  We investigate electronically excited atoms in a magnetic guide. It turns out
that the Hamiltonian describing this system possesses a wealth of both unitary
as well as antiunitary symmetries that constitute an uncommon extensive
symmetry group. One consequence is the two-fold degeneracy of any energy level.
The spectral properties are investigated for a wide range of field gradients
and the spatial distributions of the spin polarization are analyzed. Wave
lengths, oscillator strengths and selection rules are provided for the
corresponding electromagnetic transitions. The effects due to an additional
homogeneous bias field constituting a Ioffe-Pritchard trap are explored
equally.
