Model atmospheres and thermal spectra of magnetized neutron stars

TL;DR

This paper presents a comprehensive method for modeling the atmospheres and thermal spectra of magnetized neutron stars, enabling better interpretation of X-ray observations across various magnetic field configurations.

Contribution

It introduces a robust, extensible linearization approach for calculating self-consistent spectra of isolated neutron stars with arbitrary magnetic fields.

Findings

Accurate spectra for magnetic fields up to 10^{14} G

Applicable to a broad range of temperatures and geometries

Facilitates interpretation of X-ray observations

Abstract

Thermal surface radiation has been detected with X-ray instruments for several neutron stars with high spectral, spatial and timing resolution. These observations allow for direct study of fundamental properties of the source, but require model atmospheres and spectra for careful interpretation. We describe a robust and extensible implementation of complete linearization for computing the spectra of isolated cooling neutron stars for a broad range of temperature and magnetic field. Self-consistent spectra are derived for arbitrary magnetic field geometries at $B \leq 10^{14}$ G.