Influence of relativistic effects and vacuum polarization on the transfer of gyroresonance radiation and the stability of the atmospheres of compact stars

We consider the transfer of radiation and calculate the force of its pressure in the electron gyroresonance line in the atmospheres of magnetic degenerate stars. We specify the atmospheric parameters for which an outflow of plasma is possible under radiation pressure in the cyclotron line. We show that the permittivity tensor of a mildly relativistic plasma in a strong magnetic field found by applying relativistic corrections to the cyclotron resonance condition and by taking into account the vacuum polarization and recoil effects during photon scattering should be used to obtain proper results. We have determined the real and imaginary parts of the refractive indices and the polarization coefficients for normal electromagnetic waves when scattering dominates over absorption. Relativistic effects, which change greatly the dispersion and resonant absorption of waves propagating almost perpendicular to the magnetic field, and vacuum polarization have been found to change qualitatively the gyroresonance radiation spectrum and pressure for a wide range of parameters of stellar magnetospheres.     

Statistics of the individual-pulse polarization based on propagation effects in the pulsar magnetosphere

Pulsar radio emission is modelled as a sum of two completely polarized non-orthogonal modes with the randomly varying Stokes parameters and intensity ratio. The modes are the result of polarization evolution of the original natural waves in the hot, magnetized, weakly inhomogeneous plasma of the pulsar magnetosphere. In the course of the wavemode coupling, the linearly polarized natural waves acquire purely orthogonal elliptical polarizations. Further on, as the waves pass through the cyclotron resonance, they become non-orthogonal. The pulse-to-pulse fluctuations of the final polarization characteristics and the intensity ratio of the modes are attributed to the temporal fluctuations in the plasma flow.
The model suggested allows one to reproduce the basic features of the one-dimensional distributions of the individual-pulse polarization characteristics. Besides that, the propagation origin of the pulsar polarization implies a certain correlation between the mode ellipticity and position angle. On a qualitative level, for different sets of parameters, the expected correlations appear compatible with the observed ones. Further theoretical studies are necessary to establish the quantitative correspondence of the model to the observational results and to develop a technique of diagnostics of the pulsar plasma on this basis.     

近红外偏振观测在恒星形成研究中的应用

近红外偏振是研究恒星形成的有效工具.该文介绍了近红外偏振器的工作原理,然后分几个方面介绍了近红外偏振在恒星形成研究中的应用.红外反射云能很好地示踪年轻星天体及分子外流,通过分析偏振矢量的方法确定红外反射云的偏振对称中心,从而确定它的照亮源;偏振波长相关曲线包含了年轻星天体的星周物质的很多信息;年轻星的分子外流导致了红外反射云的形成,因此红外反射云的照亮源通常与年轻星天体成协,并是分子外流的驱动源;一些年轻星天体埋藏得很深,一般在近红外波段无法直接探测到,人们称之为深埋源,通过分析偏振矢量的方法可以找到深埋源;一般认为比较年轻的年轻星天体都是有尘埃盘的,尘埃盘的存在会导致它的偏振形态出现偏振盘,偏振盘町以用来研究尘埃盘;恒星形成区里成员星的偏振主要是由尘埃的二色性消光产生的,这样偏振方向会平行于致使尘埃排列的磁场的方向,从而能够揭示磁场的结构.最后进行了总结,并论述了中远红外偏振研究的优势和意义.     

Material coefficients and transfer of polarized radio radiation in a plasma

By a perturbation and diagram resummation method, a transport equation for the transverse field polarization matrix is established. This equation is then transformed into an equation for the Stokes parameters of the radiation. The equation takes the usual form of a transfer equation; the absorption and emission coefficients are matrix, the elements of which are given as a function of the dissipative part of the microcurrent correlation tensor and conductivity tensor. Finally this equation is expressed as a system for the intensities of the proper modes. The equations of the system are usually coupled.     

Atmospheres and spectra of strongly magnetized neutron stars

We construct atmosphere models for strongly magnetized neutron stars with surface fields     and effective temperatures     . The atmospheres directly determine the characteristics of thermal emission from isolated neutron stars, including radio pulsars, soft gamma-ray repeaters, and anomalous X-ray pulsars. In our models, the atmosphere is composed of pure hydrogen or helium and is assumed to be fully ionized. The radiative opacities include free–free absorption and scattering by both electrons and ions computed for the two photon polarization modes in the magnetized electron–ion plasma. Since the radiation emerges from deep layers in the atmosphere with     , plasma effects can significantly modify the photon opacities by changing the properties of the polarization modes. In the case where the magnetic field and the surface normal are parallel, we solve the full, angle-dependent, coupled radiative transfer equations for both polarization modes. We also construct atmosphere models for general field orientations based on the diffusion approximation of the transport equations and compare the results with models based on full radiative transport. In general, the emergent thermal radiation exhibits significant deviation from blackbody, with harder spectra at high energies. The spectra also show a broad feature     around the ion cyclotron resonance     , where Z and A are the atomic charge and atomic mass of the ion, respectively; this feature is particularly pronounced when     . Detection of the resonance feature would provide a direct measurement of the surface magnetic fields on magnetars.     

