Bibcode
DOI
Asensio Ramos, A.; Trujillo Bueno, J.
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 635, Issue 1, pp. L109-L112.
Advertised on:
12
2005
Journal
Citations
29
Refereed citations
15
Description
The analysis of the Hanle effect in solar molecular lines allows us to
obtain empirical information on hidden, mixed-polarity magnetic fields
at subresolution scales in the (granular) upflowing regions of the
``quiet'' solar photosphere. Here we report that collisions seem to be
very efficient in depolarizing the rotational levels of MgH lines. This
has the interesting consequence that in the upflowing regions of the
quiet solar photosphere the strength of the hidden magnetic field cannot
be much larger than 10 G, assuming the simplest case of a single-valued
microturbulent field that fills the entire upflowing photospheric
volume. Alternatively, an equally good theoretical fit to the observed
scattering polarization amplitudes can be achieved by assuming that the
rate of depolarizing collisions is an order of magnitude smaller than in
the previous collisionally dominated case, but then the required
strength of the hidden field in the upflowing regions turns out to be
unrealistically high. These constraints reinforce our previously
obtained conclusion that there is a vast amount of hidden magnetic
energy and unsigned magnetic flux localized in the (intergranular)
downflowing regions of the quiet solar photosphere.