arXiv subjects

Dong Lai

Publications and source records attributed to Dong Lai.

At least 235 records · Page 13Linked to original sources

arXiv2004

Electromagnetic polarization in partially ionized plasmas with strong magnetic fields and neutron star atmosphere models

Polarizability tensor of a strongly magnetized plasma and the polarization vectors and opacities of normal electromagnetic waves are studied for the conditions typical of neutron star atmospheres, taking account of partial ionization effects. Vacuum polarization is also included using a new set of fitting formulae that are accurate for wide range of field strengths. The full account of the coupling of the quantum mechanical structure of the atoms to their center-of-mass motion across the magnetic field is shown to be crucial for the correct evaluation of the polarization properties and opacities of the plasma. The self-consistent treatment of the polarizability and absorption coefficients proves to be necessary if the ionization degree of the plasma is low, which can occur in the atmospheres of cool or ultramagnetized neutron stars. Atmosphere models and spectra are presented to illustrate the importance of such self-consistent treatment.

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arXiv2004

Spectral Features in the Thermal Emission from Isolated Neutron Stars: Dependence on Magnetic Field Strengths

We study several effects that influence the strength of the proton cyclotron and atomic features in the thermal spectra of magnetic neutron stars. We show that it is possible for vacuum polarization to strongly suppress the spectral lines when the magnetic field B\ga 10^14 G. For weaker fields (B\la 7\times 10^13 G), the surface spectrum is unaffected by vacuum polarization; thus the proton cyclotron absorption line can have a large equivalent width. Using an approximate calculation of the synthetic spectra, we show that variation of magnetic fields over the neutron star surface leads to broadening of the line. The recently detected absorption features from the isolated neutron stars RX J1308.6+2127, RX J1605.3+3249, and RX J0720.4-3125 can plausibly be explained by the proton cyclotron resonance, with possible blending due to atomic transitions, in the atmosphere of the star.

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arXiv2004

Warping and Precession of Accretion Disks Around Magnetic Stars: Nonlinear Evolution

The inner region of the accretion disk around a magnetized star (T Tauri star, white dwarf or neutron star) is subjected to magnetic torques that induce warping and precession of the disk. These torques arise from the interaction between the stellar field and the induced electric currents in the disk. We carry out numerical simulations of the nonlinear evolution of warped, viscous accretion disks driven by the magnetic torques. We show that the disk can develop into a highly warped steady state in which the disk attains a fixed (warped) shape and precesses rigidly. The warp is most pronounced at the disk inner radius (near the magnetosphere boundary). As the system parameters (such as accretion rate) change, the disk can switch between a completely flat state (warping stable) and a highly warped state. The precession of warped disks may be responsible for a variety of quasi-periodic oscillations or radiation flux variabilities observed in many different systems, including young stellar objects and X-ray binaries.

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arXiv2003

Neutron Star Kicks and Supernova Asymmetry

Observations over the last decade have shown that neutron stars receive a large kick velocity (of order a hundred to a thousand km/s) at birth. The physical origin of the kicks and the related supernova asymmetry is one of the central unsolved mysteries of supernova research. We review the physics of different kick mechanisms, including hydrodynamically driven, neutrino -- magnetic field driven, and electromagnetically driven kicks. The viabilities of the different kick mechanisms are directly related to the other key parameters characterizing nascent neutron stars, such as the initial magnetic field and the initial spin. Recent observational constraints on kick mechanisms are also discussed.

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arXiv2003

Atmospheres and Spectra of Strongly Magnetized Neutron Stars -- III. Partially Ionized Hydrogen Models

We construct partially ionized hydrogen atmosphere models for magnetized neutron stars in radiative equilibrium with surface fields B=10^12-5 \times 10^14 G and effective temperatures T_eff \sim a few \times 10^5-10^6 K. These models are based on the latest equation of state and opacity results for magnetized, partially ionized hydrogen plasmas that take into account various magnetic and dense medium effects. The atmospheres directly determine the characteristics of thermal emission from isolated neutron stars. For the models with B=10^12-10^13 G, the spectral features due to neutral atoms lie at extreme UV and very soft X-ray energy bands and therefore are difficult to observe. However, the continuum flux is also different from the fully ionized case, especially at lower energies. For the superstrong field models (B\ga 10^14 G), we show that the vacuum polarization effect not only suppresses the proton cyclotron line as shown previously, but also suppresses spectral features due to bound species; therefore spectral lines or features in thermal radiation are more difficult to observe when the neutron star magnetic field is \ga 10^14 G.

