Related papers: X-ray polarization from accreting white dwarfs and…
Compton scattering within the accretion column of magnetic cataclysmic variables (mCVs) can induce a net polarization in the X-ray emission. We investigate this process using Monte Carlo simulations and find that significant polarization…
The accretion column in magnetic Cataclysmic Variables may have a not negligible Thomson optical depth. A fraction of the thermal radiation from the post-shock region may therefore be scattered - and then polarized - before escaping the…
X-ray polarimetry is a fine tool to probe the accretion geometry and physical processes operating in the proximity of compact objects, black holes and neutron stars. Recent discoveries made by the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer put our…
High-energy data of accreting white dwarfs give access to the regime of the primary accretion-induced energy release and the different proposed accretion scenarios. We perform XMM-Newton observations of polars selected due to their ROSAT…
We present the expected X-ray polarization signal resulting from distant reprocessing material around black holes. Using a central isotropic power-law emission at the center of the simulated model, we add distant equatorial and axially…
We investigate the polarization of Compton scattered X-rays from relativistic jets in active galactic nuclei using Monte Carlo simulations. We consider three scenarios: scattering of photons from an accretion disk, scattering of cosmic…
Radiation of X-ray bursts and of accretion shocks in weakly magnetized neutron stars in low-mass X-ray binaries is produced in plane-parallel atmospheres dominated by electron scattering. We first discuss polarization produced by single…
Polarimetry provides key physical information on the properties of interacting binary systems, sometimes difficult to obtain by any other type of observation. Indeed, radiation processes such as scattering by free electrons in the hot…
We review the X-ray spectral properties of magnetic cataclysmic binaries derived from observations obtained during the last decade with the large X-ray observatories XMM-Newton, Chandra and Suzaku. We focus on the signatures of the…
The majority of cataclysmic variables observed in the hard X-ray energy band are intermediate polars where the magnetic field is strong enough to channel the accreting matter to the magnetic poles of the white dwarf. A shock above the…
The radiation-dominated polar emitting region of an accreting X-ray pulsar is simulated numerically in the framework of a three-dimensional (geometrically two-dimensional) model. The radiative transfer within the emitting region and the…
We develop a Monte Carlo Comptonization model for the X-ray spectrum of accretion-powered pulsars. Simple, spherical, thermal Comptonization models give harder spectra for higher optical depth, while the observational data from Vela X-1…
We report a time averaged 2--8 keV X-ray polarization degree (PD) of $8.5\pm 1.6\%$ ($>3 \sigma$ detection) from the accretion-disc-corona (ADC) neutron-star system 2S 0921-630 (=V395 Car) observed with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry…
Among hard X-ray galactic sources detected by INTEGRAL and Swift surveys, those discovered as accreting white dwarfs have surprisingly boosted in number, representing 20% of the galactic sample. The majority are identified as magnetic…
We compute rest-frame reflection spectra and the corresponding energy-dependent linear polarization degree and angle for (un)polarized single-temperature blackbody spectra impinging on a partially ionized constant-density optically thick…
The Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer is an X-ray observatory measuring the X-ray polarization in the 2-8 keV energy range. Highly sensitive to the system's geometry, X-ray polarization is a unique method to probe the structure of X-ray…
We discuss a model of an X-ray illuminating source above an accretion disk of a rotating black hole. Within the so called lamp-post scheme we compute the expected (observed) polarization properties of the radiation reaching an observer. We…
Among hard X-ray Galactic sources detected in the Swift and INTEGRAL surveys, those discovered as accreting white dwarf binaries have suprisingly boosted in number in the recent years. The majority are identified as magnetic Cataclysmic…
We investigate the hydrodynamics of accretion channelled by a dipolar magnetic field (funnel flows). We consider situations in which the electrons and ions in the flow cannot maintain thermal equilibrium (two-temperature effects) due to…
Context. The energy balance of cataclysmic variables with strong magnetic fields is a central subject in understanding accretion processes on magnetic white dwarfs. With XMM-Newton, we perform a spectroscopic and photometric study of soft…