Further comments on the effects of vacuum birefringence on the polarization of X-rays emitted from magnetic neutron stars

Details Further comments on the effects of vacuum birefringence on the polarization of X-rays emitted from magnetic neutron stars Further comments on the effects of vacuum birefringence on the polarization of X-rays emitted from magnetic neutron stars

Mar 1979

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1979apj...228l..71c&link_type=abstract

Astrophysical Journal, Part 2 - Letters to the Editor, vol. 228, Mar. 1, 1979, p. L71-L74.

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

15

Birefringence, Magnetic Stars, Neutron Stars, Polarization Characteristics, X Ray Sources, Cyclotron Radiation, Depolarization, Linear Polarization, Stellar Magnetic Fields, Synchrotron Radiation

Scientific paper

The birefringence of the vacuum in the presence of strong (of the order of 1 teragauss) magnetic fields will in general affect the polarization of X-rays propagating through these fields. Two of the four Stokes parameters will vary so rapidly with wavelength as to be 'washed out' and unobservable, but the remaining two parameters will be unaffected. These results show that one conclusion of an earlier work is incorrect: Polarized X-ray emission from the surface of a magnetic neutron star will not in general be completely depolarized by the effects of vacuum birefringence. In particular, this birefringence has no effect on the linear polarization of cyclotron emission from the poles of magnetic neutron stars, and a similar result holds for synchrotron emission. More general cases of the propagation of polarized X-rays in magnetic fields are also discussed.

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