Alexander Salganik

Research Overview

My work uses X-ray pulsars as laboratories for studying accretion in extreme magnetic fields. I combine broadband timing, spectroscopy, and polarimetry to infer the geometry of the accretion flow, constrain the magnetic-field topology, and identify the physical origin of the observed emission. A central theme of my research is how accretion and emission geometry change with accretion rate, from low-luminosity states to supercritical outbursts, including phenomena such as cyclotron lines, quasi-periodic oscillations, and phase-dependent X-ray polarization.