Related papers: On Thermal Comptonization in e+- Pair Plasmas
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…
We use a Monte Carlo simulation to calculate the spectra of mildly relativistic thermal plasmas in pair balance. We use the exact integral expression for the electron-positron thermal annihilation spectrum, and provide accurate expressions…
We investigate thermal synchrotron radiation at semi-relativistic and relativistic temperatures. We find an analytic expression for the angle-averaged emission coefficient, and show that it is significantly more accurate that those derived…
We show that Compton scattering of soft photons with energies near 100 eV in thermally stratified black-hole accretion plasmas with temperatures in the range 100 keV - 1 MeV can give rise to an X-ray spectral hardening near 10 keV. This…
Thermodynamic and spectral properties of a photon gas in $e^+e^-\gamma$ plasmas are studied. The effect of a finite effective mass of a photon, associated with the plasma frequency cutoff, is self-consistently included. In the…
Soft cyclo-synchrotron photons produced by thermal electrons moving in a magnetic field can be subsequently Comptonized to produce hard X-ray and $\gamma$-ray emission. An accurate determination of the amount of soft cyclo-synchrotron…
We study the energy dependent photon variability from a thermal Comptonizing plasma that is oscillating at kHz frequencies. In particular, we solve the linearised time dependent Kompaneets equation and consider the oscillatory perturbation…
Studies of the long-term spectral variations have been used to constrain the emission processes of black hole candidates. However, a common scenario which is able to explain the emission from soft to hard X-rays has been proposed only…
We provide simple and accurate analytic approximations for the low frequency double Compton emission coefficient that are applicable in a broad range of physical situations up to mildly relativistic temperatures. These approximations may be…
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…
We test accurate models of Comptonization spectra over the high quality data of the BeppoSAX long look at NGC 5548. The data are well represented by a plane parallel corona with an inclination angle of 30$^{\circ}$, a soft photon…
Measured values of the brightness temperature of low-frequency synchrotron radiation emitted by powerful extragalactic sources reach 10^11--10^12 K. If some amount of nonrelativistic ionized gas is present within such sources, it should be…
X-ray spectra of nonmagnetic cataclysmic variables (nmCVs) in the ~ 0.3$-$15 keV energy band have been described either by one or several optically thin thermal plasma components, or by cooling flow models. We tested if the spectral…
The high energy continuum in Seyfert galaxies and galactic black hole candidates is likely to be produced by a thermal plasma. There are difficulties in understanding what can keep the plasma thermal, especially during fast variations of…
In earlier works, it was shown that the energy dependent soft time lags observed in kHz QPOs of neutron star low mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) can be explained as being due to Comptonization lags provided a significant fraction ($\eta \sim…
Electron-positron pair production by collision of photons is investigated in view of application to pulsar physics. We compute the absorption rate of individual gamma-ray photons by an arbitrary anisotropic distribution of softer photons,…
We present a Comptonization model for the observed properties of the energy-dependent soft/hard time lags and pulsed fraction (amplitude) associated with the pulsed emission of a neutron star (NS). We account for the soft lags by…
The equilibrium size and temperature limits of thermally and chemically equilibrated $e^+e^-\gamma$ plasma drops are investigated at a given energy content. For a plasma to be equilibrated it must be opaque to electron and photon…
The process of Compton scattering $\gamma e^{\pm} \to \gamma e^{\pm}$ in a strongly magnetized medium of arbitrary temperature and zeroth chemical potential was considered. The analytical expressions for the partial cross section in the…
In an effort to model the observed energy spectrum of Cygnus X-1 as well as its hard X-ray lag by Comptonization in inhomogeneous clouds of hot electrons with spherical geometry and various radial density profiles we discovered that: 1)…