Neutron stars - thermal emitters
Abstract
Confronting theoretical models with observations of thermal radiation emitted by neutron stars is one of the most important ways to understand the properties of both, superdense matter in the interiors of the neutron stars and dense magnetized plasmas in their outer layers. Here we review the theory of thermal emission from the surface layers of strongly magnetized neutron stars, and the main properties of the observational data. In particular, we focus on the nearby sources for which a clear thermal component has been detected, without being contaminated by other emission processes (magnetosphere, accretion, nebulae). We also discuss the applications of the modern theoretical models of the formation of spectra of strongly magnetized neutron stars to the observed thermally emitting objects.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1409.7666,
title = {Neutron stars - thermal emitters},
author = {A. Y. Potekhin and A. De Luca and J. A. Pons},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1409.7666},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
39 pages, 5 figures, 1 table, invited topical review, in The Strongest Magnetic Fields in the Universe, ed. V.S. Beskin et al. (Space Sciences Series of ISSI, Springer). In v2, Eq.(7) is corrected. In v.3, a typo in Eq.(38) is fixed and references updated