Stellar Occultation of Polarized Light from Circumstellar Electrons. II. Flat Envelopes Viewed at Arbitrary Inclination
Abstract
We extend the treatment given in Paper I for the linear polarization produced from a flat circumstellar envelope with a finite-size light source viewed edge-on to the case of arbitrary inclination.
We find that for an axisymmetric disk scattering region viewed at low inclination, stellar occultation enhances the net polarization, while for high inclination the polarization is reduced by occultation. We apply our analysis to the polarimetric variations expected from a rotating binary system in which the scattering material consists of a one-dimensional plume superposed on an axisymmetric disk and show that this allows the determination of the inclination of the system and the radial structure of the plume for sufficiently high inclinations (i > 60°). The extent to which this method can be generalized to an arbitrarily distributed two-dimensional scattering region is also analyzed via Fourier analysis. It is found that the inclination of the system is largely insensitive to the density distribution when the distribution function is of a simple power-law form.- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- July 1991
- DOI:
- 10.1086/170189
- Bibcode:
- 1991ApJ...375..300F
- Keywords:
-
- Electrons;
- Linear Polarization;
- Polarized Light;
- Radiative Transfer;
- Stellar Envelopes;
- Stellar Occultation;
- Binary Stars;
- Distribution Functions;
- Fourier Series;
- Stokes Law Of Radiation;
- occultations;
- polarization;
- radiative transfer;
- stars: circumstellar shells;
- Astronomy;
- OCCULTATIONS;
- POLARIZATION;
- RADIATIVE TRANSFER;
- STARS: CIRCUMSTELLAR SHELLS