Bibcode
DOI
Asensio Ramos, A.; Trujillo Bueno, J.; Collados, M.
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 603, Issue 2, pp. L125-L128.
Advertised on:
3
2004
Journal
Citations
9
Refereed citations
8
Description
Here we report the first detection of polarization signals induced by
the Zeeman effect in spectral lines of the
E4Π-A4Π system of FeH located around 1.6
μm. Motivated by the tentative detection of this band in the
intensity spectrum of late-type dwarfs, we have investigated the full
Stokes sunspot spectrum and have found circular and linear polarization
signatures that we associate with the FeH lines of the
E4Π-A4Π band system. We investigate the
Zeeman effect in these molecular transitions and point out that in
Hund's case (a) coupling, the effective Landé factors are never
negative. For this reason, the fact that our spectropolarimetric
observations indicate that the Landé factors of pairs of FeH
lines have opposite signs prompts us to conclude that the
E4Π-A4Π system must be in intermediate
angular momentum coupling between Hund's cases (a) and (b). We emphasize
that theoretical and/or laboratory investigations of this molecular
system are urgently needed for exploiting its promising diagnostic
capabilities.