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36 results on '"Kaaret, P."'

1. Analysis of Crab X-ray Polarization using Deeper IXPE Observations

Author

Wong, Josephine, Mizuno, Tsunefumi, Bucciantini, Niccoló, Romani, Roger W., Yang, Yi-Jung, Liu, Kuan, Deng, Wei, Goya, Kazuho, Xie, Fei, Pilia, Maura, Kaaret, Philip, Weisskopf, Martin C., Silvestri, Stefano, Ng, C. -Y., Chen, Chien-Ting, Agudo, Iván, Antonelli, Lucio A., Bachetti, Matteo, Baldini, Luca, Baumgartner, Wayne H., Bellazzini, Ronaldo, Bianchi, Stefano, Bongiorno, Stephen D., Bonino, Raffaella, Brez, Alessandro, Capitanio, Fiamma, Castellano, Simone, Cavazzuti, Elisabetta, Ciprini, Stefano, Costa, Enrico, De Rosa, Alessandra, Del Monte, Ettore, Di Gesu, Laura, Di Lalla, Niccoló, Di Marco, Alessandro, Donnarumma, Immacolata, Doroshenko, Victor, Dovčiak, Michal, Ehlert, Steven R., Enoto, Teruaki, Evangelista, Yuri, Fabiani, Sergio, Ferrazzoli, Riccardo, Garcia, Javier A., Gunji, Shuichi, Heyl, Jeremy, Iwakiri, Wataru, Jorstad, Svetlana G., Karas, Vladimir, Kislat, Fabian, Kitaguchi, Takao, Kolodziejczak, Jeffery J., Krawczynski, Henric, La Monaca, Fabio, Latronico, Luca, Liodakis, Ioannis, Maldera, Simone, Manfreda, Alberto, Marin, Frédéric, Marinucci, Andrea, Marscher, Alan P., Marshall, Herman L., Massaro, Francesco, Matt, Giorgio, Mitsuishi, Ikuyuki, Muleri, Fabio, Negro, Michela, O'Dell, Stephen L., Omodei, Nicola, Oppedisano, Chiara, Papitto, Alessandro, Pavlov, George G., Peirson, Abel Lawrence, Perri, Matteo, Pesce-Rollins, Melissa, Petrucci, Pierre-Olivier, Possenti, Andrea, Poutanen, Juri, Puccetti, Simonetta, Ramsey, Brian D., Rankin, John, Ratheesh, Ajay, Roberts, Oliver J., Sgró, Carmelo, Slane, Patrick, Soffitta, Paolo, Spandre, Gloria, Swartz, Douglas A., Tamagawa, Toru, Tavecchio, Fabrizio, Taverna, Roberto, Tawara, Yuzuru, Tennant, Allyn F., Thomas, Nicholas E., Tombesi, Francesco, Trois, Alessio, Tsygankov, Sergey, Turolla, Roberto, Vink, Jacco, Wu, Kinwah, and Zane, Silvia

Subjects
Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Abstract

We present Crab X-ray polarization measurements using IXPE data with a total exposure of 300ks, three times more than the initial 2022 discovery paper. Polarization is detected in three times more pulsar phase bins, revealing an S-shaped $+40^\circ$ polarization angle sweep in the main pulse and ${>}1\sigma$ departures from the OPTIMA optical polarization in both pulses, suggesting different radiation mechanisms or sites for the polarized emission at the two wavebands. Our polarization map of the inner nebula reveals a toroidal magnetic field, as seen in prior IXPE analyses. Along the southern jet, the magnetic field orientation relative to the jet axis changes from perpendicular to parallel and the polarization degree decreases by ${\sim}6\%$. These observations may be explained by kink instabilities along the jet or a collision with a dense, jet-deflecting medium at the tip. Using spectropolarimetric analysis, we find asymmetric polarization in the four quadrants of the inner nebula, as expected for a toroidal field geometry, and a spatial correlation between polarization degree and photon index., Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, 3 tables. Accepted by The Astrophysical Journal

