Propagation Effects in Magnetized Transrelativistic Plasmas

The transfer of polarized radiation in magnetized and non-magnetized relativistic plasmas is an area of research with numerous flaws and gaps. The present paper is aimed at filling some gaps and eliminating the flaws. Starting from a Trubnikov’s linear response tensor for a vacuum wave with k = ω/c in thermal plasma, the analytic expression for the dielectric tensor is found in the limit of high frequencies. The Faraday rotation and Faraday conversion measures are computed in their first orders in the ratio of the cyclotron frequency Ω0 to the observed frequency ω. The computed temperature dependencies of propagation effects bridge the known non-relativistic and ultra-relativistic limiting formulas. The fitting expressions are found for high temperatures, where the higher orders in Ω0/ω cannot be neglected. The plasma eigenmodes are found to become linearly polarized at much larger temperatures than thought before. The results are applied to the diagnostics of the hot ISM, hot accretion flows, and jets. Subject headings: radiative transfer — polarization — magnetic fields