Magnetic lensing near ultramagnetized neutron stars
Abstract
Extremely strong magnetic fields change the vacuum index of refraction. This induces a lensing effect that is not unlike the lensing phenomenon in strong gravitational fields. The main difference between the two is the polarization dependence of the magnetic lensing, a behaviour that induces a handful of interesting effects. The main prediction is that the thermal emission of neutron stars with extremely strong magnetic fields is polarized - up to a few per cent for the largest fields known. This potentially allows a direct method for measuring their magnetic fields.
- Publication:
-
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Pub Date:
- June 1999
- DOI:
- 10.1046/j.1365-8711.1999.02509.x
- arXiv:
- arXiv:astro-ph/9901376
- Bibcode:
- 1999MNRAS.306..333S
- Keywords:
-
- MAGNETIC FIELDS;
- POLARIZATION;
- STARS: NEUTRON;
- Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- To appear in MNRAS, 12 pages, 9 figures