Journal ArticleDOI
Compton scattering in strong magnetic fields
J. K. Daugherty,Alice K. Harding +1 more
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TLDR
The relativistic cross section for Compton scattering by electrons in strong magnetic fields is derived in this article, where the relative rates for excited state transitions are found to be significant, especially for incident photon energies several times the cyclotron frequency.Abstract:
The relativistic cross section for Compton scattering by electrons in strong magnetic fields is derived. The results confirm and extend earlier work which has treated only transitions to the lowest or first excited Landau levels. For the teragauss field strengths expected in neutron star magnetospheres, the relative rates for excited state transitions are found to be significant, especially for incident photon energies several times the cyclotron frequency. Since these transitions must result in the rapid emission of one or more cyclotron photons as well as the Compton-scattered photon, the scattering process actually becomes a photon 'splitting' mechanism which acts to soften hard photon spectra, and also provides a specific mechanism for populating higher Landau levels in the electron distribution function. The results should be significant for models of gamma-ray bursters and pulsating X-ray sources.read more
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Journal ArticleDOI
Physics of strongly magnetized neutron stars
Alice K. Harding,Dong Lai +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the exotic physics of high magnetic field regime was discussed, where a new array of processes becomes possible and even dominant and where familiar processes acquire unusual properties, including free particles, atoms, molecules, plasma and condensed matter in strong magnetic fields, photon propagation in magnetized plasmas, freeparticle radiative processes, the physics of neutron star interiors and field evolution and decay mechanisms.
Journal ArticleDOI
Particle Acceleration Zones above Pulsar Polar Caps: Electron and Positron Pair Formation Fronts
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate self-consistent particle acceleration near a pulsar polar cap by the electrostatic field due to the effect of inertial frame dragging and find that stable acceleration zones may occur at some distance above the surface, where curvature radiation dominates the electron and positron energy losses.
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Pulsar Polar Cap Heating and Surface Thermal X-Ray Emission. II. Inverse Compton Radiation Pair Fronts
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the production of electron-positron pairs by inverse Compton scattered (ICS) photons above a pulsar polar cap (PC) and calculated surface heating by returning positrons.
Journal ArticleDOI
On the maximum accretion luminosity of magnetized neutron stars: connecting X-ray pulsars and ultraluminous X-ray sources
Alexander A. Mushtukov,Alexander A. Mushtukov,Valery F. Suleimanov,Valery F. Suleimanov,Sergey S. Tsygankov,Juri Poutanen +5 more
TL;DR: In this article, a simplified model of the accretion column was used to estimate the maximal possible luminosity of a neutron star as a function of its magnetic field and spin period.
Journal ArticleDOI
Photon Splitting and Pair Creation in Highly Magnetized Pulsars
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the possibility of another pulsar "death line" in the context of polar cap models, corresponding to high magnetic fields B in the upper portion of the period-period derivative diagram, a domain where few radio pulsars are observed.