Polarized x-rays from a magnetar

Taverna, Roberto; Turolla, R.; Muleri, Fabio; Zane, S.; Baldini, Luca; Caniulef, Denis González; Bachetti, Matteo; Rankin, John; Caiazzo, Ilaria; Lalla, N. Di; Doroshenko, V. T.; Errando, M.; Gau, Ephraim; Kirmizibayrak, Demet; Krawczynski, H.; Negro, Michela; Ng, Mason; Omodei, N.; Tamagawa, Toru; Uchiyama, Keisuke; Weisskopf, Martin C.; Agudo, I.; Antonelli, L. A.; Baumgartner, W. H.; Bellazzini, R.; Bianchi, S.; Bongiorno, Stephen D.; Bonino, R.; Brez, A.; Bucciantini, N.; Capitanio, Fiamma; Castellano, Simone; Cavazzuti, E.; Ciprini, S.; Costa, E.; Rosa, A. De; Monte, E. Del; Gesu, Laura Di; Marco, Alessandro Di; Donnarumma, I.; Dovčiak, Michal; Ehlert, Steven R.; Enoto, T.; Evangelista, Y.; Fabiani, Sergio; Ferrazzoli, Riccardo; García, Javier A.; Gunji, Shuichi; Hayashida, Kentaro; Iwakiri, W.; Jorstad, Svetlana G.; Karas, Vladimír; Kitaguchi, Takao; Kolodziejczak, Jeffery J.; Monaca, Fabio La; Latronico, L.; Liodakis, Ioannis; Maldera, S.; Manfreda, Alberto; Marin, Frédéric; Marinucci, Andrea; Marscher, A. P.; Marshall, Herman L.; Matt, Giorgio; Mitsuishi, Ikuyuki; Mizuno, T.; Ng, Stephen C. -Y.; O’Dell, Stephen L.; Oppedisano, C.; Papitto, A.; Pavlov, G. G.; Peirson, Abel L.; Perri, M.; Pesce-Rollins, Melissa; Pilia, M.; Possenti, A.; Poutanen, Juri; Puccetti, S.; Ramsey, Brian D.; Ratheesh, Ajay; Romani, Roger W.; Sgrò, C.; Slane, Patrick; Soffitta, P.; Spandre, G.; Tavecchio, F.; Tawara, Yuzuru; Tennant, Allyn F.; Thomas, Nicolas E.; Tombesi, Francesco; Trois, A.; Tsygankov, Sergey S.; Vink, Jacco; Wu, Kinwah; Xie, Fei

doi:10.48550/arxiv.2205.08898

Cited by 2 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…We obtain a 𝜒 2 /dof=1378/1000 due to presence of large residuals at the low and high energies in the IXPE 𝐼 spectra. This has already been observed in other bright sources and can be likely explained in terms of calibration issues (Taverna et al 2022;Krawczynski et al 2022). We therefore modified the response files gains in the 𝐼 spectra (using command) and obtained a 𝜒 2 /dof=1055/994.…”

Section: Xmm-newton Nustar and Ixpe Spectro-polarimetric Analysismentioning

confidence: 83%

Polarization constraints on the X-ray corona in Seyfert Galaxies: MCG-05-23-16

Marinucci¹,

Muleri²,

Dovčiak³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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We report on the first observation of a radio-quiet Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) using polarized X-rays: the Seyfert 1.9 galaxy MCG-05-23-16. This source was pointed with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) starting on May 14, 2022 for a net observing time of 486 ks, simultaneously with XMM-Newton (58 ks) and NuSTAR (83 ks). A polarization degree smaller than Π < 4.7% (at the 99% c.l.) is derived in the 2-8 keV energy range, where emission is dominated by the primary component ascribed to the hot corona. The broad-band spectrum, inferred from a simultaneous fit to the IXPE, NuSTAR, and XMM-Newton data, is well reproduced by a power law with photon index Γ = 1.85 ± 0.01 and a high-energy cutoff 𝐸 C = 120 ± 15 keV. A comparison with Monte Carlo simulations shows that a lamp-post and a conical geometry of the corona are consistent with the observed upper limit, a slab geometry is allowed only if the inclination angle of the system is less than 50 • .

