59 research outputs found
Magnetized Iron Atmospheres for Neutron Stars
Using a Hartree-Fock formalism, we estimate energy levels and photon cross
sections for atomic iron in magnetic fields B ~ 10^13 G. Computing ionization
equilibrium and normal mode opacities with these data, we construct LTE neutron
star model atmospheres at 5.5 < Log(T_eff) < 6.5 and compute emergent spectra.
We examine the dependence of the emergent spectra on T_eff and B. We also show
the spectral variation with the angle between the magnetic field and the
atmosphere normal and describe the significant limb darkening in the X-ray
band. These results are compared with recent detailed computations of neutron
star H model atmospheres in high fields and with low field Fe and H model
atmospheres constructed from detailed opacities. The large spectral differences
for different surface compositions may be discernible with present X-ray data;
we also note improvements needed to allow comparison of Fe models with high
quality spectra.Comment: 18 pages with 5 eps figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Replaced
due to clerical error only: one more author, no new conten
Powering Anomalous X-ray Pulsars by Neutron Star Cooling
Using recently calculated analytic models for the thermal structure of
ultramagnetized neutron stars, we estimate the thermal fluxes from young
( yr) ultramagnetized ( G) cooling neutron stars.
We find that the pulsed X-ray emission from objects such as 1E 1841-045 and 1E
2259+586 as well as many soft-gamma repeaters can be explained by photon
cooling if the neutron star possesses a thin insulating envelope of matter of
low atomic weight at densities g/cm. The total mass
of this insulating layer is .Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure, to appear in Ap.J. Letters (one reference entry
corrected, no other changes
Equation of state and opacities for hydrogen atmospheres of magnetars
The equation of state and radiative opacities of partially ionized, strongly
magnetized hydrogen plasmas, presented in a previous paper [ApJ 585, 955
(2003), astro-ph/0212062] for the magnetic field strengths 8.e11 G < B < 3.e13
G, are extended to the field strengths 3.e13 G < B < 1.e15 G, relevant for
magnetars. The first- and second-order thermodynamic functions and radiative
opacities are calculated and tabulated for 5.e5 < T < 4.e7 K in a wide range of
densities. We show that bound-free transitions give an important contribution
to the opacities in the considered range of B in the outer neutron-star
atmosphere layers. Unlike the case of weaker fields, bound-bound transitions
are unimportant.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, LaTeX using emulateapj.cls (included). Accepted
by Ap
X-ray observations of the high magnetic field radio pulsar PSR J1814-1744
PSR J1814-1744 is a 4 s radio pulsar with surface dipole magnetic field
strength 5.5*10^13 G, inferred assuming simple magnetic dipole braking. This
pulsar's spin parameters are very similar to those of anomalous X-ray pulsars
(AXPs), suggesting that this may be a transition object between the radio
pulsar and AXP population, if AXPs are isolated, high magnetic field neutron
stars as has recently been hypothesized. We present archival X-ray observations
of PSR J1814-1744 made with ROSAT and ASCA. X-ray emission is not detected from
the position of the radio pulsar. The derived upper flux limit implies an X-ray
luminosity significantly smaller than those of all known AXPs. This conclusion
is insensitive to the possibility that X-ray emission from PSR J1814-1744 is
beamed or that it undergoes modest variability. When interpreted in the context
of the magnetar mechanism, these results argue that X-ray emission from AXPs
must depend on more than merely the inferred surface magnetic field strength.
