The polarization properties of magnetic accretion columns

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Abstract
We present calculations of the intensity and polarization of cyclotron radiation from constant temperature magnetic accretion columns. The results are in agreement with the general observed properties of AM Herculis type systems. The linear polarization pulse is caused primarily by Faraday mixing and is characteristic of cyclotron radiation of high harmonic number (n ≳ 5). The rate of change of the position angle of linear polarization during the pulse gives a direct measure of the angle between the line of sight and the rotation axis of the magnetic white dwarf for a synchronous orbit. The predicted continuum energy distributions due to cyclotron radiation have a variety of slopes depending on the temperature and thickness of the emission region.

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