On the Line Formation in Stellar Magnetized Atmospheres

1 INTRODUCTIONIn the previous paper (on et al. 1999, hereafter Paper I), we investigated the wavelength-dependence of four colltribution functions (CFs) derived from dmerent formal solutions andreferring to different emergellt quantities in the unpolarized case. Because one cannot generallyassign a single formation region to the whole line band in a real stellar atmosphere, e.g., the solaratmosphere, instead, the line formation region can be defined as the layers deviating farthestfrom t…     

Synchrotron emission from anisotropic disordered magnetic fields

We derive expressions for the total and linearly polarized synchrotron emissivity of an element of plasma containing relativistic particles and disordered magnetic field that has been sheared or compressed along three independent directions. Our treatment follows that given by Matthews & Scheuer in the special case of a power-law electron energy spectrum. We show that the emissivity integrals depend on a single parameter, making it straightforward to generate one-dimensional look-up tables. We also demonstrate that our formulae give identical results to those in the literature in special cases.     

Derivation of flare magnetic field and density from two simultaneous frequency observations

We developed a simple model for a flare loop, which was used to fit the emission in the microwave (17 GHz) and millimetre-wave (80 GHz) ranges for the giant flare of 1991 June 4. The simplicity of the model enabled the exploration of a wide range of parameters in a reasonable time. It was possible, using the simple model, to derive from the 17- and 80-GHz data the magnetic field and the number density for every measurement point in the time range we chose to fit.     

Zeeman-Doppler imaging of late-type stars: The surface magnetic field of II Peg

Late-type stars in general possess complicated magnetic surface fields which makes their detection and in particular their modeling and reconstruction challenging. In this work we present a new Zeeman-Doppler imaging code which is especially designed for the application to late-type stars. This code uses a new multi-line cross-correlation technique by means of a principal component analysis to extract and enhance the quality of individual polarized line profiles. It implements the full polarized radiative transfer equation and uses an inversion strategy that can incorporate prior knowledge based on solar analogies. Moreover, our code utilizes a new regularization scheme which is based on local maximum entropy to allow a more appropriate reproduction of complex surface fields as those expected for late-type stars. In a first application we present Zeeman-Doppler images of II Pegasi which reveal a surprisingly large scale surface structure with one predominant (unipolar) magnetic longitude which is mainly radially oriented. (© 2007 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Non-axisymmetric solar magnetic fields

A simple non-linear, non-axisymmetric mean field dynamo model is applied to a differentially rotating spherical shell. Two approximations are used for the angular velocity, to represent what is now believed to be the solar rotation law. In each case, stable solutions are found which possess a small non-axisymmetric field component. Although the model has a number of obvious shortcomings, it may be relevant to the problem of the solar active longitudes.     

太阳射电爆发现象中的电子回旋脉泽辐射

太阳射电爆发(Solar Radio Burst, SRB)是太阳高能电子与背景等离子体相互作用产生的感应辐射现象,其多样的动力学谱类型及其复杂的精细结构反映了辐射源区磁等离子体结构状态丰富的物理信息,而相关辐射机制则是解读相关物理信息的关键工具.长期以来,在SRB辐射机制的研究中一直存在着争议不决的两种主要机制,即等离子体辐射机制和电子回旋脉泽(Electron Cyclotron Maser, ECM)辐射机制.近年来,针对传统的ECM辐射机制应用到SRB现象时遇到的一些主要困难,发展了由幂律谱电子低能截止驱动和包含快电子束自生阿尔文波效应的新型ECM驱动模型,并成功应用于解释各类不同SRB动力学谱的形成机制.基于这些新型的ECM辐射模型,系统地总结了ECM辐射机制在各种不同类型SRB现象中的应用,并对它们不同动力学谱结构的形成给出了一致统一的物理解释.     

