X-ray Polarization of the Eastern Lobe of SS 433
Abstract
How astrophysical systems translate the kinetic energy of bulk motion into the acceleration of particles to very high energies is a pressing question. SS 433 is a microquasar that emits TeV gamma-rays indicating the presence of high-energy particles. A region of hard X-ray emission in the eastern lobe of SS 433 was recently identified as an acceleration site. We observed this region with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer and measured a polarization degree in the range 38% to 77%. The high polarization degree indicates the magnetic field has a well ordered component if the X-rays are due to synchrotron emission. The polarization angle is in the range -12 to +10 degrees (east of north) which indicates that the magnetic field is parallel to the jet. Magnetic fields parallel to the bulk flow have also been found in supernova remnants and the jets of powerful radio galaxies. This may be caused by interaction of the flow with the ambient medium.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2311.16313,
title = {X-ray Polarization of the Eastern Lobe of SS 433},
author = {Philip Kaaret and Riccardo Ferrazzoli and Stefano Silvestri and Michela Negro and Alberto Manfreda and Kinwah Wu and Enrico Costa and Paolo Soffitta and Samar Safi-Harb and Juri Poutanen and Alexandra Veledina and Alessandro Di Marco and Patrick Slane and Stefano Bianchi and Adam Ingram and Roger W. Romani and Nicolo Cibrario and Brydyn Mac Intyre and Romana Mikusincova and Ajay Ratheesh and James F. Steiner and Jiri Svoboda and Stefano Tugliani and Ivan Agudo and Lucio A. Antonelli and Matteo Bachetti and Luca Baldini and Wayne H. Baumgartner and Ronaldo Bellazzini and Stephen D. Bongiorno and Raffaella Bonino and Alessandro Brez and Niccolo Bucciantini and Fiamma Capitanio and Simone Castellano and Elisabetta Cavazzuti and Chien-Ting Chen and Stefano Ciprini and Alessandra De Rosa and Ettore Del Monte and Laura Di Gesu and Niccolo Di Lalla and Immacolata Donnarumma and Victor Doroshenko and Michal Dovciak and Steven R. Ehlert and Teruaki Enoto and Yuri Evangelista and Sergio Fabiani and Javier A. Garcia and Shuichi Gunji and Kiyoshi Hayashida and Jeremy Heyl and Wataru Iwakiri and Svetlana G. Jorstad and Vladimir Karas and Fabian Kislat and Takao Kitaguchi and Jeffery J. Kolodziejczak and Henric Krawczynski and Fabio La Monaca and Luca Latronico and Ioannis Liodakis and Simone Maldera and Frederic Marin and Andrea Marinucci and Alan P. Marscher and Herman L. Marshall and Francesco Massaro and Giorgio Matt and Ikuyuki Mitsuishi and Tsunefumi Mizuno and Fabio Muleri and Chi-Yung Ng and Stephen L. O'Dell and Nicola Omodei and Chiara Oppedisano and Alessandro Papitto and George G. Pavlov and Abel L. Peirson and Matteo Perri and Melissa Pesce-Rollins and Pierre-Olivier Petrucci and Maura Pilia and Andrea Possenti and Simonetta Puccetti and Brian D. Ramsey and John Rankin and Oliver J. Roberts and Carmelo Sgro and Gloria Spandre and Douglas A. Swartz and Toru Tamagawa and Fabrizio Tavecchio and Roberto Taverna and Yuzuru Tawara and Allyn F. Tennant and Nicholas E. Thomas and Francesco Tombesi and Alessio Trois and Sergey S. Tsygankov and Roberto Turolla and Jacco Vink and Martin C. Weisskopf and Fei Xie and Silvia Zane},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2311.16313},
year = {2023}
}
Comments
8 pages, accepted in the Astrophysical Journal Letters