Abstract
Quantum electrodynamical (QED) birefringence in a thermal relativistic pair plasma with the presence of the strong crossed field: , is proposed and investigated. We clarify the coupling relationship and competition between the QED effect and the plasma collective effect and find the critical condition that makes the birefringence vanish. In a relative weak electromagnetic field, the birefringence is dominated by the coupling of the QED-effect, the collective effect and the drift effect. In a relative strong electromagnetic field, we obtain the formulations stating the competition between the QED effect and the collective effect and then the critical conditions so that they are canceled with each other and the birefringence vanishes. With our results, a new possible scheme is proposed to estimate the thickness of the magnetosphere in a millisecond pulsar and the plasma density of a pulsar, if the magnetic field is known beforehand.
Highlights
Field, Pavlov and Shibanov[23], Ventura, Nagel and Mészáros[24,30], Bulik and Miller[25], Gnedin, Pavolov and Shibanov[26], Lai and Ho27,28, Shannon and Heyl[29] investigated the radiation polarization evolution due to the QED vacuum effect and the plasma effect of magnetized neutron stars or pulsars
It is significant to consider the influence of the plasma collective effect on the QED birefringence in a thermal relativistic pair plasma, where the electric-field-gradient-induced birefringence (EFGB) is nonexistent and the magnetic field is an arbitrary value smaller than the critical Schwinger limit, 4.4 × 109 T
The birefringence in a thermal relativistic pair plasma with the presence of a crossed field, E0 ⊥ B0, E0 < cB0 < Ecr = 1.3 × 1018 V/m, is investigated, where Ecr is the critical Schwinger field of pair production and c is the light speed in a vacuum
Summary
The parallel polarization corresponds to the probe wave with the electric field parallel to B0 and the perpendicular polarization corresponds to the one with the electric field perpendicular to B0. For the weak probe wave frequency, or for the relativistic drift field, i.e., the low velocity, γ0 ≫ 1, it larmor frequency is satisfied: ωc2/γ04 compared ω2 In with the this case, the dispersion relationship becomes a quadratic equation similar to that of the parallel polarization:. The dependence of the refractive-index difference, ∆n+ , ∆n− on the ratio of the plasma ξ ξ frequency to the probe-wave frequency for B0 = 109 T, np = 7 × 1016/m3, kBT = 1 keV and a serials of drift velocities, β0 = 0, 0.6, 0.999.
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