Spin Filtering of Stored (Anti)Protons: from FILTEX to COSY to AD to FAIR

We review the theory of spin filtering of stored (anti)protons by multiple passage through the polarized internal target (PIT). Implications for the antiproton polarization buildup in the proposed PAX experiment at FAIR GSI are discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, Presented at the 17th Intl. Spin Physics Symposium, SPIN2006, Kyoto, Japan, October 2-7, 200

Radiation spectra and polarization in magnetar bursts

We present Monte Carlo simulations of radiative transfer in magnetar atmospheres. We include the effects of vacuum polarization, electron and proton scattering, and free-free absorption. Simulations are performed for the atmosphere model with the magnetic field perpendicular and also tilted with respect to the neutron star surface, and we show that the average spectrum does not strongly depend on the orientation of the magnetic field. We investigate the region of the parameter space where the vacuum absorption-like feature appears in the spectrum and we analyze the shape of the proton cyclotron line. Our results indicate that the existence of the vacuum polarization feature should be a general attribute of soft gamma-ray repeaters burst spectra, provided that the energy release takes place at the sufficiently dense region, and the atmosphere scaleheight is large enough. We discuss the existence of such a feature in recent observational data on these sources.Comment: submitted to Ap