Magnetic neutron star atmospheres

The alteration of electron phase space in strong magnetic fields results in thermal conductivities, radiative opacities, and electron pressures which differ from the corresponding nonmagnetic quantities. The effect of these changes on neutron star atmospheres - the thin outer layers between the surface and rho = 10 to the 10th g/cu cm - for field strengths between B = 10 to the 10th and 10 to the 14th G. Emphasis is placed on the temperature change through the atmosphere, expressed as Tm/Ts, where Tm is the temperature at the inside and Ts is the surface temperature. The atmosphere structure equations and the method of integrating them are presented. The electron thermal conductivity and pressure are calculated by integrations over an electron phase space which is quantized into discrete Landau orbitals perpendicular to the field lines; 30 Landau levels are included in the integrations. A method for tabulating the thermal conductivities and pressure is given. The sensitivity of the results to the Coulomb pressure correction, which accounts for ion-ion correlations, the possible existence of a high-density magnetic metal surface, methods of treating the detailed thermal conductivity structure, the ionization state, magnetic corrections to the radiative opacity, and the magnetic electron presssure, is explored. Comparisons to nonmagnetic results are made throughout.