Propagation characteristics of hydromagnetic waves in a cold plasma mixed with a hot plasma and right-hand polarized Pc1 and Pc5

Propagation characteristics of hydromagnetic waves in a cold plasma mixed with a hot plasma under a uniform static magnetic field are investigated. The existence of cold plasma seriously affects the polarization properties of the waves. The results are applied to the interpretation of Pcl and Pc5 with righthand polarizations guided along the geomagnetic field line.     

The interpretation of hard X-ray polarization measurements in solar flares

We review recent observations of polarization of moderately hard X-rays in solar flares and compare them with the predictions of recent detailed modeling of hard X-ray bremsstrahlung production by non-thermal electrons. We find that the recent advances in the complexity of the modeling lead to substantially lower predicted polarizations than in earlier models and more fully highlight how various parameters play a role in determining the polarization of the radiation field. The new predicted polarizations are comparable to those predicted by thermal modeling of solar flare hard X-ray production, and both are in agreement with the observations. In the light of these results, we propose new polarization observations with current generation instruments which could be used to discriminate between non-thermal and thermal models of hard X-ray production in solar flares.     

Investigation of some of the principal geometric effects on planetary polarization

Three major geometric factors which are likely to influence theoretical interpretation of planetary polarization measurements, viz., observer—planet distance, horizontal inhomogeneity of planetary disk, and deviation from a spherical body, are investigated.The distance effect is examined for regional as well as global polarizations. For convenience of analysis, the expressions for zenith and azimuth angles of incident and emergent light appropriate for a snap-shot observation are derived as explicit functions of distance between observer and planet. Sample computations for Venus indicate that regional polarization near the planetary limb is significantly affected by the observer's distance. This effect should be particularly noticeable when an observation is made at a phase angle around which the single scattering polarization of atmospheric scattering agents exhibits a steep variation. The global polarization at large phase angles (measured at disk-center) is gradually moved toward smaller phase angles, as the observer approaches the planet. Any narrow polarization features such as rainbow and glory at small phase angles are heavily smoothed out.The effects of horizontal inhomogeneity are investigated with a planetary disk having highly polarizing regions at high latitudes. Comparison of theoretical global polarization computed for such a disk with the Pioneer Venus OCPP measurements shows a possible change in cloud-haze stratification approximately at 50° latitude, consistent with other imaging observations. An approximate analytical representation of residual polarization at zero phase angle is then derived to compare to the numerical results for Venus. An attempt is also made to explain the relatively large magnitude of residual polarization observed on Jupiter.Finally, to study the effects of nonsphericity of planetary body, the global polarizations are computed for a spheroidal planet. The global polarization tends to increase as the planet's oblateness increases. However, for Jupiter and Saturn, such effect may be of secondary importance.     

Polarization transfer in a pulsar magnetosphere

Propagation of radio waves in the ultrarelativistic magnetized electron–positron plasma of a pulsar magnetosphere is considered. The polarization state of the original natural waves is found to vary markedly on account of the wave mode coupling and cyclotron absorption. The change is most pronounced when the regions of mode coupling and cyclotron resonance approximately coincide. In cases when the wave mode coupling occurs above and below the resonance region, the resultant polarization appears essentially distinct. The main result of the paper is that in the former case the polarization modes become non-orthogonal. The analytical treatment of the equations of polarization transfer is accompanied by numerical calculations. The observational consequences of polarization evolution in pulsar plasma are discussed as well.     

Performance analysis of differential speckle polarimetry

We consider a method for obtaining information on polarization of astronomical objects radiation at diffraction limited resolution—differential speckle polarimetry. As an observable we propose to use averaged cross spectrum of two short-exposure images corresponding to orthogonal polarizations, normalized by averaged power spectrum of one of images. Information on polarization can be extracted if object under study can be described by model with several parameters. We consider two examples: pointlike source whose photocenter position depends on orientation of passing polarization and exozodiacal dust disc around a star. In first case the difference between photocenter positions can be measured with precision of 8 µas for 2.5-m telescope and 1.2 µas for 6-m telescope for object V = 13 ^m . For second example method allows detection of discs around central star of V = 1 ^m with fractional luminosities of 1.8 × 10^?5 and 5.6 × 10^?6 for 2.5- and 6-m telescope, respectively.     

