Probing Magnetar Magnetospheres with X-Ray Polarization
Abstract
Magnetar candidates are bright X-ray sources. Their quiescent emission in the 1 - 10 keV band is thought to arise from resonant comptonization of thermal photons in a twisted magnetosphere. This presentation will report on multidimensional radiative transfer calculations that probe the effects of magnetospheric scattering on the X-ray polarization observables. When the pair multiplicity is not too large, propagation eigenmodes remain mostly linearly polarized, and the signal carries independent information about surface and magnetospheric radiative processes, directionality of the particle energy distribution, and geometry of the magnetic field at 100 stellar radii. For several magnetar candidates, this signal will be detectable with GEMS.
- Publication:
-
AAS/High Energy Astrophysics Division #12
- Pub Date:
- September 2011
- Bibcode:
- 2011HEAD...12.2401F