Abstract
The transfer of polarized radiation in saturated astrophysical masers is treated in the regime in which fractional linear polarizations Q/I greater than one-third can be produced by the influence of magnetic fields. This regime occurs when the Zeeman splitting is much greater than the stimulated emission rate but yet is much less than the local breadth of the line. The motivation of the present study is to examine the sensitivity of the previously determined relation between Q/I and the minimum strength of the required magnetic field. Here a velocity gradient is assumed to be present, and the LVG (or Sobolev) approximation is utilized. Spontaneous emission, which has been ignored in previous studies, tends to reduce the maximum linear polarizations that can be attained. Parameters relevant to the circumstellar SiO masers are emphasized. For these, the maximum Q/I is found to be approximately 0.60 for the J = 2-1 and higher transitions, in contrast to the maximum Q/I = 1.0 obtained when spontaneous emission is ignored.
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