Work

A Unifying Polarization Formalism for Electric and Magnetic Multipole Interactions

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: We extend the spherical tensorial formalism for polarization to the treatment of electric and magnetic multipole transitions of any order. We rely on the spherical-wave expansion to derive the tensor form of the operator describing the interaction of the atomic system with a polarized radiation field, which naturally leads to the introduction of spherical tensors describing the polarization properties of the interacting field. As a direct application, the formalism is used to model the radiation anisotropy affecting the scattering of radiation in an electric quadrupole transition and the associated Hanle effect in the presence of a magnetic field.

Source: The Astrophysical Journal

DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ad7677

Authors: R. Casini, R. Manso Sainz, A. López Ariste, N. Kaikati

Institution: Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie

Language: English

Topic: Atomic and Molecular Physics

Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $4,499

Funder: National Science Foundation