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# Equation of State and Opacities for Hydrogen Atmospheres of Neutron Stars with Strong Magnetic Fields

## 1. Introduction

Models of neutron star atmospheres are needed for interpretation of their spectra and cooling. These atmospheres differ from the atmospheres of ordinary stars because of the high gravity and magnetic fields (for review, see, e.g., Pavlov et al., 1995; Ventura & Potekhin, 2001).

A magnetic field is called *strong* if the electron cyclotron energy $`\mathrm{}\omega _{\mathrm{ce}}=\mathrm{}eB/m_\mathrm{e}c`$ exceeds 1 a.u. – i.e., the field strength $`B`$ is higher than $`B_0=m_\mathrm{e}^2ce^3/\mathrm{}^3=2.3505\times 10^9`$ G, where $`m_\mathrm{e}`$ is the electron mass, $`e`$ the elementary charge, and $`c`$ the speed of light. Usually the field is called *superstrong* if $`\mathrm{}\omega _{\mathrm{ce}}>m_\mathrm{e}c^2`$, that is $`B>B_\mathrm{r}=m_\mathrm{e}^2c^3/e\mathrm{}=4.414\times 10^{13}`$ G. Most of the radio pulsars have magnetic fields $`B10^{12}`$$`10^{13}`$ G (Taylor, Manchester, & Lyne, 1993), whereas anomalous X-ray pulsars and soft gamma repeaters are thought to have superstrong fields (e.g., Mereghetti, 2001; Thompson et al., 2000, and references therein). Non-negligible amount of neutral atoms can exist in the photosphere at typical neutron-star temperatures $`T10^6`$ K (Potekhin, Chabrier, & Shibanov, 1999, hereafter Paper I). A strong magnetic field enhances atomic binding and makes the quantum-mechanical characteristics of an atom dependent on its motion across the field (see Lai, 2001 for a recent review). In photospheres of the neutron stars, the field is, as a rule, *strongly quantizing*, i.e., it sets all the electrons on the ground Landau level. This occurs if $`\beta _\mathrm{e}1`$ and $`\rho <\rho _B`$, where

$$\beta _\mathrm{e}=\mathrm{}\omega _{\mathrm{ce}}/k_\mathrm{B}T134.3B_{12}/T_6,$$
(1)
$`\rho `$ is the density, and $`\rho _B=m_\mathrm{H}/(\pi ^2\sqrt{2}a_\mathrm{m}^3)7100B_{12}^{3/2}`$ g cm-3 (for the hydrogen plasma). Here and hereafter, $`m_\mathrm{H}=m_\mathrm{p}+m_\mathrm{e}`$, $`m_\mathrm{p}`$ is the proton mass, $`a_\mathrm{m}=(\mathrm{}c/eB)^{1/2}`$ is the *magnetic length*, $`k_\mathrm{B}`$ is the Boltzmann constant, $`B_{12}=B/10^{12}`$ G, and $`T_6=T/10^6`$ K.

Opacities for the two polarization modes of radiation are quite different in strongly magnetized plasmas (e.g., Pavlov et al., 1995, and references therein), which makes thermal emission of neutron stars polarized and anisotropic (Zavlin et al., 1995). The mean opacities are strongly reduced at $`\beta _\mathrm{e}1`$ (e.g., Silant’ev & Yakovlev, 1980); thus the bottom of the photosphere is shifted to high densities (e.g., Pavlov et al., 1995; Lai & Salpeter, 1997).

The chemical composition of neutron-star atmospheres is not precisely known. Just after the neutron star birth in a supernova explosion, the outer stellar envelope is most probably composed of iron. However, light elements may be brought to the surface later (e.g., by fallback, accretion, or encounters with comets). Because of rapid gravitational sedimentation, the lightest element will cover the surface (see Brown, Bildsten, & Chang, 2002). About $`10^{12}`$$`10^{14}`$ grams of hydrogen ($`<10^{19}`$ M) is sufficient to fill the entire photosphere.

Shibanov et al. (1992) presented the first model of hydrogen atmospheres with strong magnetic fields. Later it was developed beyond the diffusion approximation (Shibanov & Zavlin, 1995) and used for astrophysical predictions (e.g., Zavlin et al., 1995; Zane, Turolla, & Trevis, 2000, 2001; Ho & Lai, 2001, 2003; Lai & Ho, 2002; Özel, 2001, 2003) and for interpretation of observed neutron-star spectra (e.g., Page, Shibanov, & Zavlin, 1995, 1996; Pavlov et al., 1995; Özel, Psaltis, & Kaspi, 2001).

The above studies assume that the atmosphere is fully ionized. Meanwhile, it was recognized long ago (e.g., Miller, 1992) that a significant contribution to the opacities of neutron-star photospheres with strong magnetic fields might come from bound-bound and bound-free absorption by atoms. Examples of monochromatic opacities in partially ionized iron (Rajagopal, Romani, & Miller, 1997) and hydrogen (Potekhin, Chabrier, & Shibanov, 2000) atmospheres confirmed this conjecture. In Paper I we have presented an equation of state (EOS) of a partially ionized hydrogen plasma for the values of $`T`$ and $`B`$ typical for atmospheres of the radio pulsars. Here we report results of extensive calculations of thermodynamic functions based on the theory developed in Paper I, supplemented by calculations of the opacities (monochromatic and Rosseland mean). Partial ionization and plasma nonideality are taken into account for $`11.9\mathrm{log}_{10}B/\mathrm{G}13.5`$ and $`5.3\mathrm{log}_{10}T/\mathrm{K}7.0`$. Bound-bound and bound-free radiative transitions are treated within the framework of a previously developed theory (Pavlov & Potekhin, 1995; Potekhin & Pavlov, 1997). The free-free absorption cross sections are re-evaluated. Whereas the previous authors considered photoabsorption by an electron scattered off a fixed Coulomb center, we take into account the finite proton mass, which has a nontrivial effect on the photoabsorption in a quantizing magnetic field.

The paper is composed as follows. In Sect. 2 we formulate the main assumptions and give the basic formulae used in our work. Section 3 presents the EOS of partially ionized hydrogen under conditions in neutron-star photospheres. In Sect. 4 we discuss various contributions to the hydrogen photoabsorption cross sections in strong magnetic fields and derive a new formula for the free-free cross section. Opacities of hydrogen photospheres of the neutron stars are discussed in Sect. 5. Appendices give some detail of calculation of the free-free cross sections.

## 2. Basic Equations and Physics Input

### 2.1. Hydrogen Atom Moving in a Magnetic Field

If an atom rests without motion in a strong magnetic field, there are two distinct classes of its quantum states: at every value of the Landau quantum number $`n`$ and the magnetic quantum number $`s`$ ($`n0`$, $`sn`$), there is one tightly bound state, with binding energy growing asymptotically as $`[\mathrm{ln}(B/B_0)]^2`$, and an infinite series of hydrogenlike states with binding energies approaching the energies of a field-free H atom (e.g., Canuto & Ventura, 1977). The atom is elongated: its size along the magnetic field $`𝑩`$ either decreases logarithmically (for the tightly bound states) or remains nearly constant (for the hydrogenlike states), while the transverse radius is close to $`a_\mathrm{m}`$, decreasing as $`B^{1/2}`$. The radiative transition rates are different for the three basic polarizations: the linear polarization along the field and the two circular polarizations in the transverse plane.

This simplicity is destroyed when atomic motion is taken into account. The electric field, induced in the comoving frame of reference, breaks down the cylindrical symmetry. In the nonrelativistic quantum mechanics, the binding energies and wave functions of the H atom are given by a solution of the Schrödinger equation with the two-particle Hamiltonian

$$H=\frac{\pi _\mathrm{p}^2}{2m_\mathrm{p}}+\frac{\pi _\mathrm{e}^2}{2m_\mathrm{e}}\frac{e^2}{|𝒓_\mathrm{e}𝒓_\mathrm{p}|},$$
(2)
where $`m_i`$, $`𝒓_i`$, and $`𝝅_i`$ are the mass, radius, and kinetic momentum of the electron ($`i=`$e) or proton ($`i=`$p). The kinetic momentum (related to the velocity) equals (e.g., Landau & Lifshitz, 1976)

$$𝝅_i=𝒑_i\frac{q_i}{c}𝑨(𝒓_i),$$
(3)
where $`q_i`$ is the charge of the $`i`$th particle ($`q_\mathrm{e}=q_\mathrm{p}=e`$), $`𝒑_i`$ is the canonical momentum (i.e., $`𝒑_i=\mathrm{i}\mathrm{}_i`$ in the coordinate representation), and $`𝑨(𝒓)`$ is the vector potential of the field. A conserved quantity related to the center-of-mass motion is the *pseudomomentum*

$$𝑲=𝝅_\mathrm{p}+𝝅_\mathrm{e}+\frac{e}{c}𝑩\times (𝒓_\mathrm{p}𝒓_\mathrm{e}).$$
(4)
Let the $`z`$ axis of the Cartesian coordinates $`(x,y,z)`$ be directed along $`𝑩`$. Separating the center-of-mass motion (Gor’kov & Dzyaloshinskii, 1967; Vincke, Le Dourneuf, & Baye, 1992; Potekhin, 1994) and choosing the gauge of the vector potential in the form

$$𝑨(𝒓)=\frac{1}{2}𝑩\times \left(𝒓\frac{m_\mathrm{p}m_\mathrm{e}}{m_\mathrm{H}}𝒓_0\right),$$
(5)
where $`𝒓_0`$ is arbitrary, one comes to the effective one-particle Schrödinger equation

$$\left(\frac{p_z^2}{2\mu }+H_{}+H_𝑲(𝒓_0)\frac{e^2}{|𝒓_0+𝒓|}\right)\psi (𝒓)=E\psi (𝒓).$$
(6)
Here, $`𝒓=𝒓_\mathrm{e}𝒓_\mathrm{p}𝒓_0`$ is a “shifted” relative coordinate, $`p_z=\mathrm{i}\mathrm{}/z`$ is the $`z`$ component of its conjugate momentum $`𝒑`$,

$`H_{}={\displaystyle \frac{\pi _{}^2}{2\mu }}{\displaystyle \frac{e}{m_\mathrm{p}c}}𝑩(𝒓\times 𝒑),`$ (7)
$`H_𝑲(𝒓_0)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2m_\mathrm{H}}}\left(𝑲+{\displaystyle \frac{e}{c}}𝑩\times 𝒓_0\right)^2`$
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{e}{m_\mathrm{H}c}}\left(𝑲+{\displaystyle \frac{e}{c}}𝑩\times 𝒓_0\right)(𝑩\times 𝒓),`$ (8)
and $`\mu =m_\mathrm{e}m_\mathrm{p}/m_\mathrm{H}`$ is the reduced mass. In Eq. (7),

$$𝝅=𝒑+\frac{e}{2c}𝑩\times 𝒓,$$
(9)
and the subscript ‘$``$’ denotes a vector component perpendicular to $`𝑩`$.

$`H_𝑲(𝒓_0)`$ turns to zero, if we set $`𝒓_0=𝒓_c`$, where

$$𝒓_c=\frac{c}{eB^2}𝑩\times 𝑲$$
(10)
is the relative guiding center (the difference between the electron and proton guiding centers). This choice of $`𝒓_0`$ is most useful for bound states with large $`K_{}`$ and the states of the continuum, whereas for bound states with small $`K_{}`$ the choice $`r_0=0`$ is most appropriate (Potekhin, 1994; Potekhin & Pavlov, 1997).

The eigenfunctions of $`H_{}`$ are the Landau functions $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{ns}(𝒓_{})`$ (given, e.g., by Eq. (5) of Potekhin & Pavlov (1993), with eigenenergies

$$E_{ns}^{}=n\mathrm{}\omega _{\mathrm{ce}}+(n+s)\mathrm{}\omega _{\mathrm{cp}},$$
(11)
where $`\omega _{\mathrm{cp}}=(m_\mathrm{e}/m_\mathrm{p})\omega _{\mathrm{ce}}`$ is the proton cyclotron frequency.

It is convenient to expand the wave function in the basis of $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{ns}(𝒓_{})`$,

$$\psi (𝒓)=\underset{n^{}s^{}}{}g_{n^{}s^{}}(z)\mathrm{\Phi }_{n^{}s^{}}(𝒓_{}),$$
(12)
and to label $`\psi (𝒓)`$ by numbers $`n`$ and $`s`$, corresponding to the leading term of this expansion. The third quantum number $`\nu `$ then enumerates “longitudinal” energy levels. The *adiabatic approximation* widely used in the past (e.g., Gor’kov & Dzyaloshinskii, 1967; Canuto & Ventura, 1977) corresponds to retaining only one term $`n^{}=n`$, $`s^{}=s`$ in Eq. (12). We perform calculations without this approximation.

