Polarized X-ray Scattering and Birefringence in Magnetars
Abstract
Interest in radiative processes in the super-strong magnetic regime germane to magnetars has grown over the last two decades. These processes have an inherently anisotropic and polarization-dependent character. Of particular interest is the resonant cyclotron scattering domain, where the Compton cross section is enhanced by orders of magnitude very near the cyclotron frequency -- for electrons in magnetar atmospheres, this is above 10 MeV in energy, and for protons this can be at 1-10 keV. The Compton process is dominant in the highly optically thick environs of magnetar atmospheres, and also in the magnetospheric locales for the production of the hard X-ray bursts. The detailed forms of X-ray spectra will depend intimately on the character of the Compton cross section and the emission zone geometry. The practical determination of the rate of Compton scattering depends on the polarization configuration of incoming photons. This in turn is sensitive to the details of radiation dispersion and transport in hot plasmaspheres near neutron stars. This birefringent dispersion present in strongly-magnetized plasmas can profoundly influence the determination of scattering probabilities. Such polarization transfer is usually addressed by simplifying to the transfer two normal mode intensities. The assumptions involved in this simplification such as orthonormality and "large Faraday depolarization" are valid for a wide range of parameter space, but are known to break down in important cases, such as near a cyclotron resonance. We explore the polarization transfer problem for Compton scattering including the regime where Faraday depolarization is not large. Accordingly, plasma birefringence and the generalized Faraday effect are considered explicitly as part of the transfer problem. Spectra generated from two Monte Carlo models of the transfer problem are presented, one treating isothermal atmospheres in the normal X-ray band, and the other addressing hard X-ray flares in magnetar magnetospheres.
- Publication:
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American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #229
- Pub Date:
- January 2017
- Bibcode:
- 2017AAS...22923301B