  One of the greatest challenges in solar and stellar physics in coming years
will be to observe the Second Solar Spectrum with a spatial resolution
significantly better than 1 arcsec. This type of scattering polarization
observations would probably allow us to discover hitherto unknown aspects of
the Sun's hidden magnetism. Here we report on some theoretical predictions for
the photospheric line of Sr I at 4607 \AA, which we have obtained by solving
the three-dimensional (3D) radiative transfer problem of scattering line
polarization in a realistic hydrodynamical model of the solar photosphere. We
have taken into account not only the anisotropy of the radiation field in the
3D medium and the Hanle effect of a tangled magnetic field, but also the
symmetry breaking effects caused by the horizontal atmospheric inhomogeneities
produced by the solar surface convection. Interestingly, the Q/I and U/I linear
polarization signals of the emergent spectral line radiation have sizable
values and fluctuations, even at the very center of the solar disk where we
meet the forward scattering case. The ensuing small-scale patterns in Q/I and
U/I turn out to be sensitive to the assumed magnetic field model, and are of
great diagnostic value. We argue that it should be possible to observe them
with the help of a 1-m telescope equipped with adaptive optics and a suitable
polarimeter.
