Polarized radiation from an accretion shock in accreting millisecond pulsars using exact Compton scattering formalism

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new emission model for accreting millisecond pulsars based on exact Compton scattering, which predicts lower polarization degrees and can improve neutron star parameter constraints through polarization data analysis.

Contribution

The authors develop an exact Compton scattering formalism for modeling polarization in accretion shocks, improving upon previous Thomson scattering models and enabling better interpretation of X-ray polarization observations.

Findings

Lower polarization degrees predicted compared to Thomson models

A comprehensive grid of shock models for pulse profile and polarization analysis

Constraints on neutron star parameters using simulated IXPE data

Abstract

Pulse profiles of accreting millisecond pulsars can be used to determine neutron star (NS) parameters, such as their masses and radii, and therefore provide constraints on the equation of state of cold dense matter. Information obtained by the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) can be used to decipher pulsar inclination and magnetic obliquity, providing ever tighter constraints on other parameters. In this paper, we develop a new emission model for accretion-powered millisecond pulsars based on thermal Comptonization in an accretion shock above the NS surface. The shock structure was approximated by an isothermal plane-parallel slab and the Stokes parameters of the emergent radiation were computed as a function of the zenith angle and energy for different values of the electron temperature, the Thomson optical depth of the slab, and the temperature of the seed blackbody photons. We show that our Compton scattering model leads to a significantly lower polarization degree of the emitted radiation compared to the previously used Thomson scattering model. We computed a large grid of shock models, which can be combined with pulse profile modeling techniques both with and without polarization included. In this work, we used the relativistic rotating vector model for the oblate NS in order to produce the observed Stokes parameters as a function of the pulsar phase. Furthermore, we simulated the data to be produced by IXPE and obtained constraints on model parameters using nested sampling. The developed methods can also be used in the analysis of the data from future satellites, such as the enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry mission.