The total energy of the atom in Eq. (6) can be written as

$$E=E_{ns}^{}+E_{ns\nu }^{}(K_{}).$$
(13)
Here, the *longitudinal energy* $`E_{ns\nu }^{}(K_{})`$ is negative for the bound and autoionizing (resonance) states and positive for the continuum states, in which the motion along $`z`$ is infinite (in the latter case, $`\nu `$ is continuous). Since $`n=0`$ for the bound states of H atom in a strong magnetic field, we will drop the number $`n`$ but imply $`n=0`$ for these states. Then the binding energy is

$$ϵ_{s\nu }(K_{})=|E_{s\nu }^{}(K_{})|s\mathrm{}\omega _{\mathrm{cp}}.$$
(14)
The substitution of Eq. (12) in Eq. (6) reduces the problem to the set of the *coupled channel equations*

$`(p_z^2/2\mu +E_{n^{}s^{}}^{}E)g_{n^{}s^{}}(z)`$
$`+{\displaystyle \underset{n^{\prime \prime },s^{\prime \prime }}{}}V_{n^{\prime \prime }s^{\prime \prime },n^{}s^{}}^{\mathrm{tot}}(z)g_{n^{\prime \prime }s^{\prime \prime }}(z)=0,`$ (15)
where

$$V_{ns,n^{}s^{}}^{\mathrm{tot}}(z)=ns|H_𝑲(𝒓_0)|n^{}s^{}_{}+V_{ns,n^{}s^{}}(r_0,z)$$
(16)
is a total coupling potential, and

$$V_{ns,n^{}s^{}}(r_0,z)=ns|e^2/|𝒓_0+𝒓||n^{}s^{}_{}$$
(17)
is an effective Coulomb potential. Here,

$$ns|f(𝒓)|n^{}s^{}_{}=\mathrm{\Phi }_{ns}^{}(𝒓_{})f(𝒓)\mathrm{\Phi }_{n^{}s^{}}(𝒓_{})\mathrm{d}^2𝒓_{}.$$
(18)
Numerical solutions of Eq. (6) for various $`K_{}`$ were presented by Vincke et al. (1992). At superstrong fields, binding energies were calculated by Lai & Salpeter (1995). The system of equations (15) was numerically solved for the discrete atomic states by Potekhin (1994), and for the continuum by Potekhin & Pavlov (1997). According to these studies, an atom moving across the strong magnetic field acquires a constant dipole moment parallel to $`𝒓_c`$. Those radiative transitions, which were dipole-forbidden for an atom at rest because of conservation of the $`z`$-projection of the angular momentum, become allowed and should be taken into account in the atmosphere models. If $`K_{}`$ is small enough, the dipole moment is also small. When $`K_{}`$ exceeds a certain critical value, the atom becomes *decentered*: the average distance between the electron and proton approaches $`r_c`$. In this case, $`K_{}`$ characterizes the electron-proton distance, rather than the atomic velocity. The binding energies (14) decrease with increasing $`K_{}`$. Asymptotically, at large $`K_{}`$, all longitudinal energies tend to $`e^2/r_c`$. In this limit, the cylindrical symmetry of the wave function and dipole selection rules are restored, but the axis of symmetry is shifted to the distance $`r_c`$ from the Coulomb center.

### 2.2. Thermodynamic Model

The EOS for partially ionized hydrogen in strong magnetic fields was constructed and discussed in Paper I. We employ the free energy minimization technique in the “chemical picture” of a plasma (for discussion of its advantages and limitations see, e.g., Saumon, Chabrier, & Van Horn, 1995; Potekhin, 1996b). The treatment is based on the framework of the free energy model developed by Saumon & Chabrier (1991, 1992) at $`B=0`$ (see also Saumon, Chabrier, & Van Horn, 1995 and Sect. II of Paper I) and extends it to the strong magnetic field case.

We consider a plasma composed of $`N_\mathrm{p}`$ protons, $`N_\mathrm{e}`$ electrons, $`N_\mathrm{H}`$ hydrogen atoms, and $`N_{\mathrm{mol}}`$ molecules in a volume $`V`$, the number densities being $`n_jN_j/V`$. The Helmholtz free energy is written as the sum

$$F=F_{\mathrm{id}}^\mathrm{e}+F_{\mathrm{id}}^\mathrm{p}+F_{\mathrm{id}}^{\mathrm{neu}}+F_{\mathrm{ex}}^\mathrm{C}+F_{\mathrm{ex}}^{\mathrm{neu}},$$
(19)
where $`F_{\mathrm{id}}^\mathrm{e}`$, $`F_{\mathrm{id}}^\mathrm{p}`$, and $`F_{\mathrm{id}}^{\mathrm{neu}}`$ are the free energies of ideal gases of the electrons, protons, and neutral species, respectively, $`F_{\mathrm{ex}}^\mathrm{C}`$ takes into account the Coulomb plasma nonideality, and $`F_{\mathrm{ex}}^{\mathrm{neu}}`$ is the nonideal contribution which arises from interactions of bound species with each other and with the electrons and protons. In Eq. (19) we have disregarded the additive contribution due to photons, since it does not affect ionization equilibrium. Moreover, generally we need not to assume thermodynamic equilibrium of radiation with matter. Ionization equilibrium is given by minimization of $`F`$ with respect to particle numbers under the stoichiometric constraints, provided the total number $`N_0`$ of protons (free and bound) is fixed. The latter number is determined by the total mass density: $`n_0N_0/V\rho /m_\mathrm{H}.`$

The first term in Eq. (19) is $`F_{\mathrm{id}}^\mathrm{e}=\mu _\mathrm{e}N_\mathrm{e}P_\mathrm{e}V,`$ where $`\mu _\mathrm{e}`$ and $`P_\mathrm{e}`$ are the chemical potential and pressure of the ideal Fermi gas, respectively. They are obtained as functions of the electron number density $`n_\mathrm{e}`$ and temperature $`T`$ from equations (e.g., Blandford & Hernquist, 1982)

$`P_\mathrm{e}=P_\mathrm{r}{\displaystyle \frac{b\tau _0^{3/2}}{\sqrt{2}\pi ^2}}{\displaystyle \underset{n=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}(2\delta _{n0})(1+2bn)^{1/4}I_{1/2}(\chi _n,\tau _n),`$ (20)
$`n_\mathrm{e}=\lambda _\mathrm{C}^3{\displaystyle \frac{\tau _0b}{2\pi ^2}}{\displaystyle \underset{n=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}(2\delta _{n0})\left[\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{2}{\tau _n}}}{\displaystyle \frac{}{\chi _n}}I_{1/2}(\chi _n,\tau _n)\right],`$ (21)
where

$`I_{1/2}(\chi ,\tau )={\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}(\mathrm{e}^{t\chi }+1)^1\sqrt{t(1+\tau t/2)}dt,`$
$`\chi _n={\displaystyle \frac{\mu _\mathrm{e}}{k_\mathrm{B}T}}+\tau _0^1\tau _n^1,\tau _n={\displaystyle \frac{T/T_\mathrm{r}}{\sqrt{1+2bn}}},`$
and $`b=(B/B_\mathrm{r})`$. In these equations, $`\lambda _\mathrm{C}=\mathrm{}/(m_\mathrm{e}c)^23.8616\times 10^{11}`$ cm, $`P_\mathrm{r}=m_\mathrm{e}c^2/\lambda _\mathrm{C}^31.4218\times 10^{25}`$ dyn cm-2, and $`T_\mathrm{r}=m_\mathrm{e}c^2/k_\mathrm{B}5.930\times 10^9`$ K are the relativistic units of length, pressure, and temperature, respectively, and $`m_\mathrm{e}c^2`$ is *not* included in $`\mu _\mathrm{e}`$. We employ analytic fitting formulae to the standard Fermi–Dirac integral $`I_{1/2}`$ in Eq. (20) and to the expression in square brackets in Eq. (21), accurate within a few parts in $`10^3`$. These fits are presented, respectively, in Sect. III of Chabrier & Potekhin (1998) and in Appendix C of Potekhin (1996a). When the electrons are nonrelativistic (as usually in the photospheres), Eqs. (20) and (21) reproduce Eqs. (30) and (31) of Paper I.

The Coulomb free energy contribution consists of three parts, $`F_{\mathrm{ex}}^\mathrm{C}=F_{\mathrm{pp}}+F_{\mathrm{ee}}+F_{\mathrm{pe}}`$, which represent, respectively, the proton-proton, electron-electron, and proton-electron interactions. There was no detailed study of the influence of a strong magnetic field on these contributions in the $`\rho `$ and $`T`$ domain we are interested in. Therefore we employ nonmagnetic expressions (Chabrier & Potekhin, 1998; Potekhin & Chabrier, 2000), scaled with $`B`$. Specifically, the nonmagnetic expression for $`F_{\mathrm{pe}}`$ is based on numerical results obtained in the hypernetted chain approximation for the linear response theory with a local field correction (Chabrier, 1990). The nonmagnetic expressions for $`F_{\mathrm{pp}}`$ and $`F_{\mathrm{ee}}`$ result from fitting the most accurate numerical results available in the literature (see Potekhin & Chabrier, 2000 for references). In the strong magnetic field, the $`B`$-scaling of the nonmagnetic $`F_{\mathrm{ex}}^\mathrm{C}`$ is constructed so as to match known low- and high-density limits (Sect. IIIB of Paper I).

The free energy of nondegenerate and nonrelativistic gas of protons, $`F_{\mathrm{id}}^\mathrm{p}`$, is given by

$`F_{\mathrm{id}}^\mathrm{p}/N_\mathrm{p}k_\mathrm{B}T`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{ln}(2\pi a_\mathrm{m}^2\lambda _\mathrm{p}n_\mathrm{p})+\mathrm{ln}\left(1\mathrm{e}^{\beta _\mathrm{p}}\right)1`$ (22)
$`+\beta _\mathrm{p}/2\mathrm{ln}[2\mathrm{cosh}(g_\mathrm{p}\beta _\mathrm{p}/4)],`$
where $`g_\mathrm{p}=5.585`$ is the proton gyromagnetic factor, $`\lambda _\mathrm{p}=\mathrm{}\sqrt{2\pi /(k_\mathrm{B}Tm_\mathrm{p})}`$ is the proton thermal wavelength, and $`\beta _\mathrm{p}=\mathrm{}\omega _{\mathrm{cp}}/k_\mathrm{B}T0.0732B_{12}/T_6`$.

Let $`N_{s\nu }`$ be the total number of H atoms with given quantum numbers $`s`$ and $`\nu `$ in the volume $`V`$, and let $`p_{s\nu }(K_{})\mathrm{d}^2K_{}`$ be the probability for such atom to have a transverse pseudomomentum in an element $`\mathrm{d}^2K_{}`$ around $`𝑲_{}`$. Then the ideal part of the free energy for hydrogen atoms is

$`F_{\mathrm{id}}^\mathrm{H}=k_\mathrm{B}T{\displaystyle \underset{s\nu }{}}N_{s\nu }{\displaystyle }\{\mathrm{ln}\left[N_{s\nu }\lambda _\mathrm{H}{\displaystyle \frac{(2\pi \mathrm{})^2}{V}}p_{s\nu }(K_{})\right]`$
$`1ϵ_{s\nu }(K_{})/(k_\mathrm{B}T)\}p_{s\nu }(K_{})\mathrm{d}^2K_{}`$
$`+N_\mathrm{H}k_\mathrm{B}T\left\{\beta _\mathrm{p}/2\mathrm{ln}[2\mathrm{cosh}(g_\mathrm{p}\beta _\mathrm{p}/4)]\right\},`$ (23)
where $`\lambda _\mathrm{H}\lambda _\mathrm{p}`$ is the thermal wavelength of an atom. The probability density $`p_{s\nu }(K_{})`$ is calculated in a thermodynamically consistent way from derivatives of the *total* free energy $`F`$ with respect to the particle numbers. Molecules H2 are treated in an approximate manner, without taking into account their excited states and possible effects caused by their motion across the magnetic field and rotation. Finally, the nonideal part of the free energy of neutral species, $`F_{\mathrm{ex}}^{\mathrm{neu}}`$, is obtained in frames of the hard-sphere model, with effective radii depending on the quantum numbers *and pseudomomenta* of interacting atoms (see Paper I for detail).

Once the free energy is obtained, its derivatives over $`\rho `$ and $`T`$ and their combinations provide the other thermodynamic functions.

### 2.3. Polarization Modes and Opacities: Basic Relations

Propagation of radiation in magnetized plasmas was discussed in many papers and monographs (e.g., Ginzburg, 1970). At photon energies $`\mathrm{}\omega `$ much higher than

$$\mathrm{}\omega _{\mathrm{pl}}=\left(\frac{4\pi \mathrm{}^2e^2n_\mathrm{e}}{m_\mathrm{e}}\right)^{1/2}28.7\rho _0^{1/2}\mathrm{eV},$$
(24)
where $`\omega _{\mathrm{pl}}`$ is the electron plasma frequency and $`\rho _0\rho /\text{g cm}\text{-3}`$, radiation propagates in the form of *extraordinary* (hereafter labeled by index $`j=1`$) and *ordinary* ($`j=2`$) normal modes. These modes have different polarization vectors $`𝒆_j`$ and different absorption and scattering coefficients, which depend on the angle $`\theta _B`$ between the propagation direction and $`𝑩`$ (e.g., Kaminker, Pavlov, & Shibanov, 1982). The two modes interact with each other via scattering. Vectors $`𝒆_j`$ for a fully ionized plasma have been derived by Shafranov (1967). Ventura (1979) gave an instructive analysis of the plasma polarization modes relevant to the neutron stars. Gnedin & Pavlov (1973) formulated the radiative transfer problem in terms of these modes. They introduced the convenient real parameters $`q`$ and $`p`$, which completely determine the normal mode polarization properties, and which are defined as

$$q+\mathrm{i}p=\frac{\epsilon _{yy}\epsilon _{xx}\mathrm{cos}^2\theta _B+\epsilon _{xz}\mathrm{sin}2\theta _B\epsilon _{zz}\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _B}{2\mathrm{i}(\epsilon _{xy}\mathrm{cos}\theta _B+\epsilon _{yz}\mathrm{sin}\theta _B)},$$
(25)
where $`\epsilon _{ij}`$ are the components of the complex permittivity tensor (Ginzburg, 1970), and the $`z`$ axis is directed along $`𝑩`$. The parameter $`q`$ determines the ellipticity of the normal modes, and the parameter $`p`$ is associated with absorption of radiation. In the most common case, one has

$$|q||p|,q(\omega ,\theta _B)\stackrel{~}{q}(\omega )\frac{\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _B}{2\mathrm{cos}\theta _B}.$$
(26)
These relations may be invalid in narrow frequency ranges where resonant absorption occurs (e.g., near the electron or ion cyclotron resonance).

