Spectral Effects of the Vacuum Resonance in Soft Gamma-Ray Repeaters

Abstract

The association of all three soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs) with supernova remnants has established that SGRs are young neutron stars, and has given us a starting point for detailed modeling. One of the most popular classes of models involves strongly magnetised neutron stars, with surface dipole fields B~ 10^{14}-10^{15} Gauss. In such strong magnetic fields, many otherwise negligible processes can play an important role. Here we consider the effects of vacuum polarisation on Compton scattering. Vacuum polarisation introduces a characteristic density-dependent photon frequency at which the normal modes of polarisation become nonorthogonal and the mean free path of photons decreases sharply. Our analytic results and Monte Carlo simulations of photon propagation through a magnetised plasma show that this effect leads, under a wide range of physical conditions, to a broad absorption-like feature in the energy range ~5 keV---40 keV. We discuss this effect in light of the spectra from SGR 1806-20.