Speaker
Description
Weakly magnetized neutron stars are among the brightest objects in the X-ray sky. Unlike pulsars, in these systems, magnetic field is not strong enough to affect the accretion flow, so the accreted matter falls directly onto the neutron star surface. The exact geometry of the accretion flow in these systems is still unknown, and until recently, we did not have an appropriate tool to study this open question. Since December 2021, Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE), the first satellite dedicated to X-ray polarimetry, is in operation. In the last four years, IXPE has extensively observed weakly magnetized neutron stars, allowing us to put constraints on the accretion flow geometry in these systems.
In this talk, I introduce weakly magnetized neutron stars, briefly discuss theoretical expectations for their emission’s polarimetric properties, and highlight the most significant results of the IXPE observations of these systems.