The formulae for $`𝒆_j`$ which take into account contribution of the plasma ions, implied in Shafranov (1967), have been explicitly written by Ho & Lai (2001). The electron-positron vacuum polarization in a strong magnetic field dramatically changes the normal-mode properties in certain $`\rho `$$`\omega `$ domains (see Pavlov & Gnedin, 1984, for a review). The vacuum dielectric tensor has been obtained by Adler (1971) at $`BB_\mathrm{r}`$ and by Heyl & Hernquist (1997a, b) in both limits of $`BB_\mathrm{r}`$ and $`BB_\mathrm{r}`$. Using these results, Ho & Lai (2003) derived convenient expressions for the polarization vectors of normal modes, which take into account the contributions from the electrons, ions, and vacuum.

The presence of bound species modifies the complex permittivity tensor and hence the properties of the normal modes. Their accurate treatment in a partially ionized medium with a strong magnetic field is a complicated problem, which has not been solved yet. The normal polarization modes of a neutral gas of hydrogen atoms in strong magnetic fields were studied by Bulik & Pavlov (1996), who applied the Kramers–Kronig relations to the bound-free and bound-bound atomic absorption coefficients obtained previously by Potekhin & Pavlov (1993) and Pavlov & Potekhin (1995). The thermal motion effects, which had not been calculated by that time for the bound-free transitions in strong magnetic fields, were evaluated using a perturbation approximation (Pavlov & Mészáros, 1993). The qualitative behavior of the polarization vectors proved to be the same as for the fully ionized plasma in a wide range of $`\omega `$ and $`\theta _B`$, where Eq. (26) holds. However, there are quantitative differences. The frequencies at which Eq. (26) is not valid, are of the order of the photoionization threshold $`\omega _{\mathrm{th}}`$ and the principal bound-bound transition frequencies, where the resonant absorption takes place in the neutral gas (instead of $`\omega _{\mathrm{ce}}`$ and $`\omega _{\mathrm{cp}}`$ in the fully ionized plasma). The numerical values of $`\stackrel{~}{q}(\omega )`$ are modified. For instance, at $`\omega `$ well above $`\omega _{\mathrm{th}}`$, $`\stackrel{~}{q}(\omega )`$ is larger than it would be in the case of full ionization, which makes the normal mode polarization more linear.

Polarization properties of normal modes in a *partially* ionized plasma with a strongly quantizing magnetic field remain unexplored. Hereafter we consider mostly situations where the neutral fraction is small. Since even for completely nonionized gas the properties of the polarization vectors (in particular, their dependence on $`\theta _B`$) are qualitatively the same as for the fully ionized plasma (except for the resonant absorption frequency ranges), we assume that the polarization modes for the fully ionized plasma are a good approximation and adopt the formulae given by Ho & Lai (2003).

At a fixed photon frequency $`\omega `$, the absorption opacity $`\kappa _j^\mathrm{a}(\theta _B)`$ in each mode $`j`$ and scattering opacities $`\kappa _{jj^{}}^\mathrm{s}(\theta _B)`$ from mode $`j`$ into mode $`j^{}`$ can be presented as (e.g., Kaminker et al., 1982)

$`\kappa _j^\mathrm{a}(\theta _B)=m_\mathrm{H}^1{\displaystyle \underset{\alpha =1}{\overset{1}{}}}|e_{j,\alpha }(\theta _B)|^2\sigma _\alpha ^\mathrm{a},`$ (27)
$`\kappa _{jj^{}}^\mathrm{s}(\theta _B)={\displaystyle \frac{3}{4}}{\displaystyle \underset{\alpha =1}{\overset{1}{}}}|e_{j,\alpha }(\theta _B)|^2`$
$`\times {\displaystyle \frac{\sigma _\alpha ^\mathrm{s}}{m_\mathrm{H}}}{\displaystyle _0^\pi }|e_{j^{},\alpha }(\theta _B^{})|^2\mathrm{sin}\theta _B^{}\mathrm{d}\theta _B^{},`$ (28)
where $`\alpha =0,\pm 1`$, $`e_{j,0}=e_{j,z}`$ is the $`z`$-component of $`𝒆_j`$, and $`e_{j,\pm 1}=(e_{j,x}\pm \mathrm{i}e_{j,y})/\sqrt{2}`$ are the circular components. The cross sections $`\sigma _\alpha `$ depend on $`\omega `$, but not on $`j`$ or $`\theta _B`$.

The total scattering opacity from mode $`j`$ is $`\kappa _j^\mathrm{s}=\kappa _{j1}^\mathrm{s}+\kappa _{j2}^\mathrm{s}`$, and the total extinction opacity is $`\kappa _j=\kappa _j^\mathrm{a}+\kappa _j^\mathrm{s}`$.

In the *diffusion approximation* (whose accuracy was studied, e.g., by Shibanov & Zavlin, 1995), the effective opacity is

$$\kappa _j^{\mathrm{eff}}=(\mathrm{cos}^2\vartheta /\kappa _j^{}+\mathrm{sin}^2\vartheta /\kappa _j^{})^1,$$
(29)
where $`\vartheta `$ is the angle between $`𝑩`$ and the intensity gradient,

$$\frac{1}{\kappa _j^{}}=\frac{3}{4}_0^\pi \frac{\mathrm{cos}^2\theta _B}{\kappa _j(\theta _B)}\mathrm{sin}\theta _B\mathrm{d}\theta _B,\frac{1}{\kappa _j^{}}=\frac{3}{2}_0^\pi \frac{\mathrm{sin}^3\theta _B}{\kappa _j(\theta _B)}d\theta _B.$$
(30)
The effective opacity for the nonpolarized radiation is $`\kappa ^{\mathrm{eff}}=2/[(\kappa _1^{\mathrm{eff}})^1+(\kappa _2^{\mathrm{eff}})^1]`$.

In a partially ionized atmosphere, the opacity is contributed by electrons, ions, and bound species. The scattering cross section includes contributions from the electrons and protons: $`\sigma _\alpha ^\mathrm{s}=\sigma _\alpha ^{\mathrm{s},\mathrm{e}}+\sigma _\alpha ^{\mathrm{s},\mathrm{p}}`$ (the Rayleigh scattering by atoms can be important only at lower photon energies than considered in this paper). The absorption cross section $`\sigma _\alpha ^\mathrm{a}`$ includes contributions from absorption by plasma electrons and protons (free-free transitions due to the electron-proton collisions, $`\sigma _\alpha ^{\mathrm{ff}}`$, and proton-proton collisions, $`\sigma _\alpha ^{\mathrm{pp}}`$), transitions between discrete states of an atom (bound-bound absorption, $`\sigma _\alpha ^{\mathrm{bb}}`$) and photoionization (bound-free, $`\sigma _\alpha ^{\mathrm{bf}}`$). So, for the hydrogen atmosphere, we can write

$$\sigma _\alpha ^\mathrm{a}=x_\mathrm{H}(\sigma _\alpha ^{\mathrm{bb}}+\sigma _\alpha ^{\mathrm{bf}})+(1x_\mathrm{H})(\sigma _\alpha ^{\mathrm{ff}}+\sigma _\alpha ^{\mathrm{pp}}),$$
(31)
where $`x_\mathrm{H}`$ is the number fraction of atoms, which will be evaluated in the following section.

## 3. Equation of State

### 3.1. Calculation of Tables

Our treatment of the ionization equilibrium and EOS of hydrogen in strong magnetic fields is based on the theory developed in Paper I and briefly exposed in Sect. 2.2. Since our free-energy model is computationally expensive, it is not possible to use the EOS code “on line” in any practical application. The alternative is to tabulate thermodynamic quantities covering the density, temperature, and magnetic field domain of interest and to rely on an interpolation procedure in the table. Here we present EOS tables which cover a range of $`\rho `$, $`T`$, and $`B`$ appropriate for most typical neutron stars, such as isolated pulsars.

As discussed in Paper I, our model becomes less reliable at relatively low $`T`$ and high $`\rho `$, particularly because of formation of molecules and chains Hn, which are treated in an approximate manner. In this domain, the partial number fractions and thermodynamic quantities are strongly model-dependent. However, this domain of uncertainty is unimportant for modeling of not too cold neutron stars, because the temperature grows inside the stellar envelope. For this reason, we have chosen as an input parameter the “astrophysical density parameter” $`R=\rho _0/T_6^3`$, which is customary in the stellar opacity calculations (e.g., Seaton et al., 1994; Iglesias & Rogers, 1996), and restricted the calculation to $`R<4\times 10^3`$.

### 3.2. Ionization Equilibrium

Our detailed thermodynamic model shows that a strong magnetic field generally increases the fraction of bound species. In Fig. 1, ionization equilibrium curves at $`B=10^{12}`$ G and $`10^{13.5}`$ G are compared with the case of $`B=0`$. The latter case is treated in the framework of the nonmagnetic free energy model (Sect. II of Paper I), which is a variant of the Saumon & Chabrier (1991, 1992) model. In all cases, the excited atoms contribute significantly at low $`\rho `$. In the strong magnetic field, the population of decentered atoms is also significant at low $`\rho `$. At higher density, the excluded-volume effect eliminates the excited and decentered atoms. At these high densities, the plasma species strongly interact, which leads to appearance of a significant fraction of clusters. Such clusters contribute to the EOS similarly to the atoms, lowering the pressure, but their radiation-absorption properties are clearly different from those of an isolated atom. Therefore they should be excluded from $`x_\mathrm{H}`$ in Eq. (31). Analogously, at low $`\rho `$ we should not include in $`x_\mathrm{H}`$ the highly excited states that do not satisfy the Inglis & Teller (1939) criterion of spectral line merging, being strongly perturbed by plasma microfields. Such states form the so called optical pseudo-continuum (e.g., Däppen, Anderson, & Mihalas, 1987). This distinction between the “thermodynamic” and “optical” neutral fraction is inevitable in the chemical picture of a plasma at high densities (see, e.g., Potekhin, 1996b for a discussion). We discriminate the atoms which keep their identity from the “dissolved” states (i.e., strongly perturbed by the plasma environment) using the occupation probability formalism. At every $`s`$, $`\nu `$, and $`K_{}`$, we calculate the “optical” occupation probability $`w_{\nu s}^\mathrm{o}(K_{})`$, replacing the Inglis–Teller criterion by an approximate criterion based on the average atomic size \[Eq. (14) of Pavlov & Potekhin (1995)\]. The fraction of weakly perturbed atoms, which contribute to the bound-bound and bound-free opacities, constitutes a fraction $`w_{\nu s}^\mathrm{o}(K_{})/w_{\nu s}^\mathrm{t}(K_{})<1`$ of the total number of atoms. Here, $`w_{\nu s}^\mathrm{t}(K_{})`$ is the “thermodynamic” occupation probability derived from the free energy (Paper I). Heavy lines in Fig. 1 show the neutral fraction of the weakly perturbed atoms in their ground state, which contribute to the opacities as isolated atoms, whereas the light lines show the total fraction of protons bound in atoms or clusters.

According to our model, at relatively low $`T`$, pressure ionization proceeds via a first-order phase transition. This “plasma phase transition” occurs at temperature below $`T_\mathrm{c}3\times 10^5B_{12}^{0.39}`$ K at densities around $`\rho _\mathrm{c}143B_{12}^{1.18}`$ g cm-3 (Paper I). In general, the validity of the free-energy models in the framework of the chemical picture of plasmas is questionable near the plasma phase transition domain. However, the $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ and $`\rho _\mathrm{c}`$ values correspond to $`\mathrm{log}_{10}R_\mathrm{c}3.7`$, which is beyond the upper $`R`$ limit for our tables, so that the plasma phase transition is not crossed along the tabulated isotherms.

Figure 2 shows the domains of partial ionization in the $`T`$$`\rho `$ plane at three values of $`B`$. With increasing $`B`$, the domains where the atomic fraction is above a specified level expand significantly. For instance, at $`B=5\times 10^{12}`$ G the domain where $`x_\mathrm{H}>0.01`$ extends to $`T=10^6`$ K. Such amount of atoms can give an important contribution to radiative opacities.

Our tables provide values of $`x_\mathrm{H}`$, as well as the fractions of ground-state atoms, molecules, and clusters at every $`R`$, $`T`$, and $`B`$ entry.

### 3.3. Thermodynamic Functions

Figure 3 shows pressure $`P`$ along two isotherms for the same field strengths as in Fig. 1. The pressure varies over many orders of magnitude in the shown density range. Therefore, in order to make the discussed effects more visible, we plot in Fig. 3 the *ratio* of $`P`$ to $`n_0k_\mathrm{B}T`$, the pressure of an ideal monatomic hydrogen gas at the same $`\rho `$ and $`T`$.

At different field strengths (including $`B=0`$), the deviations from the ideal gas behavior are qualitatively the same, but quantitatively different. At very low $`\rho `$, we have nearly fully ionized, almost ideal nondegenerate gas of electrons and protons, so that $`P/n_0k_\mathrm{B}T2`$. With increasing density, atomic recombination proceeds according to the Saha equation \[in the strong magnetic field, the modified Saha equation is given by Eq. (54) of Paper I\]. Therefore, the ratio $`P/n_0k_\mathrm{B}T`$ decreases. At high density, however, the atoms become pressure ionized: in this region the increase of $`P`$ due to the increased number of free electrons and protons competes with a negative nonideal contribution, which is mainly due to the Coulomb term $`F_{\mathrm{ex}}^\mathrm{C}`$ in the free energy. The dot-dashed curve bends down near the high-$`\rho `$ edge of the left panel of Fig. 3 because of enhancement of the nonideal contribution; it is a precursor of the plasma phase transition, where our model becomes inapplicable. Finally, at still higher densities, the electrons become degenerate and raise the pressure far above $`n_0k_\mathrm{B}T`$. The dotted lines in Fig. 3 show the pressure of an ideal electron-proton gas; their upward bending marks the onset of electron degeneracy. At $`B=0`$, it occurs at $`\rho m_\mathrm{H}(2m_\mathrm{e}k_\mathrm{B}T)^{3/2}/(3\pi ^2\mathrm{}^3)6T_6^{3/2}`$ g cm-3, but in the strongly quantizing field the electrons become degenerate at $`\rho (m_\mathrm{H}/\pi ^2\mathrm{}a_\mathrm{m}^2)(m_\mathrm{e}k_\mathrm{B}T/2)^{1/2}613B_{12}\sqrt{T_6}`$ g cm-3.

