‘Photon Metamorphosis’ Unveiled by X-rays from Neutron Star

A Cornell astrophysicist has explained the first observations of polarised X-rays emitted by a magnetar, a neutron star featuring a powerful magnetic field, as a result of “photon metamorphosis”. The phenomenon can be naturally explained as a transformation of X-ray photons that has been theorised but never directly observed. Dong Lai, the Benson Jay Simon ’59, MBA ’62, and Mary Ellen Simon, M.A. ’63, Professor of Astrophysics in the College of Arts and Sciences, said the observations of radiation from a faraway celestial object showed “a beautiful effect that is a manifestation of intricate, fundamental physics”.