White Paper on GEMS Study of Polarized X-rays from Neutron Stars
Abstract
We examine the expected X-ray polarization properties of neutron-star X-ray sources of various types, e.g., accretion and rotation powered pulsars, magnetars, and low-mass X-ray binaries. We summarize the model calculations leading to these expected properties. We describe how a comparison of these with their observed properties, as inferred from GEMS data, will probe the essential dynamical, electromagnetic, plasma, and emission processes in neutron-star binaries, discriminate between models of these processes, and constrain model parameters. An exciting goal is the first observational demonstration in this context of the existence of vacuum resonance, a fundamental quantum electrodynamical phenomenon first described in the 1930s.
- Publication:
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arXiv e-prints
- Pub Date:
- January 2013
- DOI:
- 10.48550/arXiv.1301.5514
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1301.5514
- Bibcode:
- 2013arXiv1301.5514G
- Keywords:
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- Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
- E-Print:
- 29 pages 11 figures