Research Interest (s) : My research interests are in the highly specialized field of spectro-polarimetry with a focus on the theory and applications of polarized spectral line formation in solar and stellar atmospheres. The radiation received from stellar atmospheres is polarized due to resonance scattering on atoms and molecules. This polarization is modified by the magnetic fields via the Zeeman and Hanle effects. Spectro-polarimetry is a powerful and unique tool to diagnose the solar and stellar magnetic fields using polarized light. This tool is based on the theory of generation and transfer of polarized radiation in stellar atmospheres. It involves formulating and solving the polarized radiative transfer equation including the factors of atomic and scattering physics in the presence of magnetic fields.

Student(s): A. Megha (2021)

Selected Publications (s)

• Full non-LTE spectral line formation. II. Two-distribution radiation transfer with coherent scattering in the atom's framePaletou, F., Sampoorna, M., Peymirat, C., 2023, A&A, 671, A93
• Influence of Thomson Electron Scattering Redistribution on Spectral Line Polarization Formed in Spherically Symmetric AtmosphereSampoorna, M., Megha, A., Supriya, H.D., 2022, ApJ, 937, 25
• Fast Iterative Techniques for Polarized Radiative Transfer in Spherically Symmetric Moving MediaMegha, A., Sampoorna, M., Nagendra, K.N., Anusha, L.S., Sankarasubramanian, K., 2020, ApJ, 903, 6