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arXiv2003

Polarized X-Ray Emission from Magnetized Neutron Stars: Signature of Strong-Field Vacuum Polarization

In the atmospheric plasma of a strongly magnetized neutron star, vacuum polarization can induce a Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein like resonance across which a X-ray photon may (depending on its energy) convert from one mode into the other, with significant changes in opacities and polarizations. We show that this vacuum resonance effect gives rise to an unique energy-dependent polarization signature in the surface emission from neutron stars. The detection of polarized X-rays from neutron stars can provide a direct probe of strong-field quantum electrodynamics and constrain the neutron star magnetic field and geometry.

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arXiv2003

Warping of Accretion Disks with Magnetically Driven Outflows: A Possible Origin for Jet Precession

Current theoretical models for the outflows/jets from AGN, X-ray binaries and young stellar objects involve large-scale magnetic fields threading an underlying accretion disk. We suggest that such a disk is subjected to warping instability and retrograde precession driven by magnetic torques associated with the outflow. The growth timescale for the disk warp and the precession period are of order the radial infall time of the disk. These effects may be relevant to jet precession and other variabilities observed in many systems.

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arXiv2003

Matter and Radiation in Superstrong Magnetic Fields and Thermal Emission from Neutron Stars

Thermal surface emissions have now been detected from more than a dozen isolated neutron stars, including radio pulsars, radio-quiet neutron stars and magnetars. These detections can potentially provide important information on the interior physics, magnetic fields, and surface composition of neutron stars. Understanding the properties of matter and radiative transfer in strong magnetic fields is essential for the proper interpretation of the observations. We review current theoretical works on modeling magnetized neutron star atmospheres/surface layers, discussing some of the novel properties of matter and radiative transfer in strong magnetic fields. Of particular interest is the effect of the strong-field vacuum polarization, which dramatically changes the radiative transfer and the emergent X-ray spectra from magnetars.

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arXiv2003

Transfer of Polarized Radiation in Strongly Magnetized Plasmas and Thermal Emission from Magnetars: Effect of Vacuum Polarization

We present a theoretical study of radiative transfer in strongly magnetized electron-ion plasmas, focusing on the effect of vacuum polarization due to quantum electrodynamics. This study is directly relevant to thermal radiation from the surfaces of highly magnetized neutron stars, which have been detected in recent years. Strong-field vacuum polarization modifies the photon propagation modes in the plasma, and induces a ``vacuum resonance'' at which a polarized X-ray photon propagating outward in the neutron star atmosphere can convert from a low-opacity mode to a high-opacity mode and vice versa. The effectiveness of this mode conversion depends on the photon energy and the atmosphere density gradient. For a wide range of field strengths, $7\times 10^{13}< B < 10^{16}$ G, the vacuum resonance lies between the photospheres of the two photon modes, and the emergent radiation spectrum from the neutron star is significantly modified by the vacuum resonance. (For lower field strengths, only the polarization spectrum is affected.) Under certain conditions, which depend on the field strength, photon energy and propagation direction, the vacuum resonance is accompanied by the phenomenon of mode collapse (at which the two photon modes become degenerate) and the breakdown of Faraday depolarization. Thus, the widely used description of radiative transfer based on photon modes is not adequate to treat the vacuum polarization effect rigorously. We study the evolution of polarized X-rays across the vacuum resonance and derive the transfer equation for the photon intensity matrix (Stokes parameters), taking into account the effect of birefringence of the plasma-vacuum medium, free-free absorption, and scatterings by electrons and ions.

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arXiv2002

Atmospheres and Spectra of Strongly Magnetized Neutron Stars II: Effect of Vacuum Polarization

