Physics
Scientific paper
Oct 2002
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002phdt.........4o&link_type=abstract
Thesis (PhD). HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Source DAI-B 63/04, p. 1890, Oct 2002, 196 pages.
Physics
Scientific paper
Neutron stars offer us a unique medium to study the physics of intense magnetic and gravitational fields. They can be magnetized so strongly that exotic quantum electrodynamical processes become important. With their strong gravity, they can gravitationally lens radiation from their own surfaces. In this thesis, I study how these fields affect the physical processes and the interactions of photons with matter on the surfaces of neutron stars and shape their observable properties. Confining magnetic fields alter the properties of electrons, protons, and atoms present in the atmospheres of neutron stars. Therefore, they modify the interactions and propagation of photons through this medium. In particular, strong fields render the interactions anisotropic and polarization-dependent. In addition, the magnetic vacuum becomes polarized due to the presence of virtual electron-positron pairs in strong fields. I study the transfer of radiation in the atmospheres of neutron stars taking into account the resonances that arise because of the polarization of vacuum and the presence of the protons and electron in the plasma. The emission from the surface of neutron stars is also modified by general relativistic effects in strong gravitational fields. I determine the signatures of gravitational lensing and identify new effects introduced by the stellar gravity on the observable properties of neutron stars. I study the uncertainties these effects introduce to the inferred properties of such sources and discuss the importance of timing studies in constraining the processes that occur in the stellar interiors and surfaces. There are several classes of neutron star sources that are thought to show thermal emission from their surfaces, offering us a window into these extreme processes. Of these, I study in detail the intriguing anomalous X-ray pulsars, the young isolated neutron stars, and the accreting stars that show thermonuclear bursts on their surfaces, in an attempt to reveal the nature of these sources and understand the physical processes that take place on the surfaces of neutron stars.
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