TY - JOUR

T1 - Probing exoplanetary magnetism via atomic alignment effect

AU - Rumenskikh, M.

AU - Taichenachev, A. V.

AU - Shaikhislamov, I. F.

AU - Yudin, V. I.

AU - Savintseva, E. D.

N1 - This work has benefited from the contributions of many individuals, and we would like to express gratitude to everyone who showed interest and provided valuable advice during the idea’s formation and its presentation at scientific conferences. Rumenskikh M. grateful to Prudnikov O.N. for helpful discussion on the nuances of numerical modelling for systems of quantum-kinetic equations. Our sincere appreciation is to the Russian Science Foundation (RSF) for supporting this research under the grant no. 23–12-00134. Taichenachev A.V. is grateful for the support of RSF grant no. 23–12-00195 under which the theoretical model presented in Sections 2.3, 2.4, and 3.1 was developed.

PY - 2025/7/30

Y1 - 2025/7/30

N2 - The intrinsic MFs of exoplanets affect the structure of their atmospheres and plasma spheres and, therefore, the observational manifestations of transit absorptions. This work proposes a new method for constraining the presence or absence of relatively weak MFs. The method is based on the quantum effect of atomic alignment of the lower energy level resulting in changing the absorption probabilities of individual transitions of multiplets from the equilibrium 2J + 1 value. It appears to be sensitive to fields above ∼0.001 G. We applied this method to some available transit observations of exoplanets and demonstrate that we indeed have the possibility to constrain the intrinsic MF of some exoplanets right now. However, more precise and repetitive measurements, which might be available in near future, are needed for definite conclusions.

AB - The intrinsic MFs of exoplanets affect the structure of their atmospheres and plasma spheres and, therefore, the observational manifestations of transit absorptions. This work proposes a new method for constraining the presence or absence of relatively weak MFs. The method is based on the quantum effect of atomic alignment of the lower energy level resulting in changing the absorption probabilities of individual transitions of multiplets from the equilibrium 2J + 1 value. It appears to be sensitive to fields above ∼0.001 G. We applied this method to some available transit observations of exoplanets and demonstrate that we indeed have the possibility to constrain the intrinsic MF of some exoplanets right now. However, more precise and repetitive measurements, which might be available in near future, are needed for definite conclusions.

KW - exoplanets

KW - magnetic fields

KW - techniques: spectroscopic

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105012270566

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/4f500bda-578c-3cdf-9c18-76898e293d49/

U2 - 10.1093/mnras/staf1038

DO - 10.1093/mnras/staf1038

M3 - Article

VL - 541

SP - 2872

EP - 2883

JO - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

JF - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

SN - 0035-8711

IS - 4

ER -