Agenda (First Meeting, 9–13 February 2026)
9 February — Introduction
14:30–15:00 Introduction and expectations for the project (Sergey Tsygankov, Roberto Taverna)
15:00–16:00 Alexander Potekhin: “Formation of polarized radiation in photospheres of strongly magnetized neutron stars”
16:00–16:30 Discussion of plans
10 February — Accreting NSs
10:00–10:40 Sergey Tsygankov: “Polarization properties of X-ray pulsars”
10:40–11:00 Coffee break
11:00–11:40 Sofia Forsblom: “Energy-dependent polarization properties in X-ray pulsars probed by IXPE”
12:00–14:00 Lunch break
14:00–14:40 Alexander Mushtukov: “QED-induced depolarisation in accreting strongly magnetised neutron stars”
14:40–15:00 Coffee break
15:00–15:40 Juri Poutanen: “On the sources of polarized radiation in X-ray pulsars”
15:40–17:00 Brainstorming
11 February — Magnetars, atmospheres, models
10:00–10:40 Alice Borghese: “Magnetar outbursts: the old and the new”
10:40–11:00 Coffee break
11:00–11:40 Ruth Kelly: “Modelling and detecting the QED vacuum resonance in magnetised atmospheres”
12:00–14:00 Lunch break
14:00–14:40 Valery Suleimanov: “Modeling the atmospheres of highly magnetized neutron stars: the Tübingen version”
14:40–15:00 Coffee break
15:00–15:40 Anna Watts: “Lessons from pulse profile modeling of rotation-powered and accretion-powered millisecond pulsars with NICER and IXPE”
15:40–17:00 Brainstorming
12 February — Geometry
10:00–10:40 Roberto Taverna: “Beyond the Dipole: The Resilience of the Rotating Vector Model in Magnetars with Extended Emission Regions”
10:40–11:00 Coffee break
11:00–11:40 Ekaterina Sokolova-Lapa: “Signatures of thermal resonant Comptonization as geometry tracers”
12:00–14:00 Lunch break
14:00–14:40 Roberto Turolla: “Bridging the Gap: The Need for Precise Polarization Models in the Era of Magnetar Hard X-ray Observations”
14:40–15:00 Coffee break
15:00–15:40 Alexander Salganik: “Testing pulsar geometry constraint methods with simulated polarization data”
15:40–17:00 Brainstorming
13 February — Conclusions
10:00–12:00 Conclusions and future plans