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Quantum nature of cyclotron harmonics in thermal spectra of neutron stars | | V. F. Suleimanov
; G. G. Pavlov
; K. Werner
; | | Date: |
6 Jan 2010 | | Abstract: | Some isolated neutron stars show harmonically spaced absorption features in
their thermal soft X-ray spectra. The interpretation of the features as a
cyclotron line and its harmonics has been suggested, but the usual explanation
of the harmonics as caused by relativistic effects fails because the
relativistic corrections are extremely small in this case. We suggest that the
features correspond to the peaks in the energy dependence of the free-free
opacity in a quantizing magnetic field. The peaks arise when the transitions to
new Landau levels become allowed with increasing the photon energy; they are
strongly enhanced by the square-root singularities in the phase-space density
of quantum states in the case when the free (non-quantized) motion is
effectively one-dimensional. To explore observable properties of the quantum
oscillations, we calculate models of hydrogen neutron star atmospheres with B
sim 10^{10} - 10^{11} G (i.e., electron cyclotron energy E_{c,e}sim 0.1 -1
keV) and T_{
m eff} = 1- 3 MK. Such conditions are thought to be typical for
the so-called central compact objects in supernova remnants, such as 1E
1207.4-5209 in PKS 1209-51/52. We show that observable features at the electron
cyclotron harmonics form at moderately large values of the quantization
parameter, b_{eff} = E_{c,e}/kT_{eff} simeq 0.5 - 20. The equivalent widths of
the features can reach 100--200 eV; they grow with increasing b_{
m eff} and
are lower for higher harmonics. We note that the harmonically spaced absorption
features detected in some "dim isolated neutron stars" could be due to quantum
oscillations caused by quantization of proton motion in very strong magnetic
fields, B sim (1 - 3) imes 10^{13} G. | | Source: | arXiv, 1001.0973 | | Services: | Forum | Review | PDF | Favorites | |
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