CYCLOPS-X: Simultaneous optical and X-ray modeling of polars

TL;DR

CYCLOPS-X is a new modeling tool that simultaneously fits optical and X-ray data from polars, incorporating bremsstrahlung and absorption effects to better understand their accretion regions.

Contribution

It introduces CYCLOPS-X, an improved code that models both optical and X-ray emissions from polars simultaneously, including new physical processes.

Findings

X-ray light curves vary significantly despite similar optical emissions.

Simultaneous modeling reveals differences in high-energy emission profiles.

The approach enhances understanding of magnetic accretion in polars.

Abstract

From the optical to the X-ray frequencies, most of the continuum emission from AM Her systems originates in the post-shock region. Hence, using multi-spectral data can be useful to restrict the physical and geometrical properties of that region. In spite of that, distinct codes are used to model these frequency ranges. CYCLOPS is a code to model the optical cyclotron emission of polars. In this contribution, we present the first version of CYCLOPS-X, an improvement of CYCLOPS to fit simultaneously optical and X-ray data. The new code adds the bremsstrahlung as an emission process as well as the effects of X-ray absorption by the upper portion of the accretion column. As a first application of CYCLOPS-X, we present X-ray light curves using two sets of parameters provided by the optical modeling of CP Tuc. These two cases have very similar optical emission, but quite distinct light-curves in high energies. It illustrates the need of simultaneous modeling of the optical and X-ray emission to a proper description of the magnetic accretion in polars.