Related papers: X-ray Polarization Signatures from Comptonization …
A radiative mechanism is proposed for magnetic flares near luminous accreting black holes. It is based on recent first-principle simulations of magnetic reconnection, which show a hierarchical chain of fast-moving plasmoids. The…
We perform two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations of reconnection in magnetically dominated electron-positron plasmas subject to strong Compton cooling. We vary the magnetization $\sigma\gg1$, defined as the ratio of magnetic tension…
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…
We perform two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations of magnetic reconnection in electron-ion plasmas subject to strong Compton cooling and calculate the X-ray spectra produced by this process. The simulations are performed for…
High energies emissions observed in X-ray binaries (XRBs), active galactic nuclei (AGNs) are linearly polarized. The prominent mechanism for X-ray is the Comptonization process. We revisit the theory for polarization in Compton scattering…
Magnetars are neutron stars that host huge, complex magnetic fields which require supporting currents to flow along the closed field lines. This makes magnetar atmospheres different from those of passively cooling neutron stars because of…
We perform two- and three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations of reconnection in magnetically-dominated pair plasmas subject to strong Compton cooling. Reconnection under such conditions operates in accretion disk coronae around black…
We investigate the polarization properties of Comptonized X-rays from relativistic jets in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) using Monte Carlo simulations. We consider three scenarios commonly proposed for the observed X-ray emission in AGN:…
In the magnetar model, the quiescent non-thermal soft X-ray emission from Anomalous X-ray Pulsars and Soft-Gamma Repeaters is thought to arise from resonant comptonization of thermal photons by charges moving in a twisted magnetosphere.…
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 pulsars is powered by accretion on the neutron star surface from a binary companion under the influence of a strong magnetic field. We study beaming of this radiation in the case of subcritical X-ray pulsars, where it is…
Magnetars are a subclass of neutron stars with ultra-strong surface magnetic fields. Some magnetars exhibit persistent hard X-ray emission, characterized by power-law tails with photon indices around 1--1.5, extending from ${\sim}$10 keV to…
Selected topics dealing with X-ray/soft gamma-ray emission from accreting black-hole sources are reviewed. The shape of soft gamma-ray spectra of Seyferts observed by OSSE can be well modelled by thermal Comptonization. A very strong…
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…
A BeppoSAX survey of bright Neutron Star (NS) systems in globular clusters, together with the results obtained on Galactic LMXRB, suggests that a two-component model is a reasonable description of the 0.1-200 keV spectra. At energies lower…
The majority of X-ray-detected rotation-powered millisecond pulsars (MSPs) appear to exhibit predominantly thermal emission, believed to originate from the heated magnetic polar caps of the pulsar. In the nearest MSP, J0437--4715 a faint PL…
As is known, resonant scattering can distort the surface-brightness profiles of clusters of galaxies in X-ray lines. We demonstrate that the scattered line emission should be polarized and possibly detectable with near-future X-ray…
Relativistic reconnection has been invoked as a mechanism for particle acceleration in numerous astrophysical systems. According to idealised analytical models reconnection produces a bulk relativistic outflow emerging from the reconnection…
Blazar emission models based on magnetic reconnection succeed in reproducing many observed spectral and temporal features, including the short-duration luminous flaring events. Plasmoids, a self-consistent by-product of the tearing…
The development of multi-layer optics which allow to focus photons up to 100 keV and more promises an enormous jump in sensitivity in the hard X-ray energy band. This technology is already planned to be exploited by future missions…