Solar wind energy transfer regions inside the dayside magnetopause—I. Evidence for magnetosheath plasma penetration

PROGNOZ-7 high temporal resolution measurements of the ion composition and hot plasma distribution in the dayside high latitude boundary layer near noon have revealed that magnetosheath plasma may penetrate the dayside magnetopause and form high density, high β, magnetosheath-like regions inside the magnetopause. We will from these measurements demonstrate that the magnetosheath injection regions most probably play an important role in transferring solar wind energy into the magnetosphere. The transfer regions are characterized by a strong perpendicular flow towards dawn or dusk (depending on local time) but are also observed to expand rapidly along the boundary layer field lines. This increased flow component transverse to the local magnetic field corresponds to a predominantly radial electric field of up to several mV m^?1, which indicates that the injected magnetosheath plasma causes an enhanced polarization of the boundary layer. Polarization of the boundary layer can therefore be considered a result of a local MHD-process where magnetosheath plasma excess momentum is converted into electromagnetic energy (electric field), i.e. we have primarily an MHD-generator there. We state primarily because we also observe acceleration of “cold” ions inside the magnetopause as a result of this radial electric field. A few cases of polarity reversals suggest that the polarization is sometimes quite localized.The perhaps most significant finding is that the boundary layer is observed to be charged up to tens of kilovolts, a potential which may be highly variable depending on e.g. the presence of a momentum exchange by the energy transfer regions.     

Polarization spectra of synchrotron radiation and the plasma composition of relativistic jets

We investigate the problem of determining the plasma composition of relativistic jets in blazars and microquasars from the polarization frequency spectra of their synchrotron radiation. The effect of plasma composition on this radiation is attributable to a change in the structure of the ordinary and extraordinary waves in plasma, depending on the presence of a nonrelativistic electron-proton component in it and on the type of relativistic particles (electrons, positrons). The structure of the normal waves determines the properties of the observed radiation and primarily the shape of the polarization frequency spectrum. Our analytic calculations of the polarization spectra for simple models of jets with a uniform magnetic field and with a magnetic-field shear revealed characteristic features in the polarization spectra. These features allow us to differentiate between the synchrotron radiation from an admixture of relativistic particles in a cold plasma and the radiation from a relativistic plasma. However, definitive conclusions regarding the relativistic plasma composition (electrons or electron-positron pairs) can be reached only by a detailed analysis of the polarization frequency spectra that will be obtained in future radioastronomical studies with high angular and frequency resolutions.     

A survey of polarization in the JVAS/CLASS flat-spectrum radio source surveys – I. The data and catalogue production

We have used the very large JVAS/CLASS 8.4-GHz surveys of flat-spectrum radio sources to obtain a large, uniformly observed and calibrated, sample of radio source polarizations. These are useful for many investigations of the properties of radio sources and the interstellar medium. We discuss comparisons with polarization measurements from this survey and from other large-scale surveys of polarization in flat-spectrum sources.     

Near-infrared imaging polarimetry of young stellar objects in ρ Ophiuchi

The results of a near-infrared ( J H K L _P) imaging linear polarimetry survey of 20 young stellar objects (YSOs) in ρ Ophiuchi are presented. The majority of the sources are unresolved, with K -band polarizations, P _K < 6 per cent. Several objects are associated with extended reflection nebulae. These objects have centrosymmetric vector patterns with polarization discs over their cores; maximum polarizations of P _K > 20 per cent are seen over their envelopes. Correlations are observed between the degree of core polarization and the evolutionary status inferred from the spectral energy distribution. K -band core polarizations >6 per cent are only observed in Class I YSOs.
A 3D Monte Carlo model with oblate grains aligned with a magnetic field is used to investigate the flux distributions and polarization structures of three of the ρ Oph YSOs with extended nebulae. A ρ∝ r ^−1.5 power law for the density is applied throughout the envelopes. The large-scale centrosymmetric polarization structures are due to scattering. However, the polarization structure in the bright core of the nebula appears to require dichroic extinction by aligned non-spherical dust grains. The position angle indicates a toroidal magnetic field in the inner part of the envelope. Since the measured polarizations attributed to dichroic extinction are usually ≤10 per cent, the grains must either be nearly spherical or very weakly aligned. The higher polarizations observed in the outer parts of the reflection nebulae require that the dust grains responsible for scattering have maximum grain sizes 1.05 μm.     

