X-ray polarimetry missions like IXPE will be able to measure for the first time the polarization properties of accreting, weakly magnetized neutron stars in Low Mass X-ray Binaries. In this work we present simulations of the expected X-ray polarized signal including the coronal emission for different geometries of the corona itself, i.e. a slab above the accretion disc and a spherical shell around the neutron star. The simulations are performed with the fully relativistic Monte Carlo code monk capable of computing the X-ray polarization degree and angle for various physical input parameters of the neutron star, disc and corona. Different coronal geometries result in significantly different X-ray polarization properties, which can therefore be used to constrain the geometry of the systems.
@article{arxiv.2206.00749,
title = {Polarization properties of weakly magnetized Neutron Stars in Low Mass X-ray Binaries},
author = {Andrea Gnarini and Francesco Ursini and Giorgio Matt and Stefano Bianchi and Fiamma Capitanio and Massimo Cocchi and Ruben Farinelli and Wenda Zhang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2206.00749},
year = {2022}
}