Since the strong magnetic field enhances atomic recombination and delays pressure ionization and electron degeneracy at high densities, the discussed features of the $`P/n_0k_\mathrm{B}T`$ curves become more prominent and shift to higher $`\rho `$ with increasing $`B`$, as seen in Fig. 3.

Along with the pressure, our EOS tables contain internal energy $`U`$, entropy $`S`$, specific heat $`C_V`$, and the logarithmic derivatives of pressure $`\chi _T=(\mathrm{ln}P/\mathrm{ln}T)_V`$ and $`\chi _\rho =(\mathrm{ln}P/\mathrm{ln}V)_T`$. Other second-order quantities can be calculated using the Maxwell relations (e.g., Landau & Lifshitz, 1993). For example, the heat capacity at constant pressure, $`C_P`$, and adiabatic gradient, $`_{\mathrm{ad}}=(\mathrm{log}T/\mathrm{log}P)_S`$, are given by relations

$$C_P=C_V+\frac{PV}{T}\frac{\chi _T^2}{\chi _\rho },_{\mathrm{ad}}=\frac{\chi _T}{\chi _T^2+\chi _\rho C_VT/(PV)}.$$
(32)
Figure 4 shows $`_{\mathrm{ad}}`$ at different values of $`B`$. At low density, the magnetic field increases the adiabatic gradient, thus stabilizing the matter against convection. This thermodynamic effect is additional to the hydromagnetic stabilization considered, e.g., by Chandrasekhar (1961) and Miralles et al. (1997). However, at higher densities, $`\rho (1`$—100) g cm-3, there is a significant decrease of $`_{\mathrm{ad}}`$ due to the partial recombination of H atoms. The adiabatic gradient increases again at still higher densities, where the plasma is fully pressure-ionized.

## 4. Cross Sections

### 4.1. Scattering

The scattering cross sections by the electrons under the conditions typical for photospheres of the neutron stars with strong magnetic fields were thoroughly studied in the past (e.g., Ventura, 1979; Kaminker et al., 1982; Mészáros, 1992, and references therein). The cross section $`\sigma _1^{\mathrm{s},\mathrm{e}}`$ exhibits a resonance at the electron cyclotron frequency $`\omega _{\mathrm{ce}}`$. Outside of a narrow (about the Doppler width) frequency range around $`\omega _{\mathrm{ce}}`$, the cross sections are

$$\sigma _\alpha ^{\mathrm{s},\mathrm{e}}=\frac{\omega ^2}{(\omega +\alpha \omega _{\mathrm{ce}})^2+\nu _{\mathrm{e},\alpha }^2}\sigma _\mathrm{T},$$
(33)
where $`\sigma _\mathrm{T}=(8\pi /3)(e^2/m_\mathrm{e}c^2)^2`$ is the nonmagnetic Thomson cross section, and $`\nu _{\mathrm{e},\alpha }`$ is an effective damping frequency given by Eq. (38) below.

The scattering by the protons, which is completely negligible in a nonmagnetized plasma, becomes important in the strong magnetic field, because $`\sigma _{+1}^{\mathrm{s},\mathrm{p}}`$ exhibits a resonance at $`\omega _{\mathrm{cp}}`$. It is the same as the electron cyclotron resonance but a different mass and opposite charge of the particle:

$$\sigma _\alpha ^{\mathrm{s},\mathrm{p}}=\left(\frac{m_\mathrm{e}}{m_\mathrm{p}}\right)^2\frac{\omega ^2}{(\omega \alpha \omega _{\mathrm{cp}})^2+\nu _{\mathrm{p},\alpha }^2}\sigma _\mathrm{T}.$$
(34)
The damping frequency $`\nu _{\mathrm{p},\alpha }`$ will be derived below \[Eq. (53)\].

We neglect the Doppler broadening of these resonances. Within the thermal width of the cyclotron resonance, the treatment of radiation scattering is nontrivial (e.g., Ventura et al., 1985, and references therein). However, at $`T10^7`$ K, the Doppler width $`\omega \sqrt{T/T_\mathrm{r}}`$ is smaller than the frequency resolution of our opacity tables (chosen to be $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{log}_{10}\omega =0.02`$).

### 4.2. Absorption by Atoms

Oscillator strengths for the H atom which rests in a strong magnetic field were calculated, e.g., by Forster et al. (1984). Bound-bound transitions of the H atom moving arbitrarily in a strong magnetic field were studied by Pavlov & Potekhin (1995). The modification of the binding energies due to the atomic motion (Sect. 2.1) leads to a dramatic “magnetic broadening” of the spectral lines averaged over all states of motion, which exceeds by orders of magnitude the usual Doppler broadening. Thus the spectral profile of the bound-bound opacities becomes continuous in a wide frequency range, resembling a reversed bound-free profile. Our calculation of the bound-bound absorption cross sections relies on the theory presented by Pavlov & Potekhin (1995) and employs fitting formulae for the binding energies, oscillator strengths, and electron collision widths derived by Potekhin (1998).

Photoionization cross sections of the nonmoving H atom in a magnetic field were calculated by many authors (e.g., Potekhin, Pavlov, & Ventura, 1997, and references therein). Photoionization of the H atom in a strong magnetic field with allowance for motion was studied, using different modifications of the adiabatic approximation (Sect. 2.1) by Bezchastnov & Potekhin (1994) and Kopidakis, Ventura, & Herold (1996). A complete numerical treatment beyond the adiabatic approximation has been developed by Potekhin & Pavlov (1997), who adapted the $`R`$-matrix formalism (Wigner & Eisenbud, 1947) to the case under study. They showed that none of the versions of the adiabatic approximation can provide accurate $`\sigma _\alpha ^{\mathrm{bf}}`$ for all values of $`\alpha `$ and $`K_{}`$, particularly because the continuum-channel coupling strongly affects $`\sigma _\pm ^{\mathrm{bf}}`$ at sufficiently large $`K_{}`$. Here we use the complete numerical treatment. Since it is computationally involved, we use an interpolation across a precalculated set of tables. For each of the three basic polarizations, we have calculated $`\sigma _\alpha ^{\mathrm{bf}}(\omega ,K_{},B)`$ on a predefined grid, with $`\mathrm{log}_{10}\mathrm{}\omega [\mathrm{eV}]`$ ranging from 1.0 to 4.5 with step 0.02, $`\mathrm{log}_{10}K_{}[\mathrm{a}.\mathrm{u}.]`$ ranging from 1 to 3 with step 0.1, and $`\mathrm{log}_{10}B[\mathrm{G}]`$ ranging from 11.9 to 13.5 with step 0.1. At the low-$`K_{}`$ end of the grid, $`K_{}=10`$ a.u., the atomic properties are virtually the same as at $`K=0`$; beyond the upper limit, $`K_{}>10^3`$ a.u., the contribution of the bound-free transitions to the total opacities is negligible. The grid is sufficiently fine for calculation of atmosphere models. However, the step 0.02 in $`\mathrm{log}_{10}\omega `$ does not allow us to resolve the narrow Beutler–Fano-type resonances which appear due to autoionizing states in the vicinity of photoionization thresholds of partial cross sections (Potekhin et al., 1997; Potekhin & Pavlov, 1997). Whenever such a resonance occurs near a grid point, it produces a spurious outlier on the otherwise smooth $`\sigma _\alpha ^{\mathrm{bf}}(\omega ,K_{})`$ dependence. We filter out such outliers by smoothing $`\sigma _\alpha ^{\mathrm{bf}}`$ as a function of $`\omega `$ at every $`K_{}`$, using the 3-point median filter. Since the grid does not allow us to resolve the photoionization threshold accurately, the threshold frequency $`\omega _{\mathrm{th}}`$ is determined independently for every $`K_{}`$, using analytic fits to the binding energies (Potekhin, 1998).

In addition to the bound-bound and bound-free atomic transitions, in a plasma environment there are transitions from bound states to the highly perturbed atomic states discussed in Sect. 3.2. These perturbed levels effectively dissolve and merge in a pseudo-continuum, which lies below the photoionization threshold. In order to take into account the radiative transitions into this pseudo-continuum, we employ a below-threshold extrapolation, as described for the zero-field case by Däppen et al. (1987), Stehlé & Jacquemot (1993), and Seaton et al. (1994). Below $`\omega _{\mathrm{th}}`$, the effective “bound–quasi-free” photoabsorption cross section due to the dissolved lines is

$$\sigma _\alpha ^{\mathrm{bf}}(\omega <\omega _{\mathrm{th}})=\frac{2\pi e^2}{m_\mathrm{e}c}\frac{w_i^\mathrm{o}w_f^\mathrm{o}}{w_i^\mathrm{o}}f_{if,\alpha }\frac{\mathrm{d}\nu _f}{\mathrm{d}\omega },$$
(35)
where $`w_i^\mathrm{o}`$ and $`w_f^\mathrm{o}`$ are the optical occupation probabilities of the initial and final states, respectively, $`f_{if,\alpha }`$ is the corresponding oscillator strength, and $`\mathrm{d}\nu _f/\mathrm{d}\omega `$ is the number of final states per unit frequency interval. By analogy with Stehlé & Jacquemot (1993), we interpolate $`w_f^\mathrm{o}`$ as function of frequency and set $`w_f^\mathrm{o}=w_i^\mathrm{o}`$ at $`\omega `$ smaller than the lowest allowed transition frequency. Taking into account that $`\sigma _\alpha ^{\mathrm{bf}}(\omega <\omega _{\mathrm{th}})`$ is a smooth continuation of $`\sigma _\alpha ^{\mathrm{bf}}(\omega >\omega _{\mathrm{th}})`$ (Däppen et al., 1987), we write

$$\sigma _\alpha ^{\mathrm{bf}}(K_{},\omega <\omega _{\mathrm{th}})=\left(1\frac{w_f^\mathrm{o}(K_{},\omega )}{w_i^\mathrm{o}(K_{})}\right)\sigma _\alpha ^{\mathrm{bf},\mathrm{extr}}(K_{},\omega ),$$
(36)
where $`\sigma _\alpha ^{\mathrm{bf},\mathrm{extr}}(K_{},\omega )`$ is a power-law extrapolation of $`\sigma _\alpha ^{\mathrm{bf}}(K_{},\omega )`$ at $`\omega <\omega _{\mathrm{th}}`$.

Unlike the $`B=0`$ case, in our case $`f_{if,\alpha }`$ and $`w_f^\mathrm{o}`$ depend on polarization. For photoabsorption by an atom in the ground state, $`f_{if,\pm 1}0`$ only for even upper states, whereas $`f_{if,0}0`$ only for odd states. We take into consideration only the appropriate states while calculating $`w_f^\mathrm{o}`$ in Eq. (36).

The $`K_{}`$-dependent cross sections are averaged over the distribution of atoms over $`K_{}`$ with statistical weights $`w_i^\mathrm{o}(K_{})\mathrm{exp}[ϵ_i(K_{})/k_\mathrm{B}T]`$, as in Pavlov & Potekhin (1995) and Potekhin & Pavlov (1997).

### 4.3. Free-Free Absorption

In the classical cold plasma approximation (e.g., Ginzburg, 1970), the free-free absorption by electrons is

$$\sigma _\alpha ^{\mathrm{ff}}=\frac{1}{(\omega +\alpha \omega _{\mathrm{ce}})^2+\nu _{\mathrm{e},\alpha }^2}\frac{4\pi e^2}{m_\mathrm{e}c}\nu _\alpha ^{\mathrm{ff}}(\omega ),$$
(37)
where $`\nu _\alpha ^{\mathrm{ff}}`$ is an effective frequency of electron-proton collisions which lead to absorption of photons. Broadening of the electron cyclotron resonance in Eqs. (33) and (37) is determined by the sum of the effective frequencies for absorption and scattering,

$$\nu _{\mathrm{e},\alpha }=\nu _\alpha ^{\mathrm{ff}}+\nu _\mathrm{e}^\mathrm{s},$$
(38)
where

$$\nu _\mathrm{e}^\mathrm{s}=\frac{2}{3}\frac{e^2}{m_\mathrm{e}c^3}\omega ^2$$
(39)
is the natural (radiative) width of the resonance. The damping frequency given by Eq. (38) ensures the correct value of the cyclotron absorption cross section integrated across the resonance (e.g., Ventura, 1979):

$$_{\omega _{\mathrm{ce}}\mathrm{\Delta }\omega }^{\omega _{\mathrm{ce}}+\mathrm{\Delta }\omega }[\sigma _1^{\mathrm{s},\mathrm{e}}(\omega )+\sigma _1^{\mathrm{ff}}(\omega )]d\omega =\frac{4\pi ^2e^2}{m_\mathrm{e}c},$$
(40)
with $`\nu _{\mathrm{e},\alpha }\mathrm{\Delta }\omega \omega _{\mathrm{ce}}`$.

