Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-mnl9s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-08-28T06:47:31.934Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Basics of spectropolarimetry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2015

John D. Landstreet
John D. Landstreet*
Affiliation:
University of Western Ontario, London, Canada and Armagh Observatory, Armagh, Northern Ireland email: jlandstr@uwo.ca
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Many astronomical sources of radiation emit polarised radiation, for example because of the presence of a disk which produces linear polarisation by scattering some photospheric radiation, or because of the presence of a magnetic field, which leads to circular and sometimes linear polarisation of spectral line profiles. Measuring the wavelength dependence of the polarisation of radiation from such sources can reveal valuable and interesting constraints on the nature of the objects observed. This paper summarises the basic ideas of spectropolarimetry and describes some of the information it can provide.

Keywords

Polarisationinstrumentation: polarimeterstechniques: polarimetricstars: magnetic fieldsstars: circumstellar matter

References

Bagnulo, S., Fossati, L., Kochukhov, O., & Landstreet, J. D. 2013, A&A 559, A103Google Scholar
Bagnulo, S., Landolfi, M., Landstreet, J. D., et al. 2009, PASP 121, 993Google Scholar
Bagnulo, S., Landstreet, J. D., Fossati, L., & Kochukhov, O. 2012, A&A 538, A129Google Scholar
Carciofi, A. C., Magalhães, A. M., Leister, N. V., Bjorkman, J. E., & Levenhagen, R. S. 2007, ApJ (Letters) 671, L49Google Scholar
Davies, B., Vink, J. S., & Oudmaijer, R. D. 2007, A&A 469, 1045Google Scholar
Donati, J.-F. & Landstreet, J. D. 2009, ARA&A 47, 333Google Scholar
Eisberg, R. & Resnick, R. 1985, Quantum Physics of Atoms, Molecules, Solids, Nuclei, and Particles, 2nd EditionGoogle Scholar
Halonen, R. J. & Jones, C. E. 2013, ApJ 765, 17Google Scholar
Hubrig, S., Briquet, M., De Cat, P., et al. 2009a, Astronomische Nachrichten 330, 317Google Scholar
Hubrig, S., Schöller, M., Savanov, I., et al. 2009b, Astronomische Nachrichten 330, 708Google Scholar
Hubrig, S., Schöller, M., Schnerr, R. S., et al. 2008, A&A 490, 793Google Scholar
Landstreet, J. D. 2009, in Neiner, C. & Zahn, J.-P. (eds.), EAS Publications Series, Vol. 39 of EAS Publications Series, pp 1–20Google Scholar
Landstreet, J. D., Bagnulo, S., Fossati, L., Jordan, S., & O'Toole, S. J. 2012, A&A 541, A100Google Scholar
O'Toole, S. J., Jordan, S., Friedrich, S., & Heber, U. 2005, A&A 437, 227Google Scholar
Shultz, M., Wade, G. A., Grunhut, J., et al. 2012, ApJ 750, 2Google Scholar
Vink, J. S., Harries, T. J., & Drew, J. E. 2005, A&A 430, 213Google Scholar