Polarization change due to fast winds from accretion disks
arXiv:astro-ph/9802128 · doi:10.1086/311260
Abstract
A fraction of the radiation produced by an accretion disk may be Thomson scattered by a wind flowing away from the disk. Employing a simple plane-parallel model of the wind, we calculate the polarization of the scattered radiation and find that its sign depends on the wind velocity, beta=v/c. In the case, 0.12 < beta < 0.78, the polarization is parallel to the disk normal, i.e., it is orthogonal to the standard Chandrasekhar's polarization expected from accretion disks. The velocity of an electron-positron wind is likely to saturate near the equilibrium value beta_* of order 0.5 for which the accelerating radiation pressure is balanced by the Compton drag. Then the change of polarization by the wind is most pronounced. This may help to reconcile the standard accretion disk model with the optical polarimetric observations of non-blazar AGNs.
accepted for publication in ApJ Letters
References in corpus (1)
Cited by in corpus (30)
- Radiation mechanisms and geometry of Cygnus X-1 in the soft state
- Plasma Ejection from Magnetic Flares and the X-ray Spectrum of Cygnus X-1
- X-ray spectra of accretion discs with dynamic coronae
- Radiative transfer in ultra-relativistic outflows
- Accretion disk models and their X-ray reflection signatures. I. Local spectra
- Thermal disc emission from a rotating black hole: X-ray polarization signatures
- Electron-positron flows around magnetars
- Electron-Positron Outflows from Gamma-Ray Emitting Accretion Discs
- Polarized X-rays from windy accretion in Cygnus X-1
- First detection of X-ray polarization from the accreting neutron star 4U 1820-303
- High-precision optical polarimetry of the accreting black hole V404 Cyg during the June 2015 outburst
- Untangling Optical Emissions of the Jet and Accretion Disk in the Flat-Spectrum Radio Quasar 3C 273 with Reverberation Mapping Data
- Optical polarization properties of AGN with significant VLBI-Gaia offsets
- Evolving optical polarisation of the black hole X-ray binary MAXI J1820+070
- Detection of X-ray polarized emission and accretion-disk winds with IXPE and NICER in the black-hole X-ray binary 4U 1630-47
- Bulk Motions in the Black Hole Jet Sheath as a Candidate for the Comptonizing Corona
- A longer XMM-Newton look at I Zwicky 1: Distinct modes of X-ray spectral variability
- Polarization of GRB by scattering off relativistically moving material: Compton sailing and high polarization
- Disc and wind in black hole X-ray binary MAXIJ1820+070 observed through polarized light during its 2018 outburst
- On the role of strong gravity in polarization from scattering of light in relativistic flows
- On the Origin of Polarization near the Lyman Edge in Quasars
- A 5.5-year robotic optical monitoring of Q0957+561: substructure in a non-local cD galaxy
- Accretion Disk Models of Luminous Black Holes
- Effects of scattering in the accretion funnel on the pulse profiles of accreting millisecond pulsars
- Spectroscopy and polarimetry of the gravitationally lensed quasar Q0957+561
- A quantitative explanation of the radio--X-ray correlation in black-hole X-ray binaries
- Chromatic optical polarization of BL Lac: while faint and bright
- Polarization of light from warm clouds above an accretion disk: effects of strong-gravity near a black hole
- Compton Sailing and Strong Polarization
- Revisiting Einstein's analogy: black holes as gradient-index lenses