High Energy Astrophysics Group

The Magnet collaboration is a collection of astrophysicists from around the world interested in the effects of matter accreting onto the magnetic poles of highly magnetized neutron stars with teraGauss magnetic fields. The collaboration began with scientists from UCSD and the Astronomisches Institut of Tuebingen working to understand cyclotron resonance scattering of X-rays by electrons trapped in the strong magnetic field near the poles. The scattering resulted in a loss of X-rays at a specific energy which was a measure of the magnetic field strength. Thus, one could determine the magnetic field of a neutron star by looking at the high energy spectrum. The collaboration now includes scientists from the US, Europe, and Japan, and the goal of investigations has expanded to include understanding the full range of the X-ray spectrum.