We study the effect of vacuum polarization on the atmosphere structure and radiation spectra of neutron stars with surface magnetic fields B=10^14-10^15 G, as appropriate for magnetars. Vacuum polarization modifies the dielectric property of the medium and gives rise to a resonance feature in the opacity; this feature is narrow and occurs at a photon energy that depends on the plasma density. Vacuum polarization can also induce resonant conversion of photon modes via a mechanism analogous to the MSW mechanism for neutrino oscillation. We construct atmosphere models in radiative equilibrium with an effective temperature of a few \times 10^6 K by solving the full radiative transfer equations for both polarization modes in a fully ionized hydrogen plasma. We discuss the subtleties in treating the vacuum polarization effects in the atmosphere models and present approximate solutions to the radiative transfer problem which bracket the true answer. We show from both analytic considerations and numerical calculations that vacuum polarization produces a broad depression in the X-ray flux at high energies (a few keV \la E \la a few tens of keV) as compared to models without vacuum polarization; this arises from the density dependence of the vacuum resonance feature and the large density gradient present in the atmosphere. Thus the vacuum polarization effect softens the high energy tail of the thermal spectrum, although the atmospheric emission is still harder than the blackbody spectrum because of the non-grey opacities. We also show that the depression of continuum flux strongly suppresses the equivalent width of the ion cyclotron line and therefore makes the line more difficult to observe.

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arXiv2002

Core-Collapse Supernovae and Neutron Star Kicks

Recent observations have revealed many new puzzles related to core-collapse supernovae, including the formation of magnetars and black holes and their possible GRB connections. We review our current understanding of the origin of pulsar kicks and supernova asymmetry. It is argued that neutron star kicks are intimately connected to the other fundamental parameters of young neutron stars, such as the initial spin and magnetic field strength.

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arXiv2002

Atmospheres of Magnetized Neutron Stars: Vacuum Polarization and Partially Ionized Models

We construct hydrogen atmosphere models for magnetized neutron stars in radiative equilibrium with surface fields B=10^12-5x10^14 G and effective temperatures T_eff a few x 10^5-10^6 K by solving the full radiative transfer equations for both polarization modes in the magnetized hydrogen plasma. The atmospheres directly determine the characteristics of thermal emission from isolated neutron stars. We study the effects of vacuum polarization and bound atoms on the atmosphere structure and spectra. For the lower magnetic field models (B 10^12 G), the spectral features due to neutral atoms lie at extreme UV and very soft X-ray energies and therefore are not likely to be observed. However, the continuum flux is also different from the fully ionized case, especially at lower energies. For the higher magnetic field models, we find that vacuum polarization softens the high energy tail of the thermal spectrum. We show that this depression of continuum flux strongly suppresses not only the proton cyclotron line but also spectral features due to bound species; therefore spectral lines or features in thermal radiation are more difficult to observe when the neutron star magnetic field is > 10^14 G.

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arXiv2002

Magnetically Driven Warping and Precession of Accretion Disks: Implications for "Exotic" Stellar Variabilities

The inner region of the accretion disk around a magnetized star is subjected to magnetic torques that induce warping and precession of the disk. These torques arise from interactions between the stellar field and the induced electric currents in the disk. These novel magnetic effects give rise to some ``exotic'' stellar variabilities, and may play an important role in explaining a number of puzzling behaviors related to disk accretion onto magnetic stars, such as mHz QPOs in X-ray pulsars, long-term periodicities of X-ray binaries (including precession of jets), low-Frequency (10-50 Hz) QPO's in low-mass X-ray binaries, and photometric variabilities of T Tauri stars.

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arXiv2002

Comment on ``The Effect of Vacuum Polarization ... in Strongly Magnetized Plasmas'' by Ozel (astro-ph/0203449)

We have recently shown that in a highly magnetized neutron star atmospheric plasma, vacuum polarization can induce resonant conversion of photon polarization modes via a mechanism analogous to MSW neutrino oscillation. In a recent paper Ozel has dismissed this mode conversion effect as ``mistakes''. Here we explain why our arguments/calculations of this effect are correct.

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arXiv2001

Atmospheres and Spectra of Strongly Magnetized Neutron Stars

We construct atmosphere models for strongly magnetized neutron stars with surface fields $B\sim 10^{12}-10^{15}$ G and effective temperatures $T_{\rm eff}\sim 10^6-10^7$ K. The atmospheres directly determine the characteristics of thermal emission from isolated neutron stars, including radio pulsars, soft gamma-ray repeaters, and anomalous X-ray pulsars. In our models, the atmosphere is composed of pure hydrogen or helium and is assumed to be fully ionized. The radiative opacities include free-free absorption and scattering by both electrons and ions computed for the two photon polarization modes in the magnetized electron-ion plasma. Since the radiation emerges from deep layers in the atmosphere with $ρ\ga 10^2$ g/cm$^3$, plasma effects can significantly modify the photon opacities by changing the properties of the polarization modes. In the case where the magnetic field and the surface normal are parallel, we solve the full, angle-dependent, coupled radiative transfer equations for both polarization modes. We also construct atmosphere models for general field orientations based on the diffusion approximation of the transport equations and compare the results with models based on full radiative transport. In general, the emergent thermal radiation exhibits significant deviation from blackbody, with harder spectra at high energies. The spectra also show a broad feature ($ΔE/\Ebi\sim 1$) around the ion cyclotron resonance $\Ebi=0.63 (Z/A)(B/10^{14}{G})$ keV, where $Z$ and $A$ are the atomic charge and atomic mass of the ion, respectively; this feature is particularly pronounced when $\Ebi\ga 3k\Teff$. Detection of the resonance feature would provide a direct measurement of the surface magnetic fields on magnetars.

