Abstract
Quantum mechanics data for polarization transfer rates due to collisions with electrons are needed, but are rather lacking, while data for conventional effective electron collision strengths are usually more readily available. We propose an approach which allows to exploit the availability of conventional collisional rates data to perform calculations of polarization transfer rates. To this aim, we establish algebraic transformations of conventional collisional strengths to collisional polarization rates which can be useful for spectropolarimetric studies. As application, we make use of the collisional strength data available in the literature to obtain new polarization transfer rates between levels of the solar Fe VIII ion which are involved in transitions observed by the HINODE satellite. We find that polarization transfer rates have a power law behaviours with temperatures. A discussion on the accuracy of our results is presented.