Honor of Jan Stenflo ASP Conference Series, Vol. 405, proceedings of the conference held 17-21 Septembe
Physics
Quantum Physics
4
Scientific paper
The polarization that is generated by scattering of light on atoms depends on the atomic quantum number structure. According to standard scattering theory the sodium D_1 (5896 Å) and potassium D_1 (7699 Å) lines should be intrinsically unpolarizable. Since however the existence of D_1 scattering polarization in the solar spectrum has been well documented but resisted theoretical explanations, we have carried out a laboratory experiment to find out if this is a problem of solar physics or of quantum physics. We find that the polarization matrix for scattering of the Stokes vector in the potassium D_1 line exhibits a rich structure that changes dramatically when the field strength is varied in the sub-gauss regime. In contrast, standard scattering theory predicts zero polarization, even when optical pumping of the magnetic sub-levels of the hyperfine structure multiplet is accounted for.
Cacciani Alessandro
Feller Alex
Stenflo Jan Olof
Thalmann Ch.
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