The values of $`\nu _\alpha ^{\mathrm{ff}}`$ are provided by quantum-mechanical calculations. It is customary (e.g., Armstrong & Nicholls, 1972) to express $`\sigma ^{\mathrm{ff}}`$ through the thermally averaged Gaunt factors $`\overline{g}`$, or equivalently, Coulomb logarithms $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=(\pi /\sqrt{3})\overline{g}`$. Taking into account Eq. (37), we can write

$$\nu _\alpha ^{\mathrm{ff}}=\frac{4}{3}\sqrt{\frac{2\pi }{m_\mathrm{e}k_\mathrm{B}T}}\frac{n_\mathrm{e}e^4}{\mathrm{}\omega }\left(1\mathrm{e}^u\right)\mathrm{\Lambda }_\alpha ^{\mathrm{ff}},u\frac{\mathrm{}\omega }{k_\mathrm{B}T}.$$
(41)
The factor $`(1\mathrm{e}^u)`$ allows for the induced radiation.

#### 4.3.1 Infinite Proton Mass Approximation

In the zero-field case, the electron free-free absorption rate can be calculated assuming the electron scattering off a fixed Coulomb potential. In this case, allowance for the finite ion mass consists in replacing $`m_\mathrm{e}`$ by the reduced mass $`\mu `$. The Born approximation yields the well-known formula for the cross section of free-free photoabsorption by an electron having an initial momentum $`p_i`$ and final momentum $`p_f=(p_i^2+2m_\mathrm{e}\mathrm{}\omega )^{1/2}`$ (e.g., Bethe & Salpeter, 1957),

$$\sigma ^{\mathrm{ff}}(p_i,\omega )=\frac{16\pi ^2n_\mathrm{e}e^6}{3m_\mathrm{e}c\mathrm{}\omega ^3}\frac{1}{p_i}\mathrm{ln}\left|\frac{p_f+p_i}{p_fp_i}\right|,$$
(42)
whose averaging over the Maxwell distribution gives the classical Coulomb logarithm

$$\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{cl}}^{\mathrm{ff}}=\mathrm{e}^{u/2}K_0(u/2),$$
(43)
$`K_0(u/2)`$ being the modified Bessel function. Hummer (1988) calculated $`\overline{g}^{\mathrm{ff}}`$ using accurate non-Born quantum-mechanical results by Karzas & Latter (1961) and fitted it by a Padé formula. The nonmagnetic Gaunt factor is applicable if the magnetic field is nonquantizing — i.e., if $`\beta _\mathrm{e}<1`$, where $`\beta _\mathrm{e}`$ is given by Eq. (1). In the quantizing magnetic fields, the Coulomb logarithm was evaluated in the Born approximation by several authors (Pavlov & Panov, 1976; Nagel, 1980; Mészáros, 1992). In this approximation, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_\alpha ^{\mathrm{ff}}`$, which is generally a function of $`B`$, $`T`$, and $`\omega `$, depends only on the two dimensionless arguments, $`u`$ and $`\beta _\mathrm{e}`$111The set of equations (44) is equivalent to Eq. (27) of Pavlov & Panov (1976), but in Eq. (44c) for $`A_n^{\pm 1}`$ we have restored power 2 of $`\zeta `$, lacking in Pavlov & Panov (1976) apparently due to a misprint. :

$$\mathrm{\Lambda }_\alpha ^{\mathrm{ff}}=\frac{3}{4}e^{u/2}\underset{n=\mathrm{}}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}_0^{\mathrm{}}Q_n^\alpha (\beta _\mathrm{e},u,y)dy,$$
(44a)
where
$`Q_n^\alpha (\beta _\mathrm{e},u,y)={\displaystyle \frac{y}{\zeta }}{\displaystyle \frac{A_n^\alpha }{[(y+\theta +\zeta )\mathrm{sinh}(\beta _\mathrm{e}/2)]^{|n|}}}`$ (44b)
$`A_n^0={\displaystyle \frac{x_nK_1(x_n)}{y+\beta _\mathrm{e}/4}},A_n^{\pm 1}={\displaystyle \frac{y+\theta +|n|\zeta }{\zeta ^2}}K_0(x_n),`$ (44c)
$`\zeta =\sqrt{1+2\theta y+y^2},\theta ={\displaystyle \frac{1+\mathrm{exp}(\beta _\mathrm{e})}{1\mathrm{exp}(\beta _\mathrm{e})}},`$ (44d)
$`x_n=|un\beta _\mathrm{e}|\sqrt{0.25+y/\beta _\mathrm{e}}.`$ (44e)
Equation (44) has been derived assuming that an electron scatters off a fixed Coulomb center. Actually the protons are moving and can absorb radiation during collisions. Although this process is negligible at $`B=0`$, it may be important at $`\omega `$ near or below $`\omega _{\mathrm{cp}}`$. The previous authors (Pavlov et al., 1995; Zane et al., 2000, 2001; Özel, 2001; Ho & Lai, 2001) supplemented $`\sigma _\alpha ^{\mathrm{ff}}`$ by a cross section of “ion free-free absorption,” $`\sigma _\alpha ^{\mathrm{ff},\mathrm{p}}`$. For hydrogen, taking into account Eqs. (33) and (34), their formulae can be written as

$$\sigma _\alpha ^\mathrm{a}=\sigma _\alpha ^{\mathrm{ff}}+\sigma _\alpha ^{\mathrm{ff},\mathrm{p}},\sigma _\alpha ^{\mathrm{ff},\mathrm{p}}/\sigma _\alpha ^{\mathrm{s},\mathrm{p}}=\sigma _\alpha ^{\mathrm{ff}}/\sigma _\alpha ^{\mathrm{s},\mathrm{e}}.$$
(45)
We find, however, that Eq. (45) is erroneous.

#### 4.3.2 Absorption in Proton Collisions

There are two effects of the finite proton mass on the absorption: first, the absorption can occur in proton-proton collisions, and second, the absorption in the electron-proton collisions is modified because of the proton motion. Let us start with the first process. By analogy with Eq. (37), we write the cross section as

$$\sigma _\alpha ^{\mathrm{pp}}=\frac{1}{(\omega \alpha \omega _{\mathrm{cp}})^2+\nu _{\mathrm{p},\alpha }^2}\frac{4\pi e^2}{m_\mathrm{p}c}\nu _\alpha ^{\mathrm{pp}}(\omega ),$$
(46)
where $`\nu _\alpha ^{\mathrm{pp}}`$ is the effective frequency to be determined.

In the classical picture (Ginzburg, 1970), an ion-ion collision does not change the total electric current and hence does not cause dissipation. Therefore, it does not contribute to the damping of radiation. In quantum mechanics, this corresponds to vanishing dipole matrix element for the absorption. In Appendix A we evaluate the nonvanishing quadrupole term under the condition that the magnetic field does not quantize proton motion, that is $`\beta _\mathrm{p}<1`$, and obtain

$$\nu ^{\mathrm{pp}}=\frac{256}{3}\sqrt{\frac{\pi }{m_\mathrm{p}k_\mathrm{B}T}}\frac{n_\mathrm{p}e^4}{\mathrm{}\omega }\frac{k_\mathrm{B}T}{m_\mathrm{p}c^2}(1\mathrm{e}^u)\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{pp}},$$
(47)
where $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{pp}}`$ is an appropriate Coulomb logarithm. In Fig. 5, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{pp}}`$ is plotted by the solid line. For comparison, we also show $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ for distinguishable particles \[corresponding to Eq. (A4); dashed line\], and the classical Coulomb logarithm $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{cl}}^{\mathrm{ff}}`$ \[Eq. (43); dotted line\]. The fit

$$\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{pp}}0.6\mathrm{ln}(22u^1+9u^{0.3})+0.4\sqrt{\pi u}$$
(48)
accurately reproduces $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{pp}}`$ at small and large $`u`$ and has a maximum error within 1.5% at intermediate $`u`$.

We see that $`\sigma _\alpha ^{\mathrm{pp}}`$ differs from $`\sigma _\alpha ^{\mathrm{ff},\mathrm{p}}`$ \[defined by Eq. (45) with use of Eqs. (37) and (41)\] by a factor of $`32\sqrt{2m_\mathrm{p}/m_\mathrm{e}}(k_\mathrm{B}T/m_\mathrm{p}c^2)\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{pp}}/\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{cl}}^{\mathrm{ff}}T/10^9`$ K.

One should remember that Eqs. (46)–(48) are obtained in the nonrelativistic approximation. Therefore they do not take into account spin-flip processes and are inapplicable at very high $`T`$ or high $`\omega `$, where the relativistic corrections can be important.

#### 4.3.3 Electron Free-Free Process with Allowance for Finite Proton Mass

Let us write the cross section of photoabsorption due to the electron-proton collisions in the form of combined Eqs. (37) and (41), neglecting broadening:

$$\sigma _\alpha ^{\mathrm{ff}}=\frac{2^{9/2}\pi ^{3/2}n_\mathrm{e}e^6}{3m_\mathrm{e}^{3/2}(k_\mathrm{B}T)^{1/2}c\mathrm{}\omega }\frac{1\mathrm{e}^u}{(\omega +\alpha \omega _{\mathrm{ce}})^2}\mathrm{\Lambda }_\alpha ^\mathrm{e}.$$
(49)
The superscript ‘e’ indicates that the electron (not proton) cyclotron resonance has been separated off $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_\alpha `$. Since the colliding electron and proton are treated on equal footing, we anticipate that thus defined *normalized cross section* $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_\alpha ^\mathrm{e}`$ will reveal a resonant peak at $`\omega \omega _{\mathrm{cp}}`$.

The initial and final states of the interacting electron and proton are just continuum states of the H atom. An accurate treatment of these states would imply a solution of the coupled-channel equations (15) and calculation of the $`R`$-matrix, as we did for the bound-free process. However, we will restrict to the first Born approximation. In this approximation, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_\alpha ^\mathrm{e}`$ is given by Eqs. (B20)–(B22) derived in Appendix B. For the longitudinal polarization ($`\alpha =0`$), a calculation by these equations well reproduces the Coulomb logarithm (44) obtained in the infinite proton mass approximation. However, for the two circular polarizations the result is different; it is shown in Fig. 6 by the solid lines. As expected, we see a remarkable proton cyclotron resonance at $`\alpha =+1`$, which is due to the denominator $`\omega \omega _{\mathrm{cp}}`$ in the last terms of Eq. (B22c). In addition, for both circular polarizations there are smaller spikes at higher proton-cyclotron harmonics, arising from the logarithmic singularities of $`\stackrel{~}{v}_{nsn^{}s}(\rho ,\varkappa )`$ at $`\varkappa 0`$ \[see Eq. (B8)\]. Apart from these spikes, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\pm 1}^\mathrm{e}`$ is accurately described by the formula $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\pm 1}^\mathrm{e}\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\pm 1}^{\mathrm{ff}}\omega ^2/(\omega \alpha \omega _{\mathrm{cp}})^2`$, where $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\pm 1}^{\mathrm{ff}}`$ is given by Eq. (44) (dot-dashed lines in the figure). We note that the factor $`\omega ^2/(\omega \alpha \omega _{\mathrm{cp}})^2`$ naturally appears in the classical plasma model with allowance for the ion motion. The classical model also helps to restore the damping factors neglected in Eq. (49). Let $`\nu _\mathrm{e}`$ and $`\nu _\mathrm{p}`$ be the electron and proton damping frequencies due to processes other than the electron-ion collisions. For the processes considered above (Thomson scattering and proton-proton collisions222We do not consider the electron-electron collisions. At $`B=0`$, they are known to be unimportant for the bremsstrahlung, except for relativistic energies (e.g., Bethe & Salpeter, 1957). The magnetic field does not change this conclusion, because the resonance, that appears at $`\omega =\omega _{\mathrm{ce}}`$ for this process, merges in the more powerful classical cyclotron resonance for the usual free-free and Thomson processes.), we have $`\nu _\mathrm{e}=\nu _\mathrm{e}^\mathrm{s}`$ and $`\nu _\mathrm{p}=\nu _\mathrm{p}^\mathrm{s}+\nu ^{\mathrm{pp}}`$, where $`\nu _\mathrm{p}^\mathrm{s}=2e^2\omega ^2/(3m_\mathrm{p}c^3)`$ is the natural width of the proton cyclotron resonance. Averaged Newtonian equations of motion for the electrons and protons in the magnetic and radiation fields give the complex permittivity tensor $`\epsilon `$ (cf. Ginzburg, 1970, §10). Neglecting $`\sqrt{m_\mathrm{e}/m_\mathrm{p}}`$ compared to unity and assuming that $`\nu _\mathrm{p}\nu _\mathrm{e}\omega `$, we have

$`\mathrm{Im}(\epsilon _{xx}+\mathrm{i}\alpha \epsilon _{xy})={\displaystyle \frac{\omega _{\mathrm{pl}}^2}{\omega }}[\omega _{\mathrm{cp}}(\omega _{\mathrm{ce}}+\alpha \omega )\nu _\mathrm{p}+\omega (\omega \alpha \omega _{\mathrm{cp}})\nu _\mathrm{e}`$
$`+\omega ^2\nu _\alpha ^{\mathrm{ff}}]/\{[(\omega +\alpha \omega _{\mathrm{ce}})(\omega \alpha \omega _{\mathrm{ce}})`$
$`\nu _\alpha ^{\mathrm{ff}}(\nu _\mathrm{p}+\nu _\mathrm{e}m_\mathrm{e}/m_\mathrm{p})\nu _\mathrm{p}\nu _\mathrm{e}]^2`$
$`+[\omega \nu _\alpha ^{\mathrm{ff}}+(\omega +\alpha \omega _{\mathrm{ce}})\nu _\mathrm{p}+(\omega \alpha \omega _{\mathrm{cp}})\nu _\mathrm{e}]^2\},`$ (50)
where $`\alpha =\pm 1`$, and Im means the imaginary part. Neglecting the tiny shift of the position of the cyclotron resonances caused by the damping, we can now write

$$\sigma _\alpha ^{\mathrm{ff}}\frac{\omega ^2}{(\omega +\alpha \omega _{\mathrm{ce}})^2(\omega \alpha \omega _{\mathrm{cp}})^2+\omega ^2\stackrel{~}{\nu }_\alpha ^2}\frac{4\pi e^2\nu _\alpha ^{\mathrm{ff}}}{m_\mathrm{e}c},$$
(51)
where

$$\stackrel{~}{\nu }_\alpha =\nu _\alpha ^{\mathrm{ff}}+(1+\alpha \omega _{\mathrm{ce}}/\omega )\nu _\mathrm{p}+(1\alpha \omega _{\mathrm{cp}}/\omega )\nu _\mathrm{e},$$
(52)
and $`\nu _\alpha ^{\mathrm{ff}}`$ is given by Eq. (41).

