SIMBAD references

An analytic treatment is presented which determines the spectropolarimetric line profiles resulting from single Thomson scattering of monochromatic stellar emission or absorption line radiation in a moving thin circumstellar disc. Expressions are obtained for the scattered Stokes fluxes in terms of the disc velocity and density profiles and the inclination of its rotation axis to the line of sight. The shape of the scattered polarimetric line profile contains information on the inclination and velocity and density distributions of the disc. It is shown that, under certain parametrisations of these distributions, analysis of spectropolarimetric line data yields the disc inclination and most of the other parameters of the system.