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The Attenuation of Hard γ-rays in Strongly-Magnetized Pulsars

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

Alice K. Harding
Affiliation:
Code 661, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771
Matthew G. Baring
Affiliation:
Code 661, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 Compton Fellow, Universities Space Research Association

Abstract

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We investigate the spectral attenuation due to one-photon pair production and photon splitting in neutron star magnetospheres. The calculations are performed in a Schwarzschild metric, thereby including redshift and field enhancement effects associated with curved spacetime. We find that pair production and splitting totally inhibit emission above around 10-30 MeV in PSR1509-58, whose surface field is inferred to be as high as 3 × 1013 Gauss. Model pulsar spectra of splitting cascades for high field cases, where splitting is important, are consistent with the very low cutoff energy in PSR1509-58 for a wide range of polar cap sizes.

Type
Part 5 High Energy Phenomena
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 1996

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