Depolarization and Polarization-Transfer Rates for Solar He I Lines due to Collisions with Neutral Hydrogen

Context. Neutral helium (He I) produces several spectral lines that are widely used for solar diagnostics. The role of collisions between He I atoms and neutral hydrogen (H I) in the modeling of solar He I lines remains insufficiently quantified. Accurate determination of collisional rates affecting atomic polarization is needed for solar spectropolarimetry. Aims. Our aim is to provide a set of multi-level and multi-term collisional depolarization, polarization-transfer, and population-transfer rates, due to isotropic collisions with neutral hydrogen, for He I levels and terms involved in the main solar He I diagnostic lines. Methods. The calculations are performed within the frozen-core approximation, in which the inner 1s electron is treated as a core with Lc = 0, Sc = 1/2, and Jc = 1/2, while the outer electron is treated as the active valence electron. Results. We compute both multi-level rates, describing depolarization and polarization transfer between fine-structure J-levels, and multi-term rates, which additionally account for coherences between different J-levels belonging to the same term. Conclusions. Our results provide the collisional input needed for the statistical equilibrium equations (SEE) of the polarization of the main He I solar lines, including the 10830 {\AA}, D3 5876 {\AA}, and related triplet transitions, and allow a quantitative reassessment of the role of neutral-hydrogen collisions in He I spectropolarimetry.