Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Sep 2006
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006head....9.0769b&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, HEAD meeting #9, #7.69; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 38, p.361
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
A significant new development in the study of Anomalous X-ray Pulsars (AXPs) has been the recent discovery by INTEGRAL and RXTE of flat, hard X-ray components in three AXPs. These non-thermal spectral components differ dramatically from the steeper quasi-power-law tails seen in the classic X-ray band in these sources. A prime candidate mechanism for generating this new component is resonant, magnetic Compton upscattering. This process is very efficient in the strong magnetic fields present in AXPs. In this paper we explore an inner magnetospheric model for upscattering of surface thermal X-rays in AXPs, to investigate whether such Comptonization can explain the 10-150 keV spectra seen by INTEGRAL. Non-thermal electrons are injected in the emission region at a specified altitude and magnetic colatitude, and their inverse Compton emission in interactions with the X-rays from the stellar surface is computed using collision integrals. Scattering locales associated with both closed and open field lines are considered. As we use the relativistic scattering cross section, Klein-Nishina reductions are influential in determining the photon spectra and electron cooling rates. Results are strongly dependent on the locale of electron injection, and an observer's viewing perspective or the pulse phase. The ability of this mechanism to explain both the spectral slopes of the hard X-ray tails and the constraining Comptel upper bounds in the > 750 keV band is explored, providing potential observational diagnostics on the viewing geometry, the interaction locale, and the typical Lorentz factors of the relativistic electrons.
This work was supported in part by NASA's INTEGRAL Theory program.
Baring Matthew G.
Harding Alice K.
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