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Section: Xmm-newton Nustar and Ixpe Spectro-polarimetric Analysismentioning

confidence: 83%

Polarization constraints on the X-ray corona in Seyfert Galaxies: MCG-05-23-16

Marinucci¹,

Muleri²,

Dovčiak³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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“…Quantum electrodynamics (QED) predicts that in a strong magnetic field the vacuum becomes birefringent (e.g., Heisenberg & Euler 1936;Schwinger 1951;Adler 1971;Tsai & Erber 1975;Heyl & Hernquist 1997). Acting by itself, the birefringence from vacuum polarization is significant (with the index of refraction differing from unity by more than 10%) only for B 300BQ, where BQ = m 2 e c 3 /(e ) = 4.414 × 10 13 G is the critical QED field strength.…”

Section: Vacuum Resonance and Mode Conversionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thompson & Duncan 1993;Kaspi & Beloborodov 2017). Recently the NASA/ASI Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) (Weisskopf et al 2016) reported the detection of linearly polarized x-ray emission from the anomalous x-ray pulsar (AXP) 4U 0142+61, a magnetar with an inferred dipole magnetic field (based the spindown rate) of ∼ 10 14 G (Taverna et al 2022). This is the first time that polarized x-rays have been detected from any astrophysical point sources.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To explain the IXPE measurement, particularly the polarization swing, Taverna et al (2022) suggested that thermal x-rays are emitted from an extended region of the condensed neutron star (NS) surface. In this scenario, the 2-4 keV radiation is dominated by the O-mode (polarized in the plane spanned by the local magnetic field and the photon wave vector), while the 5.5-8 keV radi-E-mail:dong@astro.cornell.edu ation by the X-mode (which is orthogonal to the O-mode) because of resonant Compton scattering.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…An unrealistically strong field (B14 10 5 for Z = 26) would be required to make Ec 4 keV. (iii) As acknowledged by Taverna et al (2022), the assumption that the phase-averaged low-energy photons are dominated by the Omode would imply that the NS spin axis (projected in the sky plane) is orthogonal to the proper motion direction. This is in contradiction to the growing evidence of spin-kick alignment in pulsars.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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IXPE Detection of Polarized X-rays from Magnetar and Photon Mode Conversion at QED Vacuum Resonance

Dong¹

2022

Preprint

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The recent observation of the anomalous X-ray pulsar 4U 0142+61 by the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) opened up a new avenue to study magnetars, neutron stars endowed with superstrong magnetic fields (B 10 14 G). The detected polarized X-rays exhibit an intriguing 90 • linear polarization swing from low photon energies (E 4 keV) to high photon energies (E 5.5 keV). We show that this swing can be naturally explained by photon polarization mode conversion at the vacuum resonance in the magnetar atmosphere; the resonance arises from the combined effects of plasma-induced birefringence and QED-induced vacuum birefringence in strong magnetic fields, and the mode conversion is analogous to the MSW effect for neutrino oscillations. This explanation suggests that the atmosphere of 4U 0142 be composed of partially ionized heavy elements (such as Fe), and the surface magnetic field be comparable or less than 10 14 G, consistent with the dipole field inferred from the measured spindown. It also implies that the spin axis of 4U 0142+61 is aligned with its velocity direction.

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Polarized x-rays from a magnetar

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

Polarization constraints on the X-ray corona in Seyfert Galaxies: MCG-05-23-16

Polarization constraints on the X-ray corona in Seyfert Galaxies: MCG-05-23-16

IXPE Detection of Polarized X-rays from Magnetar and Photon Mode Conversion at QED Vacuum Resonance

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