Bibcode
DOI
Asensio Ramos, A.; Trujillo Bueno, J.; Collados, M.
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 623, Issue 1, pp. L57-L61.
Advertised on:
4
2005
Journal
Citations
10
Refereed citations
5
Description
We report novel spectropolarimetric observations of sunspots carried out
with the Tenerife Infrared Polarimeter in a near-IR spectral region
around 15410 Å, which is known to contain two groups of prominent
OH lines that show circular polarization signals of opposite polarity.
Surrounding these well-known OH lines, we have discovered the presence
of CN lines of the Δv=1 band that show anomalous polarization
profiles. Although the Stokes V signals of the OH lines are
antisymmetric and of a sizable amplitude, the CN lines show almost
negligible circular polarization. On the contrary, the linear
polarization signals turn out to be much stronger in the CN lines than
in the OH lines. Interestingly, these CN lines present striking
antisymmetric linear polarization profiles, which we are able to explain
and model via the Paschen-Back effect theory for diatomic molecules. The
presence of such peculiar CN lines in the same spectral region of the OH
lines may be useful to improve our empirical knowledge of solar magnetic
fields via the simultaneous observation and modeling of the transverse
and longitudinal Zeeman effects in two different molecular species.