Cyclotron line formation in the magnetized atmospheres of compact stars – I. The transfer equations for polarized radiation (original) (raw)
2016, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
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Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics Polarization in cyclotron radiation in strong magnetic fields
2009
We revisit the problem of radiative transitions of electrons in the presence of a strong magnetic field. We derive fully relativistic cyclotron transition rates for an arbitrary magnetic field, for any orientation of electron spin and for any polarization of the emitted radiation. Also, we obtain the transition rates for any value of the ini-tial electron’s parallel momentum. For very strong magnetic fields, transitions to the ground state predominate. Transition rates summed over the electron’s spin orienta-tion and for unpolarized radiation are also obtained, which confirm previous results by Latal. Transition widths are calculated for different electron spin orientations and different polarizations of radiation. We obtain general expressions for transition rates that reduce to the results for the non-relativistic case and for unpolarized radiation. Additionally we get, for the non-relativistic approximation, the transition rates for any polarization of radiation. As an applicatio...
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