The accurate calculations according to Appendix B are reproduced by Eqs. (51) and (41), if to multiply $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_\alpha ^{\mathrm{ff}}`$ in the latter equation by a correction factor of the order of unity. This quantum correction factor proves to be the same for $`\alpha =+1`$ and $`\alpha =1`$. Thus, the two effective collision frequencies (longitudinal $`\nu _0^{\mathrm{ff}}`$ and transverse $`\nu _{+1}^{\mathrm{ff}}=\nu _1^{\mathrm{ff}}`$) provide the three $`\sigma _\alpha ^{\mathrm{ff}}`$.

Near the electron cyclotron resonance ($`\omega \omega _{\mathrm{ce}}`$, $`\alpha =1`$), the damping frequency $`\stackrel{~}{\nu }_\alpha `$ approximately reproduces $`\nu _{\mathrm{e},\alpha }`$ in Eq. (38), which ensures the condition (40). Near the proton cyclotron resonance ($`\omega \omega _{\mathrm{cp}}`$, $`\alpha =+1`$), the effective damping frequency is $`\stackrel{~}{\nu }_\alpha \omega /\omega _{\mathrm{ce}}\stackrel{~}{\nu }_\alpha m_\mathrm{e}/m_\mathrm{p}\nu _{\mathrm{p},\alpha }`$, where

$$\nu _{\mathrm{p},\alpha }=\nu _\alpha ^{\mathrm{ff},\mathrm{p}}+\nu _\mathrm{p}^\mathrm{s}+\nu _\alpha ^{\mathrm{pp}},\nu _\alpha ^{\mathrm{ff},\mathrm{p}}\frac{m_\mathrm{e}}{m_\mathrm{p}}\nu _\alpha ^{\mathrm{ff}}.$$
(53)
Equation (53) is consistent with the requirement of oscillator strength conservation for the proton cyclotron resonance in polarization $`\alpha =+1`$, fully analogous to Eq. (40).

From the relations

$$\frac{\nu ^{\mathrm{pp}}}{\nu _\alpha ^{\mathrm{ff},\mathrm{p}}}=1.78\times 10^4T_6\frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{pp}}}{\mathrm{\Lambda }_\alpha ^{\mathrm{ff}}},\frac{\nu ^{\mathrm{pp}}}{\nu _\mathrm{p}^\mathrm{s}}=\frac{3.6\rho _0}{T_6^{5/2}}\frac{1\mathrm{e}^u}{u^3}\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{pp}},$$
(54)
we see that the proton-proton collisions can be safely neglected at any $`T`$ and $`\rho `$ typical of outer envelopes of the neutron stars.

For comparison, Fig. 6 also shows the nonmagnetic Coulomb logarithm $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{cl}}^{\mathrm{ff}}`$ (dotted line), $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_\alpha ^{\mathrm{ff}}`$ given by Eq. (44) (long dashes), which neglects the finite proton mass, and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_\alpha ^\mathrm{e}`$ which would correspond to the calculation of $`\sigma _\alpha ^\mathrm{a}`$ according to the traditional Eq. (45) (short dashes). It is easy to see the difference of Eqs. (49) and (51) from Eq. (45). The customary recipe (45) misses the interference of the first two terms in each of Eqs. (B22b), (B22c) (related to transitions with changing Landau number $`n`$) with the terms in square brackets (related to transitions which keep $`n`$ constant). At $`\omega <\omega _{\mathrm{cp}}`$ the latter terms tend to compensate the former ones. A suppression factor $`(\omega /\omega _{\mathrm{cp}})^2`$, which follows from Eq. (51) at $`\omega \omega _{\mathrm{cp}}`$, is brought about by this interference. From the classical physics point of view, it may be explained as follows: very slow ($`\omega \omega _{\mathrm{cp}}`$) oscillations of the radiation electric field, perpendicular to the constant magnetic field, make both particles, electron and proton, to drift adiabatically with the velocity $`(c/B^2)𝑬\times 𝑩`$, so that in the drifting frame of reference they do not “feel” the electric field of the electromagnetic wave. The suppression of the free-free cross sections takes place for both circular polarizations.

As well known, the Born approximation is accurate only at $`\mathrm{}\omega `$ much larger than the binding energies. In order to partly correct $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_\alpha ^{\mathrm{ff}}`$ beyond this approximation and to recover the non-Born Gaunt factor $`\overline{g}^{\mathrm{ff}}`$ at $`B=0`$, we multiply $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_\alpha ^{\mathrm{ff}}`$ by the ratio of $`\overline{g}^{\mathrm{ff}}`$ (Hummer, 1988) to $`\overline{g}_{\mathrm{Born}}^{\mathrm{ff}}=(\sqrt{3}/\pi )\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{cl}}^{\mathrm{ff}}`$.

## 5. Opacities

### 5.1. Fully Ionized Atmosphere

For a fully ionized atmosphere model, the monochromatic opacities calculated in the framework of the theory outlined in Sect. 2.3 do not differ much from the opacities used in the previous models (e.g., Shibanov et al., 1992) at $`\omega >\omega _{\mathrm{cp}}`$. However, the improved treatment of the free-free contribution results in a considerable modification of the opacities at $`\omega <\omega _{\mathrm{cp}}`$. Figure 7 shows monochromatic opacities for two polarization modes, $`j=1`$ (solid lines) and $`j=2`$ (dashed lines) for radiation propagating at three angles $`\theta _B`$ with respect to the field lines. The atmosphere parameters chosen for this figure can be expected near the bottom of a magnetar photosphere: $`\rho =500`$ g cm-3, $`T=5\times 10^6`$ K, and $`B=5\times 10^{14}`$ G. An extension of our EOS for the superstrong magnetic fields (work currently in progress — Chabrier, Douchin, & Potekhin, 2002) indicates that the model of a fully ionized atmosphere is adequate for this relatively high value of $`\rho `$. At these parameters, the proton cyclotron resonance at $`\mathrm{}\omega =3.15`$ keV is quite prominent. At small $`\theta _B`$, the opacities of the two normal modes cross each other at $`\omega \omega _{\mathrm{cp}}`$, which is a well known phenomenon (e.g., Shibanov et al., 1992). Another mode crossing, which occurs at $`\mathrm{}\omega 7.6`$ keV, is due to the vacuum resonance (e.g., Soffel et al., 1983; Pavlov & Gnedin, 1984; Shibanov et al., 1992). Near the crossing points the modes may become completely nonorthogonal (“collapse”) at certain angles, so that their designation is ambiguous (Soffel et al., 1983).

The dotted curves in Fig. 7 are obtained using Eq. (45). We see that this traditional calculation strongly overestimates $`\kappa _1`$ at large $`\theta _B`$, and overestimates both $`\kappa _1`$ and $`\kappa _2`$ at $`\theta _B=0`$, if $`\mathrm{}\omega `$ is small enough.

Figure 8 shows the effective opacities $`\kappa ^{\mathrm{eff}}`$ for the diffusion of nonpolarized radiation along ($``$) and across ($``$) magnetic field (Sect. 2.3), for the same plasma parameters as in Fig. 7. The peak at $`\mathrm{log}\mathrm{}\omega /\text{eV}=3.5`$ is due to the ion cyclotron resonance, and the one at $`\mathrm{log}\mathrm{}\omega /\text{eV}=3.9`$ due to the vacuum resonance. The barely visible intermediate spike at $`\mathrm{log}\mathrm{}\omega /\text{eV}=3.8`$ is the quantum resonance of the Coulomb logarithm at the doubled proton-cyclotron frequency (cf. Fig. 6).

We see that the improvement of the free-free cross section discussed in Sect. 4.3.3 is important for the effective opacities shown in Fig. 8 at $`\omega <\omega _{\mathrm{cp}}`$. At $`\omega 0.3\omega _{\mathrm{cp}}`$, the difference exceeds one order of magnitude. Moreover, it has an impact on the Rosseland mean opacities, as discussed below.

### 5.2. Partially Ionized Atmosphere

As follows from Sect. 3.2, the amount of neutral hydrogen in neutron-star photospheres can be significant at $`T10^6`$. For example, at $`\rho =0.1`$ g cm-3, $`T=10^{5.5}`$ K, and $`B=2.35\times 10^{12}`$ G, 12% of protons are bound in the ground-state H atoms. Monochromatic opacities for this case are shown in Fig. 9 for three basic polarizations. The contribution of the fully ionized plasma component is shown by dot-dashed lines, while dotted and dashed lines show bound-bound and bound-free contributions, respectively. The total opacities are plotted by the solid lines. We see that the bound-free contribution is important for any polarization, whereas the bound-bound opacity is important for $`\alpha =\pm 1`$ but unimportant for the longitudinal polarization ($`\alpha =0`$). This is because the dipole selection rule forbids radiative transitions between different tightly bound states with absorption of a photon polarized along $`𝑩`$. Transitions to the odd hydrogenlike states ($`\nu =1,3,\mathrm{}`$) are allowed, but the corresponding occupation probabilities are small, so that these upper levels are effectively merged into the continuum. The absorption peak at $`\mathrm{log}_{10}\mathrm{}\omega /\text{eV}1.84`$ on the left panel corresponds to the transition from the ground state to the state with $`s=1`$ for the centered atoms. It would be a narrow spectral line without atomic motion. On the middle panel ($`\alpha =1`$), there would be no significant bound-bound absorption at all, were the motion neglected. However, the thermal motion of atoms across the field drastically modifies the spectrum. There appears significant absorption for $`\alpha =1`$. The bump at $`\mathrm{}\omega 100`$ eV for $`\alpha =+1`$ is due to the transition to the second excited level ($`s=2`$), which would be negligible for nonmoving atoms. The magnetic broadening mentioned in Sect. 4.2 smears the photoionization edges at $`\mathrm{}\omega 100`$ eV and extends the bound-bound absorption frequency range down to $`10`$ eV for any polarization. The spikes near this low $`\omega `$ are explained by the $`K_{}`$-dependence of the transition energy (Pavlov & Potekhin, 1995). The spike at $`\omega \omega _{\mathrm{cp}}`$ ($`\mathrm{log}_{10}\mathrm{}\omega /\text{eV}1.17`$) appears because the transitions between the decentered states whose quantum numbers $`s`$ differ by one ($`\mathrm{\Delta }s=1`$) correspond to the energies $`\mathrm{}\omega _{\mathrm{cp}}`$, almost independent of $`K_{}`$ \[it follows from Eq. (14), since $`E_{s\nu }^{}(K_{})`$ is small at large $`K_{}`$\]. Another resonance occurs at a frequency slightly below $`\omega _{\mathrm{cp}}`$, which corresponds to the minimum distance between the states with $`\mathrm{\Delta }s=1`$ (the avoided crossings, cf. Potekhin, 1994), because the energy difference has zero derivative with respect to $`K`$ there. These resonances are smoothed by the electron impact broadening.

In general, we see that partial ionization must be taken into account in the opacity calculations at these plasma parameters.

Figure 10 shows the total extinction coefficients $`\rho \kappa _\alpha `$ for different $`\rho `$ and $`T`$ at $`B=10^{13}`$ G. The curves are truncated from the left at $`\omega =\omega _{\mathrm{pl}}`$. At $`\rho =50`$ g cm-3, the opacities are smooth functions of $`\omega `$, which reflects the fact that virtually all excited atomic levels are merged into continuum at these $`\rho `$ and $`B`$. At $`\rho 2`$ g cm-3, however, the curves clearly reveal the features due to the bound-bound and bound-free transitions.

The opacities for the three basic polarizations, combined with appropriate components of the polarization vectors, provide the opacities in the two normal modes (Sect. 2.3). For example, Fig. 11 shows the normal-mode opacities for $`\rho =0.1`$ g cm-3 and $`B=10^{13}`$ G, at three values of $`\theta _B`$ and two values of $`T`$. At the lower $`T=5\times 10^5`$ K, the features arising from the bound-bound and bound-free transitions are clearly visible at any $`\theta _B`$.

### 5.3. Rosseland Mean Opacities

Along with the thermodynamic functions and number fractions of species, our tables contain Rosseland mean effective opacities for longitudinal ($`\kappa _\mathrm{R}^{}`$) or transverse ($`\kappa _\mathrm{R}^{}`$) propagation of nonpolarized radiation. They are calculated in a standard way (e.g., Armstrong & Nicholls, 1972) from the effective monochromatic opacities for the diffusion approximation, $`\kappa ^{}`$ and $`\kappa ^{}`$, defined in Sect. 2.3.

The improvement of the free-free cross section substantially affects $`\kappa _\mathrm{R}^{}`$ and $`\kappa _\mathrm{R}^{}`$. For example, in the case of fully ionized plasma shown in Fig. 8, we obtain $`\kappa _\mathrm{R}^{}=1.8\times 10^4`$ cm2 g-1 and $`\kappa _\mathrm{R}^{}=1.6\times 10^4`$ cm2 g-1, in reasonable agreement with the analytic fit in Potekhin & Yakovlev (2001) ($`2.1\times 10^4`$ cm2 g-1 and $`1.7\times 10^4`$ cm2 g-1, respectively). Since the latter fit did not take into account the ion cyclotron resonance, we conclude that this resonance is unimportant for the Rosseland opacities in the given example. Meanwhile, the traditional treatment of this resonance \[Eq. (45)\] yields effective opacities shown by the dotted lines in Fig. 8, whose Rosseland means are $`\kappa _\mathrm{R}^{}=1.3\times 10^3`$ cm2 g-1 and $`\kappa _\mathrm{R}^{}=1.0\times 10^3`$ cm2 g-1, — that is, about six times larger than the accurate values.

