Physics in Ultra-strong Magnetic Fields

Abstract

In magnetic fields stronger than B_Q = 4.4 X 10^13 Gauss, an electron's Landau excitation energy exceeds its rest energy. I review the physics of this strange regime and some of its implications for the crusts and magneto- spheres of neutron stars. In particular, I describe how ultra-strong fields >> render the vacuum birefringent and capable of distorting and magnifying images ("magnetic lensing"); >> change the self-energy of electrons: as B increases they are first slightly lighter than $m_e$, then slightly heavier; >> cause photons to rapidly split and merge with each other; >> distort atoms into long, thin cylinders and molecules into strong, polymer-like chains; >> enhance the pair density in thermal pair-photon gases; >> strongly suppress photon-electron scattering, and >> drive the vacuum itself unstable, at extremely large B. In a concluding section, I discuss recent observations of the spindown histories of soft gamma repeaters and anomalous X-ray pulsars. The magnetar model gives a promising framework for understanding these data.

Review talk given at Fifth Huntsville Gamma-Ray Burst Symposium. 12 pages with 5 eps figures

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• QCD vacuum structure in strong magnetic fields
• The QCD Critical End Point Under Strong Magnetic Fields
• Wind braking of magnetars
• Fully numerical electronic structure calculations on diatomic molecules in weak to strong magnetic fields
• Bethe-Salpeter approach for relativistic positronium in a strong magnetic field
• Effect of strong magnetic fields on the crust-core transition and inner crust of neutron stars
• Is the magnetic field making the inner crust of neutron stars more heterogeneous?
• Crust-core transition of a neutron star: effects of the symmetry energy and temperature under strong magnetic fields
• Charged Hydrogenic, Helium and Helium-Hydrogenic Molecular Chains in a Strong Magnetic Field
• Energy extraction via magnetic reconnection in magnetized black holes
• Quantized Faraday effect in (3+1)-dimensional and (2+1)-dimensional systems
• Magnetar outburst and spin-down glitch
• Pasta phases in neutron stars under strong magnetic fields
• Strong magnetic fields: neutron stars with an extended inner crust
• Landau parameters and entrainment matrix of cold stellar matter: effect of the symmetry energy and strong magnetic fields
• Effective Action and Schwinger Pair Production in Scalar QED