The Zeeman effect in the Sobolev approximation: applications to spherical stellar winds

Modern spectropolarimeters are capable of detecting subkilogauss field strengths using the Zeeman effect in line profiles from the static photosphere, but supersonic Doppler broadening makes it more difficult to detect the Zeeman effect in the wind lines of hot stars. Nevertheless, the recent advances in observational capability motivate an assessment of the potential for detecting the magnetic fields threading such winds. We incorporate the weak-field longitudinal Zeeman effect in the Sobolev approximation to yield integral expressions for the flux of circularly polarized emission. To illustrate the results, two specific wind flows are considered: (i) spherical constant expansion with   v ( r ) = v _∞  and (ii) homologous expansion with   v ( r ) ∝ r   . Axial and split monopole magnetic fields are used to schematically illustrate the polarized profiles. For constant expansion, optically thin lines yield the well-known 'flat-topped' total intensity emission profiles and an antisymmetric circularly polarized profile. For homologous expansion, we include occultation and wind absorption to provide a more realistic observational comparison. Occultation severely reduces the circularly polarized flux in the redshifted component, and in the blueshifted component, the polarization is reduced by partially offsetting emission and absorption contributions. We find that for a surface field of approximately 100 G, the largest polarizations result for thin but strong recombination emission lines. Peak polarizations are approximately 0.05 per cent, which presents a substantial although not inconceivable sensitivity challenge for modern instrumentation.     

Near-infrared imaging polarimetry of dusty young stars

We have carried out JHK polarimetric observations of 11 dusty young stars, by using the polarimeter module IRPOL2 with the near-infrared camera UIST on the 3.8-m United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT). Our sample targeted systems for which UKIRT-resolvable discs had been predicted by model fits to their spectral energy distributions. Our observations have confirmed the presence of extended polarized emission around TW Hya and around HD 169142. HD 150193 and HD 142666 show the largest polarization values among our sample, but no extended structure was resolved. By combining our observations with Hubble Space Telescope (HST) coronographic data from the literature, we derive the J - and H -band intrinsic polarization radial dependences of the disc of TW Hya. We find the polarizing efficiency of the disc is higher at H than at J , and we confirm that the J - and H -band percentage polarizations are reasonably constant with radius in the region between 0.9 and 1.3 arcsec from the star. We find that the objects for which we have detected extended polarizations are those for which previous modelling has suggested the presence of flared discs, which are predicted to be brighter than flat discs and thus would be easier to detect polarimetrically.     

Auroral ion velocity distribution function: The Boltzmann model revisited

The velocity distribution of ion populations is calculated for auroral conditions where strong convection electric fields exist. The Boltzmann equation has been solved for the E and F regions of the ionosphere where plasma is weakly dense, weakly ionized and where the ion-neutral collision frequency is small in regard to the ion cyclotron frequency. The ion distribution function has been expanded in a generalized orthogonal polynomial series about a bi-Maxwellian “temperature” varying weight function. This generalized Grad solution expansion enables us to obtain good approximations for electric field strengths as large as 75 mV m^?1 and 115 mV m^?1 respectively, for both the resonant charge exchange and the polarization collision models. The instability threshold of these distribution functions appears to be higher than the two respective electric field strengths considered above.     

A new moment method for continuum radiative transfer in cosmological re-ionization

We introduce a new code for computing time-dependent continuum radiative transfer and non-equilibrium ionization states in static density fields with periodic boundaries. Our code solves the moments of the radiative transfer equation, closed by an Eddington tensor computed using a long characteristics (LC) method. We show that traditional short characteristics and the optically thin approximation are inappropriate for computing Eddington factors for the problem of cosmological re-ionization. We evolve the non-equilibrium ionization field via an efficient and accurate (errors <1 per cent) technique that switches between fully implicit or explicit finite differencing depending on whether the local time-scales are long or short compared to the time-step. We tailor our code for the problem of cosmological re-ionization. In tests, the code conserves photons, accurately treats cosmological effects and reproduces analytic Strömgren sphere solutions. Its chief weakness is that the computation time for the LC calculation scales relatively poorly compared to other techniques  ( t _LC∝ N ^∼1.5_cells)  ; however, we mitigate this by only recomputing the Eddington tensor when the radiation field changes substantially. Our technique makes almost no physical approximations, so it provides a way to benchmark faster but more approximate techniques. It can readily be extended to evolve multiple frequencies, though we do not do so here. Finally, we note that our method is generally applicable to any problem involving the transfer of continuum radiation through a periodic volume.     

Linear and Circular Polarization Properties of Jets

I discuss the transfer of polarized synchrotron radiation in relativistic jets. I argue that the main mechanism responsible for the circular polarization properties of compact synchrotron sources is likely to be Faraday conversion and that, contrary to common expectation, a significant rate of Faraday rotation does not necessarily imply strong depolarization. The long-term persistence of the sign of circular polarization, observed in some sources, is most likely due to a small net magnetic flux generated in the central engine, carried along the jet axis and superimposed on a highly turbulent magnetic field. I show that the mean levels of circular and linear polarizations depend on the number of field reversals along the line of sight and that the gradient in Faraday rotation across turbulent regions can lead to`correlation depolarization'. The model is potentially applicable to a wide range of synchrotron sources. In particular, I demonstrate how the model can naturally explain the excess of circular over linear polarization in the Galactic Center (SgrA^*) and the low-luminosity AGN M81^*.