This suggests distinct evolutionary paths for radio pulsars and AXP, despite
their proximity in period--period derivative phase space.Comment: 11 pages, including 2 embedded figures. Accepted by Ap
The Compact Central Object in the Supernova Remnant G266.2-1.2
We observed the compact central object CXOU J085201.4--461753 in the
supernova remnant G266.2--1.2 (RX J0852.0--4622) with the Chandra ACIS detector
in timing mode. The spectrum of this object can be described by a blackbody
model with the temperature kT=404 eV and radius of the emitting region R=0.28
km, at a distance of 1 kpc. Power-law and thermal plasma models do not fit the
source spectrum. The spectrum shows a marginally significant feature at 1.68
keV. Search for periodicity yields two candidate periods, about 301 ms and 33
ms, both significant at a 2.1 sigma level; the corresponding pulsed fractions
are 13% and 9%, respectively. We find no evidence for long-term variability of
the source flux, nor do we find extended emission around the central object. We
suggest that CXOU J085201.4--461753 is similar to CXOU J232327.9+584842, the
central source of the supernova remnant Cas A. It could be either a neutron
star with a low or regular magnetic field, slowly accreting from a fossil disk,
or, more likely, an isolated neutron star with a superstrong magnetic field. In
either case, a conservative upper limit on surface temperature of a 10 km
radius neutron star is about 90 eV, which suggests accelerated cooling for a
reasonable age of a few thousand years.Comment: Accepted to ApJ, 13 pages, 1 figur
Radiation of Neutron Stars Produced by Superfluid Core
We find that neutron star interior is transparent for collisionless electron
sound, the same way as it is transparent for neutrinos. In the presence of
magnetic field the electron sound is coupled with electromagnetic radiation and
form the fast magnetosonic wave. We find that electron sound is generated by
superfluid vortices in the stellar core. Thermally excited helical vortex waves
produce fast magnetosonic waves in the stellar crust which propagate toward the
surface and transform into outgoing electromagnetic radiation. The vortex
radiation has the spectral index -0.45 and can explain nonthermal radiation of
middle-aged pulsars observed in the infrared, optical and hard X-ray bands. The
radiation is produced in the stellar interior which allows direct determination
of the core temperature. Comparing the theory with available spectra
observations we find that the core temperature of the Vela pulsar is T=8*10^8K,
while the core temperature of PSR B0656+14 and Geminga exceeds 2*10^8K. This is
the first measurement of the temperature of a neutron star core. The
temperature estimate rules out equation of states incorporating Bose
condensations of pions or kaons and quark matter in these objects. Based on the
temperature estimate and cooling models we determine the critical temperature
of triplet neutron superfluidity in the Vela core Tc=(7.5\pm 1.5)*10^9K which
agrees well with recent data on behavior of nucleon interactions at high
energies. Another finding is that in the middle aged neutron stars the vortex
radiation, rather then thermal conductivity, is the main mechanism of heat
transfer from the stellar core to the surface. Electron sound opens a
perspective of direct spectroscopic study of superdense matter in the neutron
star interiors.Comment: 43 pages, 7 figures, to appear in Astrophysical Journa
Hydrogen atom moving across a strong magnetic field: analytical approximations
Analytical approximations are constructed for binding energies,
quantum-mechanical sizes and oscillator strengths of main radiative transitions
of hydrogen atoms arbitrarily moving in magnetic fields 10^{12}-10^{13} G.
Examples of using the obtained approximations for determination of maximum
transverse velocity of an atom and for evaluation of absorption spectra in
magnetic neutron star atmospheres are presented.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures, 5 tables, LaTeX with IOP style files (included).
In v.2, Fig.1 and Table 5 have been corrected. In v.3, a misprint in the fit
for oscillator strengths, Eq.(21), has been correcte
Surface Emission Properties of Strongly Magnetic Neutron Stars
We construct radiative equilibrium models for strongly magnetized (B > 10^13
G) neutron-star atmospheres taking into account magnetic free-free absorption
and scattering processes computed for two polarization modes. We include the
effects of vacuum polarization in our calculations. We present temperature
profiles and the angle-, photon energy-, and polarization-dependent emerging
intensity for a range of magnetic field strengths and effective temperatures of
the atmospheres. We find that for B < 10^14 G, the emerging spectra are bluer
than the blackbody corresponding to the effective temperature, T_eff, with
modified Planckian shapes due to the photon-energy dependence of the magnetic
opacities. However, vacuum polarization significantly modifies the spectra for
B~10^15 G, giving rise to power-law tails at high photon energies. The
angle-dependence (beaming) of the emerging intensity has two maxima: a narrow
(pencil) peak at small angles (<5 degrees) with respect to the normal and a
broad maximum (fan beam) at intermediate angles (~20-60 degrees). The relative
importance and the opening angle of the radial beam decreases strongly with
increasing magnetic field strength and decreasing photon energy. We finally
compute a T_eff-T_c relation for our models, where T_c is the local color
temperature of the spectrum emerging from the neutron star surface, and find
that T_c/T_eff ranges between 1.1-1.8. We discuss the implications of our
results for various thermally emitting neutron star models.Comment: 30 pages, 10 color figures, ApJ in pres
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