  Recent spectropolarimetric observations of Herbig AeBe stellar systems show
linear polarization variability with wavelength and epoch near their obscured
H-alpha emission. Surprisingly, this polarization is not coincident with the
H-alpha emission peak but is variable near the absorptive part of the line
profile. With a new and novel model we show here that this is evidence of
optical pumping - anisotropy of the incident radiation that leads to a linear
polarization-dependent optical depth within the intervening hydrogen wind or
disk cloud. This effect can yield a larger polarization signal than scattering
polarization in these systems.
