Determining the origin of the X-ray emission in blazars through multiwavelength polarization

Abstract

The origin of the high-energy emission in astrophysical jets from black holes is a highly debated issue. This is particularly true for jets from supermassive black holes that are among the most powerful particle accelerators in the Universe. So far, the addition of new observations and new messengers have only managed to create more questions than answers. However, the newly available X-ray polarization observations promise to finally distinguish between emission models. We use extensive multiwavelength and polarization campaigns as well as state-of-the-art polarized spectral energy distribution models to attack this problem by focusing on two X-ray polarization observations of blazar BL Lacertae in flaring and quiescent $\gamma$-ray states. We find that regardless of the jet composition and underlying emission model, inverse-Compton scattering from relativistic electrons dominates at X-ray energies.

10 pages, 15 figures, 4 Tables, published in A&A

References in corpus (18)

• Polarized Blazar X-rays imply particle acceleration in shocks
• POLAMI: Polarimetric Monitoring of Active Galactic Nuclei at Millimetre Wavelengths. I. The program, calibration, and calibrators data products
• RoboPol: A four-channel optical imaging polarimeter
• RoboPol: AGN polarimetric monitoring data
• X-ray Polarization of BL Lacertae in Outburst
• X-ray Polarization Observations of BL Lacertae
• Full-Stokes polarimetry with circularly polarized feeds - Sources with stable linear and circular polarization in the GHz regime
• Probing the Emission Mechanism and Magnetic Field of Neutrino Blazars with Multi-Wavelength Polarization Signatures
• IXPE observation of PKS 2155-304 reveals the most highly polarized blazar
• The Polarization Behavior of Relativistic Synchrotron Self-Compton Jets
• Characterization of a dual-beam, dual-camera optical imaging polarimeter
• Radiation and Polarization Signatures of 3D Multi-zone Time-dependent Hadronic Blazar Model
• Optical/$\gamma$-ray blazar flare correlations: understanding the high-energy emission process using ASAS-SN and Fermi light curves
• Intra-night optical flux and polarization variability of BL~Lacertae during its 2020 $-$ 2021 high state
• High optical to X-ray polarization ratio reveals Compton scattering in BL Lacertae's jet
• Characterization of High-polarization Stars and Blazars with DIPOL-1 at Sierra Nevada Observatory
• IXPE Observation of the Low-Synchrotron Peaked Blazar S4 0954+65 During An Optical-X-ray Flare
• Spectral Energy Distribution Modeling of BL Lacertae During a Large Submillimeter Outburst and Low X-Ray Polarization State

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Linking {\it Fermi} blazars and radio galaxies through accretion and jet radiation mechanisms
• Detection of Compton scattering in the jet of 3C 84