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arXiv2001

Resonant Conversion of Photon Modes Due to Vacuum Polarization in a Magnetized Plasma: Implications for X-Ray Emission from Magnetars

It is known that vacuum polarization can modify the photon propagation modes in the atmospheric plasma of a strongly magnetized neutron star. A resonance occurs when the effect of vacuum polarization on the photon modes balances that of the plasma. We show that a photon (with energy $E\go$ a few keV) propagating outward in the atmosphere can convert from one polarization mode into another as it traverses the resonant density, $ρ_{res}\simeq Y_e^{-1}η^{-2}(B/10^{14} G)^2(E/1 keV)^2$ g cm$^{-3}$, where $Y_e$ is the electron fraction, and $η\sim 1$ is a slowly varying function of the magnetic field $B$. The physics of this mode conversion is analogous to the Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein mechanism for neutrino oscillation. Because the two photon modes have vastly different opacities in the atmosphere, this vacuum-induced mode conversion can significantly affect radiative transport and surface emission from strongly magnetized neutron stars.

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arXiv2001

Magnetically Driven Precession of Warped Disks and Milli-Hertz Variabilities in Accreting X-Ray Pulsars

The inner region of the accretion disk around a magnetized neutron star is subjected to magnetic torques that induce warping and precession of the disk. These torques arise from interactions between the stellar field and the induced electric currents in the disk. We carry out a global analysis of warping/precession modes in a viscous accretion disk, and show that under a wide range of conditions typical of accreting X-ray pulsars, the magnetic warping torque can overcome viscous damping and make the mode grow. The warping/precession modes are concentrated near the inner edge of the disk (at the magnetosphere-disk boundary), and can give rise to variabilities or quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) in the X-ray/UV/optical fluxes from X-ray pulsars. We examine the observed properties of mHz QPOs in several systems (such as 4U 1626-67), and suggest that some hitherto unexplained QPOs are the results of magnetically driven disk warping/precession.

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arXiv2001

Precession of Magnetically Driven Warped Disks and Low-Frequency QPOs in Low-Mass X-Ray Binaries

An accretion disk around a rotating magnetized star is subjected to magnetic torques which induce disk warping and precession. These torques arise from interactions between the stellar field and the induced surface currents on the disk. Applying these new effects to weakly magnetized ($B\sim 10^7-10^9$G) neutron stars in low-mass X-ray binaries, we study the global hydrodynamical warping/precession modes of the disk under the combined influences of relativistic frame dragging, classical precession due to the oblateness of the neutron star, and the magnetic torques. Under quite general conditions, the magnetic warping torque can overcome the ``Bardeen-Petterson'' viscous damping and makes the modes grow. The modes are confined to the inner region of the disk, and have frequencies close to the sum of the Lense-Thirring frequency, the classical precession frequency, and the magnetically driven precession frequency evaluated at the inner disk radius $r_{in}$. As $\dot M$ increases, the mode frequency is reduced relative to the total precession frequency at $r_{in}$ since the mode is less concentrated around $r_{in}$ due to the increasing viscous stress associated with the large $\dot M$. Because of this, and because the magnetically driven precession is retrograde and depends strongly on $\dot M$, the mode frequency can have a non-monotonic dependence on $\dot M$. This may account for several observed features of low-frequency (10--60 Hz) quasi-periodic oscillations (LFQPOs) in low-mass X-ray binaries which are otherwise difficult to explain, such as the flattening/turnover in the LFQPO frequency--$\dot M$ correlation or in the LFQPO frequency--kHz QPO frequency correlation (e.g., as seen clearly in GX 17+2).

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