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Polars: Energy Balance
Recent results find that most Polars have a direct emission/reprocessing balance (hard X-ray+cyclotron/soft X-rays)
which is consistent with the standard view of magnetic accretion
A minority of systems have a soft excess
Still not clear what causes this
(magnetic field?)

Difference to past studies ascribed to
better instrumentation
better wavelength coverage
(simultaneous)
better calibration
better models
Ramsay & Cropper (2003)