We obtain the Na I lambda 8183,8195 absorption line radial velocity curves for the polars ST LMi and MR Ser, from which we find the semi-amplitudes to be Kabs=329 +/- 9 km/s and Kabs=289 =/- 9 km/s respectively. We find that for both systems the effects on the Na I absorption lines due to X-rays heating the inner face of the secondary are

The gas of the Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 5252 consists of an ionized bicone of gas and a region of neutral gas which fills the regions outside the ionized bicone. We present new HI maps of the neutral components with a spatial resolution which exceeds previously available maps by a factor of 2. In addition, the ionized component was imaged in the Hα

The polarization-free (POF) approximation (Trujillo Bueno and Landi Degl'Innocenti, 1996) is capable of accounting for the approximate influence of the magnetic field on the statistical equilibrium, without actually solving the full Stokes vector radiative transfer equation. The method introduces the Zeeman splitting or broadening of the line

The development of effective iterative methods capable of accurately solving NLTE Stokes transfer problems is of considerable importance for the investigation of solar and stellar magnetic fields. After briefly indicating the iterative approach which is being presently pursued for the exact solution of such problems, the particular regime where

The main properties of the first- and second-order moments of polarized hydrogen lines, forming in the presence of stationary electric and magnetic fields, are reviewed. The analytical results presented here apply directly to the case of optically-thin emission lines in the LTE regime. Some applications of such results to electric- and magnetic

The density matrix approach to polarized radiative transfer is reviewed, with particular emphasis on the physical assumptions that are at the basis of the recent developments achieved by means of this formalism. In particular it is shown that two of the basic hypotheses (the hypothesis of neglecting correlation effects between thermal velocity and