Figure 12 illustrates the density-dependence of the Rosseland opacities at two values of $`T`$ for $`B=10^{12}`$ G and $`2\times 10^{13}`$ G. For comparison, the nonmagnetic OPAL opacities (Iglesias & Rogers, 1996; http://www-phys.llnl.gov/Research/OPAL/) are shown.333As mentioned in Sect. IID of Paper I, our model of partially ionized hydrogen plasma at $`B=0`$ accurately reproduces the OPAL opacities. Dotted lines represent the effective Rosseland opacities in the model of a fully ionized electron-proton plasma, according to the fit of Potekhin & Yakovlev (2001).

As well known, the strong magnetic field makes the atmosphere more transparent at given $`\rho `$ and $`T`$, because of the presence of large $`\omega _{\mathrm{ce}}`$ in denominators of Eqs. (33) and (49). At sufficiently large $`\rho `$, there is a good agreement between the opacity tables and the analytic fully-ionized plasma model. However, at $`\rho (1`$—10) g cm-3, there are large differences, which reflect the contribution of bound-bound and/or bound-free transitions in the effective opacities. Remarkably, this difference is significant at $`T=10^{5.5}`$ K even in the nonmagnetic case (the upper curve on the left panel). As noted in Paper I, the contribution of bound species increases with increasing $`B`$.

In the case of $`T=10^{6.5}`$ K (right panel of Fig. 12), the model of fully ionized plasma is quite accurate at $`B10^{12}`$ G. However, this is not the case at the higher field strength $`B=2\times 10^{13}`$ G, where the contribution from bound species is again appreciable.

## 6. Description of the Tables

The input parameters for our tables are $`B`$, $`T`$, and the astrophysical density parameter $`R=\rho _0/T_6^3`$. At present, the tables are calculated for $`11.9\mathrm{log}_{10}B/\mathrm{G}13.5`$ with step $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{log}_{10}B=0.1`$, $`5.3\mathrm{log}_{10}T/\mathrm{K}7.0`$ with step $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{log}_{10}T=0.05`$, and $`7.4\mathrm{log}_{10}R3.6`$ with step $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{log}_{10}R=0.2`$.

The tables for different values of $`T`$ and $`B`$ have identical structure. An example is shown in Table 1. The first line contains $`\mathrm{log}_{10}T/\text{K}`$ and $`\mathrm{log}_{10}B/\text{G}`$. Each row then provides:

1. $`\mathrm{log}_{10}R`$;
2. $`\mathrm{log}_{10}P`$, where $`P`$ is the pressure in bar$`=10^6`$ dyn cm-2;
3. the dimensionless pressure parameter $`PV/(N_0k_\mathrm{B}T)`$, where $`N_0`$ is the total number of protons (free and bound) in volume $`V`$;
4. the dimensionless internal-energy parameter $`U/(N_0k_\mathrm{B}T)`$;
5. the dimensionless entropy parameter $`S/(N_0k_\mathrm{B})`$;
6. the reduced heat capacity $`C_V/(N_0k_\mathrm{B})`$;
7. the logarithmic pressure derivative $`\chi _T=(\mathrm{ln}P/\mathrm{ln}T)_V`$;
8. the logarithmic pressure derivative $`\chi _\rho =(\mathrm{ln}P/\mathrm{ln}\rho )_T`$;
9. the atomic fraction $`x_\mathrm{H}`$, that is the total number of H atoms with non-dissolved energy levels, divided by $`N_0`$;
10. the ground-state atomic fraction;
11. the molecular fraction (the number of H2 molecules with non-destroyed levels, divided by $`N_0`$);
12. the fraction of protons comprised in clusters and in strongly perturbed atoms and molecules;
13. $`\mathrm{log}_{10}\kappa ^{}`$, where $`\kappa ^{}`$ is the effective Rosseland mean opacity for transport of nonpolarized radiation along magnetic field lines in the diffusion approximation, in cm2 g-1;
14. $`\mathrm{log}_{10}\kappa ^{}`$, where $`\kappa ^{}`$ is analogous to $`\kappa ^{}`$, but for diffusion of radiation in the direction perpendicular to $`𝑩`$.

We have also written a Fortran program for the cubic-polynomial interpolation of the tabulated data in the 3-parameter space of $`B`$, $`T`$, and $`\rho `$. The tables and the program are available at http://www.ioffe.rssi.ru/astro/NSG/Hmagnet/.

## 7. Conclusions

We have calculated the EOS and radiative opacities of fully and partially ionized hydrogen plasmas in a wide range of densities, temperatures, and magnetic fields typical for photospheres of the strongly magnetized neutron stars. The first- and second-order thermodynamic functions, non-ionized fractions, and effective Rosseland mean opacities are published in the electronic form.

The opacities are calculated more accurately than in the previous publications. In particular, we take into account suppression of the free-free absorption below the proton cyclotron frequency, which was overlooked previously. This effect reduces the opacities of the ionized component of the plasma by orders of magnitude at photon energies $`\mathrm{}\omega 0.3\mathrm{}\omega _{\mathrm{cp}}0.02B_{12}`$ keV, which necessitates a revision of the previously published models of X-ray spectra of magnetars (Zane et al., 2001; Ho & Lai, 2001, 2003; Özel, 2001, 2003). On the other hand, the bound-bound and bound-free absorption, neglected in the previous models of neutron-star atmospheres, increase the opacities by more than one order of magnitude at $`\mathrm{}\omega (0.1`$–3) keV in the outer atmosphere layers of the ordinary neutron stars with $`B10^{12}`$$`10^{13.5}`$ G and $`T<(1`$$`3)\times 10^6`$ K, which can also significantly affect the spectra.

One can expect that the effect of the bound species on the EOS and opacities is as important for magnetars (despite their supposedly higher temperatures) as for the ordinary neutron stars. To check this, we need to extend our model to higher $`B`$; preliminary high-$`B`$ results (Chabrier et al., 2002) support this anticipation.

We thank Dong Lai, Gérard Massacrier, Yura Shibanov, and Dima Yakovlev for useful discussions, and also Dong Lai and Yura Shibanov for careful reading of the manuscript and valuable remarks. A.P. gratefully acknowledges hospitality of the theoretical astrophysics group at the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon and the Astronomy Department of Cornell University. The work of A.P. is supported in part by RFBR grants 02-02-17668 and 00-07-90183.

## Appendix A A. Photoabsorption due to Proton-Proton Collisions

The general formula for the differential cross section of absorption of radiation by a quantum-mechanical system is (e.g., Armstrong & Nicholls, 1972)

$$\mathrm{d}\sigma =\frac{4\pi ^2}{\omega c}\left|𝒆f|𝒋_{\mathrm{eff}}|i\right|^2\delta (E_fE_i\mathrm{}\omega )\mathrm{d}\nu _f,$$
(A1)
where $`i`$ and $`f`$ are the initial and final states of the system, $`\mathrm{d}\nu _f`$ is the density of final states, $`𝒆`$ is the polarization vector, $`𝒋_{\mathrm{eff}}=\mathrm{e}^{\mathrm{i}𝒌_\gamma 𝒓}𝒋`$, $`𝒋`$ is the electric current operator, and $`𝒌_\gamma `$ is the photon wave number. For two charged particles in a magnetic field,

$$𝒋_{\mathrm{eff}}=(\mathrm{e}^{\mathrm{i}𝒌_\gamma 𝒓_1}q_1𝝅_1/m_1+\mathrm{e}^{\mathrm{i}𝒌_\gamma 𝒓_2}q_2𝝅_2/m_2),$$
(A2)
where $`q_i`$ and $`m_i`$ are the particle charge and mass ($`i=1,2`$), and $`𝝅_i`$ is given by Eq. (3). Introducing, in the standard way, the center-of-mass ($`𝑹`$, $`𝑷`$) and relative ($`𝒓`$, $`𝒑`$) coordinates and momenta of two protons and using the gauge $`𝑨(𝒓_i)=(1/2)𝑩\times 𝒓_i`$, we get

$`𝒋_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{e}^{\mathrm{i}𝒌_\gamma 𝑹}{\displaystyle \frac{e}{m_\mathrm{p}}}\left[𝑷{\displaystyle \frac{e}{c}}𝑩\times 𝑹+\mathrm{i}(𝒌_\gamma 𝒓)\left(𝒑{\displaystyle \frac{e}{4c}}𝑩\times 𝒓\right)\right]+O(𝒌_\gamma 𝒓)^2`$ (A3)
The first two terms do not contribute to the free-free absorption, because they do not contain the relative variables and, therefore, are decoupled from the Coulomb interaction. The remaining terms are similar to $`𝒋_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ relevant to absorption of radiation by a particle with charge $`e/2`$ and mass $`m_\mathrm{p}`$, except for the factor $`𝒌_\gamma 𝒓`$, which is small at $`\mathrm{}\omega m_\mathrm{p}c^2`$. The absorption cross section can be written in the form of Eq. (46). The nonquantizing magnetic field, $`\beta _\mathrm{p}1`$, does not affect the effective collision frequency $`\nu _\alpha ^{\mathrm{pp}}`$, which in this case does not depend on $`\alpha `$. We have evaluated the proton free-free cross section in the nonrelativistic Born approximation, using the technique of Fourier transforms (Bethe & Salpeter, 1957, §77). For two distinguishable particles of equal mass $`m_\mathrm{p}`$ and charge $`e`$, the cross section is

$`\sigma _{}^{\mathrm{pp}}(p_i,\omega )={\displaystyle \frac{256\pi ^2}{3}}{\displaystyle \frac{n_\mathrm{p}e^6}{m_\mathrm{p}c\mathrm{}\omega ^3}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{p_i}}\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{p_ip_f}{(m_\mathrm{p}c)^2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{3}{10}}{\displaystyle \frac{p_i^2+p_f^2}{(m_\mathrm{p}c)^2}}\mathrm{ln}\left|{\displaystyle \frac{p_f+p_i}{p_fp_i}}\right|\right\}.`$ (A4)
Taking into account that the colliding protons are identical and have the spin 1/2, one should calculate the matrix element in Eq. (A1) for symmetric and antisymmetric final states and sum up the cross sections with the statistical weights 1/4 and 3/4, respectively (e.g., Landau & Lifshitz, 1976). This leads to the equation

$$\sigma ^{\mathrm{pp}}(p_i,\omega )=2\sigma _{}^{\mathrm{pp}}(p_i,\omega )\sigma _\times ^{\mathrm{pp}}(p_i,\omega ),$$
(A5)
where

$`\sigma _\times ^{\mathrm{pp}}(p_i,\omega )={\displaystyle \frac{128\pi ^2}{3}}{\displaystyle \frac{n_\mathrm{p}e^6}{m_\mathrm{p}c\mathrm{}\omega ^3}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{p_i}}\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{6}{5}}{\displaystyle \frac{p_ip_f}{(m_\mathrm{p}c)^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{p_i^4+p_f^4}{(p_i^2+p_f^2)^2}}+\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}\omega }{c}}\right)^2{\displaystyle \frac{p_i^4+p_f^4+0.8p_i^2p_f^2}{(p_i^2+p_f^2)^3}}\mathrm{ln}\left|{\displaystyle \frac{p_f+p_i}{p_fp_i}}\right|\right\}.`$ (A6)
In Eqs. (A4) and (A6), $`p_f^2=p_i^2+m_\mathrm{p}\mathrm{}\omega `$, since the reduced mass equals $`m_\mathrm{p}/2`$. The Maxwell distribution for the relative momenta is $`_{\mathrm{pp}}(p_i)=(4/\sqrt{\pi })(m_\mathrm{p}k_\mathrm{B}T)^{3/2}p_i^2\mathrm{exp}(p_i^2/m_\mathrm{p}k_\mathrm{B}T)`$. Averaging of Eq. (A5) with this distribution gives the cross section in the form (46) with $`\nu ^{\mathrm{pp}}`$ given by Eq. (47), where $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{\mathrm{pp}}`$ is calculated by averaging the $`p_i`$-dependent factors of Eqs. (A4) and (A6).

