Sunday, June 19, 2016

electromagnetism - Do neutron stars reflect light?


The setup is very simple: you have a regular ($1.35$ to $2$ solar masses) evolved neutron star, and you shine plane electromagnetic waves on it with given $\lambda$. Very roughly, what shall be the total flux of absorbed/scattered EM radiation?


Shall the result change if the neutron star is young and not evolved?



Answer



A neutron star will have a thin layer of normal matter at the surface, and of course this reflects light just like any other normal matter.


But I guess you're really asking if neutronium reflects light, and that's a very good question that a quick Google failed to answer. EM radiation generally interacts with dipoles or scatters off electrons, so I'd guess matter made of neutrons should be transparent.


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