Bibcode
Martínez González, M. J.; Pastor Yabar, A.; Lagg, A.; Asensio Ramos, A.; Collados, M.; Solanki, S. K.; Balthasar, H.; Berkefeld, T.; Denker, C.; Doerr, H. P.; Feller, A.; Franz, M.; González Manrique, S. J.; Hofmann, A.; Kneer, F.; Kuckein, C.; Louis, R.; von der Lühe, O.; Nicklas, H.; Orozco, D.; Rezaei, R.; Schlichenmaier, R.; Schmidt, D.; Schmidt, W.; Sigwarth, M.; Sobotka, M.; Soltau, D.; Staude, J.; Strassmeier, K. G.; Verma, M.; Waldman, T.; Volkmer, R.
Referencia bibliográfica
Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 596, id.A5, 11 pp.
Fecha de publicación:
11
2016
Revista
Número de citas
25
Número de citas referidas
23
Descripción
Context. Over the past 20 yr, the quietest areas of the solar surface
have revealed a weak but extremely dynamic magnetism occurring at small
scales (<500 km), which may provide an important contribution to the
dynamics and energetics of the outer layers of the atmosphere.
Understanding this magnetism requires the inference of physical
quantities from high-sensitivity spectro-polarimetric data with high
spatio-temporal resolution. Aims: We present high-precision
spectro-polarimetric data with high spatial resolution (0.4'') of the
very quiet Sun at 1.56 μm obtained with the GREGOR telescope to shed
some light on this complex magnetism. Methods: We used inversion
techniques in two main approaches. First, we assumed that the observed
profiles can be reproduced with a constant magnetic field atmosphere
embedded in a field-free medium. Second, we assumed that the resolution
element has a substructure with either two constant magnetic atmospheres
or a single magnetic atmosphere with gradients of the physical
quantities along the optical depth, both coexisting with a global
stray-light component. Results: Half of our observed quiet-Sun
region is better explained by magnetic substructure within the
resolution element. However, we cannot distinguish whether this
substructure comes from gradients of the physical parameters along the
line of sight or from horizontal gradients (across the surface). In
these pixels, a model with two magnetic components is preferred, and we
find two distinct magnetic field populations. The population with the
larger filling factor has very weak ( 150 G) horizontal fields similar
to those obtained in previous works. We demonstrate that the field
vector of this population is not constrained by the observations, given
the spatial resolution and polarimetric accuracy of our data. The
topology of the other component with the smaller filling factor is
constrained by the observations for field strengths above 250 G: we
infer hG fields with inclinations and azimuth values compatible with an
isotropic distribution. The filling factors are typically below 30%. We
also find that the flux of the two polarities is not balanced. From the
other half of the observed quiet-Sun area 50% are two-lobed Stokes V
profiles, meaning that 23% of the field of view can be adequately
explained with a single constant magnetic field embedded in a
non-magnetic atmosphere. The magnetic field vector and filling factor
are reliable inferred in only 50% based on the regular profiles.
Therefore, 12% of the field of view harbour hG fields with filling
factors typically below 30%. At our present spatial resolution, 70% of
the pixels apparently are non-magnetised.