## Appendix B B. Photoabsorption due to Electron-Proton Collisions

In the case of photoabsorption due to the electron-proton collisions, the initial and final states in Eq. (A1) are the continuum states of the hydrogen atom described by Eq. (6). The wave function of the relative electron-proton motion can be written as

$$\psi (𝒓)=\psi _0(𝒓)+\psi _1(𝒓),\psi _0(𝒓)=\frac{\mathrm{e}^{\mathrm{i}k_0z}}{\sqrt{L}}\mathrm{\Phi }_{ns}(𝒓_{}),$$
(B1)
where $`\psi _0(𝒓)`$ describes free motion with $`z`$-component of the relative momentum $`\mathrm{}k_0`$, $`L`$ is the normalization length, and $`\psi _1(𝒓)`$ is a perturbation due to the Coulomb interaction. Let us apply one-dimensional Fourier transformation

$$\stackrel{~}{\psi }(𝒓_{},k)=\frac{1}{\sqrt{L}}_{L/2}^{L/2}\mathrm{e}^{\mathrm{i}kz}\psi (𝒓)dz.$$
(B2)
In the limit of $`L\mathrm{}`$, we will have $`\stackrel{~}{\psi }_0(𝒓_{},k)(2\pi /L)\delta (kk_0)\mathrm{\Phi }_{ns}(𝒓_{})`$. Let us use expansion (12) for $`\psi _1(𝒓)`$; then

$$\stackrel{~}{\psi }_1(𝒓_{},k)=\underset{n^{}s^{}}{}\stackrel{~}{g}_{n^{}s^{}}(k)\mathrm{\Phi }_{ns}(𝒓_{}).$$
(B3)
This is equivalent to replacing $`g_{n^{}s^{}}(z)`$ by $`L^{1/2}\mathrm{exp}(\mathrm{i}k_0z)\delta _{nn^{}}\delta _{ss^{}}+g_{n^{}s^{}}(z)`$ in Eqs. (12) and (15). Then, applying the Fourier transformation to Eq. (15) with $`𝒓_0=𝒓_c`$ and treating $`\stackrel{~}{\psi }_1`$ as small perturbation, in the first approximation we obtain

$`\left[(\mathrm{}^2/2\mu )(k^2k_0^2)+E_{n^{}s^{}}^{}E_{ns}^{}\right]\stackrel{~}{g}_{n^{}s^{}}(k)=L^1\stackrel{~}{V}_{ns,n^{}s^{}}(r_c,kk_0),`$ (B4)
where

$$\stackrel{~}{V}_{ns,n^{}s^{}}(r_c,k)=_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}\mathrm{e}^{\mathrm{i}kz}V_{ns,n^{}s^{}}(r_c,z)dz.$$
(B5)
Using Eqs. (A3)—(A10) of Potekhin (1994), we can convert $`\stackrel{~}{V}_{ns,n^{}s^{}}(r_c,k)`$ into

$$\stackrel{~}{V}_{ns,n^{}s^{}}(r_c,k)=e^2\stackrel{~}{v}_{ns,n^{}s^{}}(\frac{r_c}{a_\mathrm{m}\sqrt{2}},\sqrt{2}a_\mathrm{m}k),$$
(B6)
where

$$\stackrel{~}{v}_{ns,n^{}s^{}}(\rho ,\varkappa )=(1)^{(|s|s+|s^{}|s^{})/2}\underset{l=0}{\overset{n_\rho +n_\rho ^{}}{}}(1)^l\underset{m=\mathrm{max}(0,ln_\rho ^{})}{\overset{\mathrm{min}(n_\rho ,l)}{}}a_{mn_\rho |s|}a_{lm,n_\rho ^{},|s^{}|}\sqrt{\stackrel{~}{s}!\stackrel{~}{s}^{}!}\stackrel{~}{v}_{0\stackrel{~}{s},0\stackrel{~}{s}^{}}(\rho ,\varkappa ),$$
(B7)
and, assuming $`q0`$,

$`\stackrel{~}{v}_{0,s,0,s+q}(\rho ,\varkappa )=\stackrel{~}{v}_{0,s+q,0,s}(\rho ,\varkappa )=\rho ^q{\displaystyle \underset{m=0}{\overset{s}{}}}a_{msq}\rho ^{2m}{\displaystyle _0^1}\mathrm{exp}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\varkappa ^2}{4}}{\displaystyle \frac{1t}{t}}\rho ^2t\right]t^{2m+q1}(1t)^{sm}dt.`$ (B8)
In Eqs. (B7) and (B8), we have defined

$`n_\rho =n+(s|s|)/2,n_\rho ^{}=n^{}+(s^{}|s^{}|)/2,`$ (B9a)
$`\stackrel{~}{s}=(|s|+s+|s^{}|s^{})/2+l,`$ (B9b)
$`\stackrel{~}{s}^{}=(|s|s+|s^{}|+s^{})/2+l,`$ (B9c)
$`a_{mns}={\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{n!(n+s)!}}{m!(nm)!(m+s)!}}`$ (B9d)
($`n_\rho `$ and $`n_\rho ^{}`$ are the radial quantum numbers of the Landau functions — e.g., Landau & Lifshitz, 1976).

For fixed quantum numbers $`n_f,s_f`$, and a fixed sign of the $`z`$-projection of the relative momentum $`k_f`$ of the final state, $`\mathrm{d}\nu _f`$ in Eq. (A1) equals $`L\mathrm{d}k_f/2\pi =(L/2\pi )(\mu /\mathrm{}^2|k_f|)\mathrm{d}E_f`$. Therefore, the cross section of photoabsorption by an electron-proton pair with initial quantum numbers $`n_i`$ and $`s_i`$, longitudinal wave vector $`k_i`$, and transverse pseudomomentum $`K_{}`$ is

$$\sigma (k_i,K_{},n_i,s_i,\omega )=\underset{n_f,s_f,\mathrm{sign}k_f}{}\frac{2\pi L\mu }{\mathrm{}^2|k_f|\omega c}\left|𝒆f|𝒋_{\mathrm{eff}}|i\right|^2.$$
(B10)
Here, the sum is performed over those $`n_f`$ and $`s_f`$ which are permitted by the energy conservation law,

$$E_{n_fs_f}^{}+\frac{\mathrm{}^2k_f^2}{2\mu }=E_{n_is_i}^{}+\frac{\mathrm{}^2k_i^2}{2\mu }+\mathrm{}\omega .$$
(B11)
A general expression for $`𝒋_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ has been derived by Potekhin & Pavlov (1997). In the dipole approximation, it reduces to

$$𝒋_{\mathrm{eff}}=e\left(\frac{𝝅}{m_\mathrm{e}}+\frac{𝚷}{m_\mathrm{p}}\right),$$
(B12)
where $`𝝅`$ is defined by Eq. (9), and

$$𝚷=𝒑\frac{e}{2c}𝑩\times 𝒓.$$
(B13)
The circular components of operators $`𝝅`$ and $`𝚷`$, $`\pi _{\pm 1}=(\pi _x\pm \mathrm{i}\pi _y)/\sqrt{2}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Pi }_{\pm 1}=(\mathrm{\Pi }_x\pm \mathrm{i}\mathrm{\Pi }_y)/\sqrt{2}`$, transform one Landau state $`|n,s_{}`$, characterized by the function $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{ns}(𝒓_{})`$, into another Landau state,444The square-root factors in Eqs. (B14c) and (B14d) were interchanged by mistake in corresponding Eq. (A3b) of Potekhin & Pavlov (1997).

$`\pi _{+1}|n,s_{}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{i}\mathrm{}}{a_\mathrm{m}}}\sqrt{n+1}|n+1,s1_{},`$ (B14a)
$`\pi _1|n,s_{}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{i}\mathrm{}}{a_\mathrm{m}}}\sqrt{n}|n1,s+1_{},`$ (B14b)
$`\mathrm{\Pi }_{+1}|n,s_{}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{i}\mathrm{}}{a_\mathrm{m}}}\sqrt{n+s}|n,s1_{},`$ (B14c)
$`\mathrm{\Pi }_1|n,s_{}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{i}\mathrm{}}{a_\mathrm{m}}}\sqrt{n+s+1}|n,s+1_{}.`$ (B14d)
Since $`𝒆𝒋=e_{+1}j_1+e_0j_0+e_1j_{+1}`$, the matrix element with $`\pi _{+1}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Pi }_{+1}`$ contributes to $`\sigma _1`$, and vice versa.

In the first Born approximation, using Eqs. (B4), (B11), (B12),and (B14), we obtain:

$`f|𝒋_{\mathrm{eff}}|i_0={\displaystyle \frac{e}{L\mu \omega }}(k_ik_f)\stackrel{~}{V}_{n_is_in_fs_f},`$ (B15a)
$`f|𝒋_{\mathrm{eff}}|i_1={\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{i}e}{La_\mathrm{m}}}[{\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{n_f+1}\stackrel{~}{V}_{n_is_i,n_f+1,s_f1}\sqrt{n_i}\stackrel{~}{V}_{n_i1,s_i+1,n_fs_f}}{m_\mathrm{e}(\omega +\omega _{\mathrm{ce}})}}`$
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{n_f+s_f}\stackrel{~}{V}_{n_is_i,n_f,s_f1}\sqrt{n_i+s_i+1}\stackrel{~}{V}_{n_i,s_i+1,n_fs_f}}{m_\mathrm{p}(\omega \omega _{\mathrm{cp}})}}],`$
(B15b)
$`f|𝒋_{\mathrm{eff}}|i_{+1}={\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{i}e}{La_\mathrm{m}}}[{\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{n_f}\stackrel{~}{V}_{n_is_i,n_f1,s_f+1}\sqrt{n_i+1}\stackrel{~}{V}_{n_i+1,s_i1,n_fs_f}}{m_\mathrm{e}(\omega \omega _{\mathrm{ce}})}}`$
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{n_f+s_f+1}\stackrel{~}{V}_{n_is_i,n_f,s_f+1}\sqrt{n_i+s_i}\stackrel{~}{V}_{n_i,s_i1,n_fs_f}}{m_\mathrm{p}(\omega +\omega _{\mathrm{cp}})}}].`$
Here, for brevity, $`\stackrel{~}{V}_{nsn^{}s^{}}\stackrel{~}{V}_{nsn^{}s^{}}(r_c,k_fk_i)`$.

Equations (B10) and (B15) provide the partial cross sections for one electron-proton pair in a given state. Provided there are $`n_\mathrm{e}`$ electrons per unit volume, the number of electrons interacting with a given proton and having $`k_i`$ in the interval $`\mathrm{d}k_i`$ and $`r_c`$ in the surface element $`\mathrm{d}^2r_c`$ is

$$\mathrm{d}N_i=n_\mathrm{e}L\mathrm{d}^2r_c_{}(k_i)\mathrm{d}k_i_{n_is_i}.$$
(B16)
Here,

$$_{}(k_i)=\mathrm{}(2\pi \mu k_\mathrm{B}T)^{1/2}\mathrm{exp}(\mathrm{}^2k_i^2/2\mu k_\mathrm{B}T)$$
(B17)
is the Maxwell distribution of the continuum states over $`k_i`$, and

$$_{n_is_i}=(1\mathrm{e}^{\beta _\mathrm{e}})(1\mathrm{e}^{\beta _\mathrm{p}})\mathrm{exp}\left[n_i\beta _\mathrm{e}(n_i+s_i)\beta _\mathrm{p}\right]$$
(B18)
is the Boltzmann distribution over $`n_i0`$ and $`s_in_i`$. Thus the total cross section is

$`\sigma (\omega ,T,B)`$ $`=`$ $`n_\mathrm{e}L\pi a_\mathrm{m}^4{\displaystyle \underset{n_is_i}{}}_{n_is_i}{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}_{}(k_i)dk_i{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}K_{}dK_{}\sigma (k_i,K_{},n_i,s_i,\omega ).`$ (B19)
For every polarization, let us write $`\sigma (\omega ,T,B)`$ in the form of Eq. (49). Then

$`\mathrm{\Lambda }_\alpha ^\mathrm{e}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{3}{4}}{\displaystyle \underset{n_is_i}{}}_{n_is_i}{\displaystyle \underset{n_f,s_f,\mathrm{sign}\varkappa _f}{}}{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{d}\varkappa _i}{|\varkappa _f|}}\mathrm{exp}[(\beta _\mathrm{e}+\beta _\mathrm{p})\varkappa _i^2/4]w_{n_is_in_fs_f}^\alpha (\varkappa _f\varkappa _i),`$ (B20)
where, taking into account Eq. (B11), we have

$$\varkappa _f^2=\varkappa _i^2+4(n_in_f)+4\frac{m_\mathrm{e}}{m_\mathrm{H}}(s_is_f)+4\frac{m_\mathrm{p}}{m_\mathrm{H}}\frac{u}{\beta _\mathrm{e}},$$
(B21)
and the functions $`w_{n_is_in_fs_f}^\alpha (\varkappa _f\varkappa _i)`$ in the integrand are defined according to Eqs. (B6), (B15), and (B19) as

$`w_{nsn^{}s^{}}^0(\varkappa )=\varkappa ^2{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}\rho d\rho \left|\stackrel{~}{v}_{nsn^{}s^{}}(\rho ,\varkappa )\right|^2,`$ (B22a)
$`w_{nsn^{}s^{}}^1(\varkappa )={\displaystyle \frac{2}{(1+m_\mathrm{e}/m_\mathrm{p})^2}}{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}\rho d\rho |\sqrt{n^{}}\stackrel{~}{v}_{ns,n^{}1,s^{}+1}(\rho ,\varkappa )\sqrt{n+1}\stackrel{~}{v}_{n+1,s1,n^{}s^{}}(\rho ,\varkappa )`$
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{m_\mathrm{e}}{m_\mathrm{p}}}{\displaystyle \frac{\omega \omega _{\mathrm{ce}}}{\omega +\omega _{\mathrm{cp}}}}[\sqrt{n^{}+s^{}+1}\stackrel{~}{v}_{nsn^{},s^{}+1}(\rho ,\varkappa )\sqrt{n+s}\stackrel{~}{v}_{n,s1,n^{}s^{}}(\rho ,\varkappa )]|^2,`$ (B22b)
$`w_{nsn^{}s^{}}^{+1}(\varkappa )={\displaystyle \frac{2}{(1+m_\mathrm{e}/m_\mathrm{p})^2}}{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}\rho d\rho |\sqrt{n^{}+1}\stackrel{~}{v}_{ns,n^{}+1,s^{}1}(\rho ,\varkappa )\sqrt{n}\stackrel{~}{v}_{n1,s+1,n^{}s^{}}(\rho ,\varkappa )`$
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{m_\mathrm{e}}{m_\mathrm{p}}}{\displaystyle \frac{\omega +\omega _{\mathrm{ce}}}{\omega \omega _{\mathrm{cp}}}}[\sqrt{n^{}+s^{}}\stackrel{~}{v}_{nsn^{},s^{}1}(\rho ,\varkappa )\sqrt{n+s+1}\stackrel{~}{v}_{n,s+1,n^{}s^{}}(\rho ,\varkappa )]|^2.`$ (B22c)