Force-free magnetic fields in the solar atmosphere

Reliable measurements of the solar magnetic field are restricted to the level of the photosphere. For about half a century attempts have been made to calculate the field in the layers above the photosphere, i.e. in the chromosphere and in the corona, from the measured photospheric field. The procedure is known as magnetic field extrapolation. In the superphotospheric parts of active regions the magnetic field is approximately force-free, i.e. electric currents are aligned with the magnetic field. The practical application to solar active regions has been largely confined to constant-α or linear force-free fields, with a spatially constant ratio, α, between the electric current and the magnetic field. We review results obtained from extrapolations with constant-α force-free fields, in particular on magnetic topologies favourable for flares and on magnetic and current helicities. Presently, different methods are being developed to calculate non-constant-α or nonlinear force-free fields from photospheric vector magnetograms. We also briefly discuss these methods and present a comparison of a linear and a nonlinear force-free magnetic field extrapolation applied to the same photospheric boundary data. (© 2007 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Some issues in diagnostics of solar chromospheric magnetic fields with the Mg b2 line

Up to now, exact measurements of chromospheric magnetic fields have not been as successful as those done in the photosphere. We are currently engaging in diagnostics of chromospheric magnetic fields with the Mg b2 line by employing the Multi-Channel Solar Telescope at Huairou Solar Observing Station. Therefore, how to improve accuracy in the measurement is the main issue of our present study. To this end, we first study linear calibration coefficients for longitudinal and transverse components of chromospheric fields, which vary with wavelength, in the case of a weak field assumption. Then the polarization crosstalk introduced by instruments is analyzed in detail with two numerical simulation methods. Comparisons of the po- larization signals between cases with and without correction are presented. The result indicates that polarization accuracy is greatly improved after crosstalk correction.     

射电源法拉第旋率观测效应的模拟研究

由于受射电望远镜分辨率的限制,观测视线方向上可能有多源重叠现象.观测目标源的法拉第旋率(rotation measure,RM)及偏振角(polarization angle,PA)的测量值就会受到方向束内其它背景射电源的影响.通过模拟研究发现,背景射电源对目标源偏振参量测量的干扰形式与干扰源的RM值有关.只运用两三个...     

Stability of the solar tachocline with magnetic fields

The stability of magnetic fields in the solar tachocline is investigated. We present stability limits for higher azimuthal wave numbers and results on the dependence of the stability on the location of toroidal magnetic fields in latitude. While the dependence of the wave number with the largest growth rate on the magnetic field strength and the magnetic Prandtl number is small, the dependence on the magnetic Reynolds number Rm indicates that lowest azimuthal modes are excited for very high Rm. Upon varying the latitudinal position of the magnetic field belts, we find slightly lower stability limits for high latitudes, and very large stability limits at latitudes below 10°, with little dependence on latitude in between. An increase of the maximum possible field was achieved by adding a poloidal field. The upper limit for the toroidal field which can be stored in the radiative tachocline is then 1000 G, compared to about 100 G for a purely toroidal field as was found in an earlier work. (© 2007 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Filaments and large-scale magnetic fields

We have used Stanford magnetic field maps to construct distributions of longitudinal magnetic field gradients in the neighbourhood of polarity inversion lines. The distributions were constructed with proper account of the type of the polarity inversion lines and of the existence or absence of dark filaments above them. It is shown that for polarity inversion lines that pass inside active regions or on their boundary, grad B_II distributions for portions of the lines with persisting filament are shifted toward lower values of gradient as compared with grad B_II distributions for portions of the lines without filaments. The influence of the spatial resolution of the magnetograms upon polarity inversion line characteristics is discussed.     

Background magnetic fields during last three cycles of solar activity

This paper describes our studies of evolution of the solar magnetic field with different sign and field strength in the range from –100 G to 100 G. The structure and evolution of large‐scale magnetic fields on the Sun during the last 3 cycles of solar activity is investigated using magnetograph data from the Kitt Peak Solar Observatory. This analysis reveals two groups of the large‐scale magnetic fields evolving differently during the cycles. The first group is represented by relatively weak background fields, and is best observed in the range of 3–10 Gauss. The second group is represented by stronger fields of 75–100 Gauss. The spatial and temporal properties of these groups are described and compared with the total magnetic flux. It is shown that the anomalous behaviour of the total flux during the last cycle can be found only in the second group. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Coherent synchrotron emission observed: implications for radio astronomy

Synchrotron radiation by relativistic electrons spiralling in magnetic fields is a mainstay of radio astronomy, accounting for emissions from many objects. Conventional models assume that electrons radiate singly, so power scales with number of electrons. Yet recently jets from active galactic nuclei have shown very high luminosity, inconsistent with plausible single-particle synchrotron emission. We report experiments showing that, by stimulating plasma instabilities with relativistic electron beams, one can induce increases in the synchrotron emission by factors of ∼10⁶. Enhancement presumably arises from coherent bunching of the relativistic electrons as they spiral in an ambient magnetic field. Polarization measurements suggest that electrons radiatively cooperate on scales of ∼6.6 cm. Radio telescope Stokes parameters may be able to reveal such polarization effects in high-brightness sources, a new observing diagnostic.     

