Models of magnetized neutron star atmospheres: thin atmospheres and partially ionized hydrogen atmospheres with vacuum polarization

Understand

Observed X-ray spectra of some isolated magnetized neutron stars display absorption features, sometimes interpreted as ion cyclotron lines.

• Modeling the observed spectra is necessary to check this hypothesis and to evaluate neutron star parameters.We develop a computer code for modeling magnetized neutron star atmospheres in a wide range of magnetic fields (10^{12} - 10^{15} G) and effective temperatures (3 \times 10^5 - 10^7 K).
• Using this code, we study the possibilities to explain the soft X-ray spectra of isolated neutron stars by different atmosphere models.
• The atmosphere is assumed to consist either of fully ionized electron-ion plasmas or of partially ionized hydrogen.