Speaker
Description
Vortex motions in the solar atmosphere play a crucial role in energy transport and plasma heating. Current observational methods for detecting vortices rely primarily on intensity morphology, which is limited in sensitivity and often fails to capture the full vortex population. In this Letter, we propose linear polarization (LP) as a novel diagnostic for identifying vortices in spectropolarimetric observations. Using a single snapshot of a MURaM magnetoconvection simulation of an enhanced network region, we synthesize full Stokes profiles across various spectral lines. We develop a dual-criterion detection algorithm based on the Laplacian curvature of the LP degree and the perpendicularity of the Stokes Q and U spatial gradients. Detected LP swirl regions are found to be co-spatial with vortices identified independently through swirling strength, as well as with coherent rotational patterns in both the velocity and magnetic field vectors, validating the proposed diagnostic.