Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T08:27:27.588Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Two-Photon Absorption and the Cyclotron Line in Her X-1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2016

D. B. Melrose
Affiliation:
Department of Theoretical Physics, University of Sydney
A. J. Parle
Affiliation:
Department of Theoretical Physics, University of Sydney

Extract

The cyclotron line in Her X-1 is a hard X-ray feature at ≈ 58 keV discovered by Trümper et al. (1977). A cyclotron emission line at about this energy had been predicted by Gnedin and Sunyaev (1974) and Basko and Sunyaev (1975). They developed a model for the infall of accreted matter onto a magnetized neutron star’s surface, and concluded that hot spots would form at the polar caps and radiate X-rays. They predicted that the optional depth for bremsstrahlung would be less than unity, that for Compton scattering greater than unity and that for cyclotron absorption much greater than unity. A cyclotron line is then implied due to the emission spectrum lying below the black-body spectrum except near the cyclotron energy where it rises up to the black-body limit. More recent developments of these background ideas have been reviewed by Börner (1980).

Type
Contributions
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of Australia 1981

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Basko, M. M., and Sunyaev, R. A., Astron. Astrophys., 42, 311 (1975).Google Scholar
Bonazzola, S., Heyvaerts, J., and Puget, J. L., Astron. Astrophys., 78, 53 (1979).Google Scholar
Börner, G., Phys. Rep., 60, 151 (1980).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gnedin, Yu. N., and Sunyaev, R. A., Astron. Astrophys., 36, 379 (1974).Google Scholar
Melrose, D. B., Plasma Astrophysics, Vol. II, Gordon and Breach (New York 1980).Google Scholar
Melrose, D. B., On the Transfer Equation for the Cyclotron Line in Her X-1, preprint (1981).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Melrose, D. B., and Zheleznyakov, V. V., Astron. Astrophys. (in press 1981).Google Scholar
Stoneham, R. J., Optica Acta, 27, 537 and 545 (1980a&b).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trümper, J., Pietsch, W., Reppin, C., Sacco, B., Kendziorra, E., and Staubert, R., Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci., 302, 538 (1977).CrossRefGoogle Scholar