Related papers: Polarized Blazar X-rays imply particle acceleratio…
Particle acceleration mechanisms in supermassive black hole jets, such as shock acceleration, magnetic reconnection, and turbulence, are expected to have observable signatures in the multi-wavelength polarization properties of blazars. The…
X-ray polarization is a unique new probe of the particle acceleration in astrophysical jets made possible through the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer. Here we report on the first dense X-ray polarization monitoring campaign on the blazar…
Polarimetric measurements, especially if extended at high energy, are expected to provide important insights into the mechanisms underlying the acceleration of relativistic particles in jets. In a previous work we have shown that the…
Blazars are highly variable active galactic nuclei which emit radiation at all wavelengths from radio to gamma-rays. Polarized radiation from blazars is one key piece of evidence for synchrotron radiation at low energies and it also varies…
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…
X-ray polarimetry promises us an unprecedented look at the structure of magnetic fields and on the processes at the base of acceleration of particles up to ultrarelativistic energies in relativistic jets. Crucial pieces of information are…
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…
X-ray polarization should provide new probes of magnetic field geometry and acceleration physics near the base of blazar jets, but near-future missions will have limited sensitivity. We thus use existing lower energy data and X-ray…
Emission from blazar jets in the ultraviolet, optical, and infrared is polarized. If these low-energy photons were inverse-Compton scattered, the upscattered high-energy photons retain a fraction of the polarization. Current and future…
The dissipation of energy flux in blazar jets plays a key role in the acceleration of relativistic particles. Two possibilities are commonly considered for the dissipation processes, magnetic reconnection -- possibly triggered by…
The spectra of blazars form a sequence which can be parametrized in term of their observed bolometric luminosity. At the most powerful extreme of the sequence we find objects whose jet power can rival the power extracted by accretion, while…
Polarization is one of the fundamental natures of electromagnetic radiation. The detection of polarization or polarized photons from distant X-ray radiating systems (such as X-ray binaries (XBs), active galactic nuclei (AGN), pulsars, and…
Observations of linear polarization in the 2-8 keV energy range with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) explore the magnetic field geometry and dynamics of the regions generating non-thermal radiation in relativistic jets of…
A single measurement of linear polarization of a nonthermal source provides direct information about the mean direction and level of ordering of the magnetic field. Monitoring of the polarization in blazars, combined with millimeter-wave…
Time-variable polarization is an extremely valuable observational tool to probe the dynamical physical conditions of blazar jets. Since 2008, we have been monitoring the flux and linear polarization of a sample of gamma-ray bright blazars…
Blazars are jetted active galactic nuclei, with the jet aligned along the observer's line of sight. Their spectral energy distributions are dominated by non-thermal emission, with an underlying thermal component at optical/ultraviolet…
Blazars are a class of jet-dominated active galactic nuclei with a typical double-humped spectral energy distribution. It is of common consensus the Synchrotron emission to be responsible for the low frequency peak, while the origin of the…
Variability can be the pathway to understanding the physical processes in astrophysical jets, however, the high-cadence observations required to test particle acceleration models are still missing. Here we report on the first attempt to…
Supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) launch relativistic jets that shine through the entire electromagnetic spectrum. Blazars are a subclass of AGN where non-thermal radiation from the jet is strongly beamed, as the jet…
As powerful gamma-ray engines, blazars -- relativistic plasma jets launched toward Earth from active galactic nuclei -- are manifestly high-energy particle accelerators. Yet, exactly how these jets accelerate particles as well as what they…