Synchrotron Polarization of Relativistic Thermal Electrons

Abstract

Relativistic electrons accelerated by both the first-order and the second-order Fermi accelerations in some synchrotron sources have a hybrid shape of thermal and nonthermal energy distribution. This particle acceleration result is supported by some recent numerical simulations. We calculate the synchrotron polarization by applying this electron energy distribution. The polarization degrees in the cases of active galactic nucleus (AGN) jets and gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are given as examples. The possible application for the polarization study of Sgr A* is also mentioned. We finally suggest high-energy polarization measurements for these synchrotron sources to test our results.

ApJ accepted

References in corpus (10)

• On the Momentum Diffusion of Radiating Ultrarelativistic Electrons in a Turbulent Magnetic Field
• Evolution of the polarization of the optical afterglow of the gamma-ray burst GRB 030329
• Polarized NIR and X-ray Flares from SgrA*
• K-band polarimetry of an Sgr A* flare with a clear sub-flare structure
• Polarized light from Sgr A* in the near-infrared $K_s$-band
• A Testable the Stochastic Acceleration Model for Flares in Sagittarius A*
• Exploring plasma evolution during Sagittarius A* flares
• Polarimetry and Photometry of Gamma-Ray Bursts with RINGO2
• Sagittarius A* High Energy X-ray Flare Properties During NuSTAR Monitoring of the Galactic Center from 2012 to 2015
• The energy distribution of electrons in radio jets

Cited by in corpus (6)

• The Synchrotron Polarization in Decaying Magnetic Field in Gamma-Ray Bursts
• Spectro-polarimetric analysis of prompt emission of GRB 160325A: jet with evolving environment of internal shocks
• Studying the local magnetic field and anisotropy of magnetic turbulence by synchrotron polarization derivative
• Synchrotron Polarization Radiative Transfer: Relativistic Thermal Electrons Contribution
• The polarization-angle flip in GRB prompt emission
• Impact of the nonthermal electron radiation effects on the horizon scale image structure of Sagittarius A*