2003/02/07 by Dong Lai, W. C. G. Ho, Lai, Dong +2
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Geophysics and Gravity Measurements #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0302156
10 pages with 5 figures. To appear in "High Energy Processes and Phenomena in Astrophysics, IAU Symposium 214, X. Li, Z. Wang, V. Trimble (eds)
arxiv created 2003/02/07 · openalex publication_date 2003/02/07 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Thermal surface emissions have now been detected from more than a dozen isolated neutron stars, including radio pulsars, radio-quiet neutron stars and magnetars. These detections can potentially provide important information on the interior physics, magnetic fields, and surface composition of neutron stars. Understanding the properties of matter and radiative transfer in strong magnetic fields is essential for the proper interpretation of the observations. We review current theoretical works on modeling magnetized neutron star atmospheres/surface layers, discussing some of the novel properties of matter and radiative transfer in strong magnetic fields. Of particular interest is the effect of the strong-field vacuum polarization, which dramatically changes the radiative transfer and the emergent X-ray spectra from magnetars.