X-ray polarization: General formalism and polarization analysis

X-ray Polarization of Gamma-Ray Bursts

The degree and the temporal evolution of linear polarization in the prompt and afterglow emission of gamma-ray bursts is a very robust diagnostic of some key features of gamma-ray bursts jets and their micro and macro physics. In this contribution, I review the current status of the theory of polarized emission from GRB jets during the prompt, optical flash, and afterglow emission. I compare th...

X-ray Polarization in Relativistic Jets

We investigate the polarization properties of Comptonized X-rays from relativistic jets in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) using Monte Carlo simulations. We consider three scenarios commonly proposed for the observed X-ray emission in AGN: Compton scattering of blackbody photons emitted from an accretion disk; scattering of cosmic microwave background (CMB) photons; and self-Comptonization of intr...

Polarization properties of X-ray millisecond pulsars

Radiation of X-ray bursts and of accretion shocks in weakly magnetized neutron stars in low-mass X-ray binaries is produced in plane-parallel atmospheres dominated by electron scattering. We first discuss polarization produced by single (non-magnetic) Compton scattering, in particular the depolarizing effect of high electron temperature, and then the polarization due to multiply electron scatte...

Polarization propagator for x-ray spectra.

A polarization propagator for x-ray spectra is outlined and implemented in density functional theory. It rests on a formulation of a resonant-convergent first-order polarization propagator approach which makes it possible to directly calculate the x-ray absorption cross section at a particular frequency without explicitly addressing the excited states. The quality of the predicted x-ray spectru...

Birefringence and polarization rotation in resonant x-ray diffraction