A dynamo model for axisymmetric and non-axisymmetric solar magnetic fields

More and more observations are showing a relatively weak, but persistent, non-axisymmetric magnetic field co-existing with the dominant axisymmetric field on the Sun. Its existence indicates that the non-axisymmetric magnetic field plays an important role in the origin of solar activity. A linear non-axisymmetric  α²– Ω  dynamo model is derived to explore the characteristics of the axisymmetric  ( m = 0)  and the first non-axisymmetric  ( m = 1)  modes and to provide a theoretical basis with which to explain the 'active longitude', 'flip-flop' and other non-axisymmetric phenomena. The model consists of an updated solar internal differential rotation, a turbulent diffusivity varying with depth, and an α-effect working at the tachocline in a rotating spherical system. The difference between the  α²–Ω  and the  α–Ω  models and the conditions that favour the non-axisymmetric modes under solar-like parameters are also presented.     

Testing models of X-ray reflection from irradiated discs

We model the reflected spectrum expected from localized magnetic flares above an ionized accretion disc. We concentrate on the case of very luminous magnetic flares above a standard accretion disc extending down to the last stable orbit, and use a simple parametrization to allow for an X-ray-driven wind. Full disc spectra including relativistic smearing are calculated. When fitted with the constant-density reflection models, these spectra give both a low reflected fraction and a small linewidth as seen in the hard spectra from galactic black hole binaries and active galactic nuclei. We fit our calculated spectra to real data from the low/hard state of Nova Muscae and Cyg X-1 and show that these models give comparable χ ² to those obtained from the constant-density reflection models, which implied a truncated disc. This explicitly demonstrates that the data are consistent either with magnetic flares above an ionized disc extending down to the last stable orbit around a black hole, or with non-ionized, truncated discs.     

Convective intensification of magnetic fields in the quiet Sun

Kilogauss-strength magnetic fields are often observed in intergranular lanes at the photosphere in the quiet Sun. Such fields are stronger than the equipartition field B _e, corresponding to a magnetic energy density that matches the kinetic energy density of photospheric convection, and comparable with the field B _p that exerts a magnetic pressure equal to the ambient gas pressure. We present an idealized numerical model of three-dimensional compressible magnetoconvection at the photosphere, for a range of values of the magnetic Reynolds number. In the absence of a magnetic field, the convection is highly supercritical and characterized by a pattern of vigorous, time-dependent, 'granular' motions. When a weak magnetic field is imposed upon the convection, magnetic flux is swept into the convective downflows where it forms localized concentrations. Unless this process is significantly inhibited by magnetic diffusion, the resulting fields are often much greater than B _e and the high magnetic pressure in these flux elements leads to their being partially evacuated. Some of these flux elements contains ultraintense magnetic fields that are significantly greater than B _p. Such fields are contained by a combination of the thermal pressure of the gas and the dynamic pressure of the convective motion, and they are constantly evolving. These ultraintense fields develop owing to non-linear interactions between magnetic fields and convection; they cannot be explained in terms of 'convective collapse' within a thin flux tube that remains in overall pressure equilibrium with its surroundings.     

The total and relative contribution of the relevant absorption processes to the opacity of DB white dwarf atmospheres in the UV and VUV regions

The main aim of this work is to estimate the total contribution of the processes of     molecular ion photodissociation and     collisional absorption charge exchange to the opacity of DB white dwarf atmospheres, and compare this with the contribution of     and other relevant radiative absorption processes included in standard models.
The method for the calculations of the molecular ion     photodissociation cross-sections is based on the dipole approximation and quantum-mechanical treatment of the internuclear motion, while the quasi-classical method for describing absorption processes in     collisions is based on the quasi-static approximation.
Absorption coefficients are calculated in the region  50 nm ≤λ≤ 850 nm  and compared with the corresponding coefficients of other relevant absorption processes; the calculations of the optical depth of the atmosphere layers considered are performed in the far-UV and VUV regions; the contribution of the relevant absorption processes to the opacity of DB white dwarf atmospheres is examined.
We examined the spectral ranges in which the total     and     absorption processes dominate in particular layers of DB white dwarf atmospheres. In addition, we show that in the region of  λ≲ 70 nm  the process of     atom photoionization is also important, in spite of the fact that the ratio of hydrogen and helium abundances in the DB white dwarf atmosphere considered is  1:10⁵  .