Importance of Cross-redistribution in Scattering Polarization of Spectral Lines: The Cases of 3P−3S Triplets of Mg i and Ca i

Abstract

Scattering on a multi-level atomic system has dominant contributions from resonance and Raman scattering. While initial and final levels are the same for resonance scattering, they are different for Raman scattering. The frequency redistribution for resonance scattering is described by the usual partial frequency redistribution functions of Hummer, while that for Raman scattering is described by cross-redistribution (XRD) function. In the present paper, we investigate the importance of XRD on linear polarization profiles of 3P−3S triplets of Mg i and Ca i formed in an isothermal one-dimensional atmosphere. We show that XRD produces significant effects on the linear polarization profiles when the wavelength separations between the line components of the multiplet are small, like in the cases of Mg i b and Ca i triplets.