The polarization-free approximation

Abstract

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 polarization signals can only be due to the Zeeman effect is considered in some detail. By means of NLTE Stokes transfer calculations for a two-level atomic model it is first shown that the currently-used field-free approximation (Rees, 1969) cannot be safely applied in the presence of magnetic field gradients. Such gradients lead to changes in the shape and width of the line profiles and they can produce non-negligible effects on the atomic level populations and line source functions. A new approximate method is then proposed, which does not require the actual solution of the Stokes vector transfer equation and is practically as fast as the field-free one. This polarization-free approximation provides a fairly good account of the effects of homogeneous and inhomogeneous magnetic fields on the statistical equilibrium and is very easy to implement in any existing non-magnetic, multi-level transfer code.