NON-ZEEMAN CIRCULAR POLARIZATION OF MOLECULAR MASER SPECTRAL LINES

Abstract

We apply the anisotropic resonant scattering model developed to explain the presence of non-Zeeman circular polarization signals recently detected in the $^{12}\mathrm{CO}\;\left(J=2\rightarrow1\right)$ and $\left(J=1\rightarrow0\right)$ transitions in molecular clouds to Stokes $V$ spectra of SiO $v=1$ and $v=2$, $\left(J=1\rightarrow0\right)$ masers commonly observed in evolved stars. It is found that the observed antisymmetric "S" and symmetric "$\cup$" or "$\cap$" shaped spectral profiles naturally arise when the maser radiation scatters off populations of foreground molecules located outside the velocity range covered by the background maser radiation. Using typical values for the relevant physical parameters, it is estimated that magnetic field strengths on the order of a few times 15 mG are sufficient to explain the observational results found in the literature.