The X-ray Polarization of the Accretion Disk Coronae of Active Galactic Nuclei

Abstract

Hard X-rays observed in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) are thought to originate from the Comptonization of the optical/UV accretion disk photons in a hot corona. Polarization studies of these photons can help to constrain the corona geometry and the plasma properties. We have developed a ray-tracing code that simulates the Comptonization of accretion disk photons in coronae of arbitrary shape, and use it here to study the polarization of the X-ray emission from wedge and spherical coronae. We study the predicted polarization signatures for the fully relativistic and various approximate treatments of the elemental Compton scattering processes. We furthermore use the code to evaluate the impact of non-thermal electrons and cyclo-synchrotron photons on the polarization properties. Finally, we model the NuSTAR observations of the Seyfert I galaxy Mrk 335 and predict the associated polarization signal. Our studies show that X-ray polarimetry missions such as NASA's Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) and the X-ray Imaging Polarimetry Explorer (XIPE) proposed to ESA will provide valuable new information about the physical properties of the plasma close to the event horizon of AGN black holes.

Accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal, 38 pages, 16 figures, and 1 tables

References in corpus (2)

• The synchrotron boiler and the spectral states of black hole binaries
• Unveiling the Nature of Coronae in Active Galactic Nuclei through Sub-mm Observations

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• A deep X-ray view of the bare AGN Ark120. V. Spin determination from disc-Comptonisation efficiency method
• The first simultaneous X-ray broad-band view of Mrk 110 with XMM-Newton and NuSTAR
• A Southern sky search for repeating Fast Radio Bursts using the Australian SKA Pathfinder
• The Polarization of X-rays from Warped Black Hole Accretion Disks
• Monte-Carlo Applications for Partially Polarised Inverse External-Compton Scattering (MAPPIES) -- I. Description of the code and First Results
• Generally Applicable Formalism for Modeling the Observable Signatures of Inflows, Outflows, and Moving Coronal Plasma Close to Kerr Black Holes
• Supermassive Black Hole Spin and Reverberation
• How do Magnetic Field Models Affect Astrophysical Limits on Light Axion-like Particles? An X-ray Case Study with NGC 1275
• A significant detection of X-ray Polarization in Sco X-1 with PolarLight and constraints on the corona geometry