Consequences of interstellar absorption for models of anomalous X-ray pulsars

We examine properties of thermal radiation emitted by strongly magnetized n eutron stars (NSs). In particular, we show that the pulsation amplitudes of the energy-integrated flux are an increasing function of the absorption co lumn density to the source. This is especially important for the interpreta tion of the anomalous X-ray pulsars as cooling NSs with high magnetic field s. We show that the high-pulsation amplitudes observed in these objects are consistent with cooling models if the large amount of absorption to these sources is taken into account. We also show that cooling models imply infer red radii of the emitting regions on the order of similar to 5-6 times smal ler than the actual NS radii, again in agreement with observations.