Strong linear polarization of bremsstrahlung emissivity in photospheres of magnetic white dwarfs

We discuss the strong linear polarization and the appreciable decrease of the bremsstrahlung emissivity at frequencies below the electron cyclotron frequency (infrared wave band) in the photospheres of the isolated magnetic white dwarfs. In the photospheres of strongly magnetized white dwarfs (B > 10(7) G, T similar to 10(4) K), the electron's Larmor radius becomes smaller than the characteristic impact parameter of close Coulomb collisions in a non-magnetized plasma. Thus, the cyclotron period of the electron becomes smaller than the duration of all distant collisions and of most close collisions. The magnetic field effectively "freezes" the electron motion in the plane transverse to the magnetic field lines. The resulting motion is nearly one-dimensional and parallel to the magnetic field, inducing a strong linear polarization of the bremsstrahlung emission. Being attached to a magnetic field line, an electron cannot approach an ion as closely as it does in the case in which the magnetic field is absent. Thus, the bremsstrahlung emissivity appreciably decreases. We analytically compute an approximation to the spectrum of the strongly linear polarized bremsstrahlung emissivity at the frequencies below the electron cyclotron frequency.