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F. Ozel (Institute for Advanced Study)
Young neutron stars, X-ray bursters, and magnetars are prime candidates for the detection of spectral lines from compact objects in X-rays. The first two classes of objects may have both heavy metals and high temperatures in their atmospheres and may thus possess atomic lines in their surface emission. Magnetars, on the other hand, have magnetic fields in the range necessary to produce proton cyclotron lines in the X-ray band. In this talk, I will present the results from recent calculations of line properties in these sources that take into account various relativistic and QED effects. I will discuss the resulting line profiles and show how they can be used to infer independently the masses, radii, or magnetic fields of the neutron stars. I will also point out the systematic uncertainties inherent in this procedure and show how the theoretical calculations can be used to reduce them.
Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society,
35#2
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.