Published
2024

2. A multi-wavelength study to decipher the 2017 flare of the blazar OJ 287

Author

Acharyya, A., Adams, C. B., Archer, A., Bangale, P., Bartkoske, J. T., Batista, P., Benbow, W., Brill, A., Caldwell, J. P., Carini, M., Christiansen, J. L., Chromey, A. J., Errando, M., Falcone, A., Feng, Q., Finley, J. P., Foote, G. M., Fortson, L., Furniss, A., Gallagher, G., Hanlon, W., Hanna, D., Hervet, O., Hinrichs, C. E., Hoang, J., Holder, J., Humensky, T. B., Jin, W., Johnson, M. N., Kaaret, P., Kertzman, M., Kherlakian, M., Kieda, D., Kleiner, T. K., Korzoun, N., Krennrich, F., Kumar, S., Lang, M. J., Lundy, M., Maier, G., EMcGrath, C., Millard, M. J., Millis, J., Mooney, C. L., Moriarty, P., Mukherjee, R., O'Brien, S., Ong, R. A., Pohl, M., Pueschel, E., Quinn, J., Rabinowitz, P. L., Ragan, K., Reynolds, P. T., Ribeiro, D., Roache, E., Ryan, J. L., Sadeh, I., Sadun, A. C., Saha, L., Santander, M., Sembroski, G. H., Shahinyan, K., Shang, R., Splettstoesser, M., Tak, D., Talluri, A. K., Tucci, J. V., Williams, D. A., Wong, S. L., Jorstad, S. G., Lico, R., Lusen, P., and Marscher, A. P.

Subjects
Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena, Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies
Abstract

In February 2017, the blazar OJ~287 underwent a period of intense multiwavelength activity. It reached a new historic peak in the soft X-ray (0.3-10 keV) band, as measured by Swift-XRT. This event coincides with a very-high-energy (VHE) $\gamma$-ray outburst that led VERITAS to detect emission above 100 GeV, with a detection significance of $10\sigma$ (from 2016 December 9 to 2017 March 31). The time-averaged VHE $\gamma$-ray spectrum was consistent with a soft power law ($\Gamma = -3.81 \pm 0.26$) and an integral flux corresponding to $\sim2.4\%$ that of the Crab Nebula above the same energy. Contemporaneous data from multiple instruments across the electromagnetic spectrum reveal complex flaring behavior, primarily in the soft X-ray and VHE bands. To investigate the possible origin of such an event, our study focuses on three distinct activity states: before, during, and after the February 2017 peak. The spectral energy distributions during these periods suggest the presence of at least two non-thermal emission zones, with the more compact one responsible for the observed flare. Broadband modeling results and observations of a new radio knot in the jet of OJ~287 in 2017 are consistent with a flare originating from a strong recollimation shock outside the radio core., Comment: 21 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal

Published
2024

3. X-ray and multiwavelength polarization of Mrk 501 from 2022 to 2023

Author

Chen, Chien-Ting J., Liodakis, Ioannis, Middei, Riccardo, Kim, Dawoon E., Di Gesu, Laura, Di Marco, Alessandro, Ehlert, Steven R., Errando, Manel, Negro, Michela, Jorstad, Svetlana G., Marscher, Alan P., Wu, Kinwah, Agudo, Iván, Poutanen, Juri, Mizuno, Tsunefumi, Kouch, Pouya M., Lindfors, Elina, Borman, George A., Grishina, Tatiana S., Kopatskaya, Evgenia N., Larionova, Elena G., Morozova, Daria A., Savchenko, Sergey S., Troitsky, Ivan S., Troitskaya, Yulia V., Vasilyev, Andrey A., Zhovtan, Alexey V., Aceituno, Francisco José, Bonnoli, Giacomo, Casanova, Víctor, Escudero, Juan, Agís-González, Beatriz, Husillos, César, Santos, Jorge Otero, Sota, Alfredo, Piirola, Vilppu, Myserlis, Ioannis, Angelakis, Emmanouil, Kraus, Alexander, Gurwell, Mark, Keating, Garrett, Rao, Ramprasad, Kang, Sincheol, Lee, Sang-Sung, Kim, Sang-Hyun, Cheong, Whee Yeon, Jeong, Hyeon-Woo, Song, Chanwoo, Berdyugin, Andrei V., Kagitani, Masato, Kravtsov, Vadim, Nitindala, Anagha P., Sakanoi, Takeshi, Imazawa, Ryo, Sasada, Mahito, Fukazawa, Yasushi, Kawabata, Koji S., Uemura, Makoto, Nakaoka, Tatsuya, Akitaya, Hiroshi, Casadio, Carolina, Sievers, Albrecht, Antonelli, Lucio Angelo, Bachetti, Matteo, Baldini, Luca, Baumgartner, Wayne H., Bellazzini, Ronaldo, Bianchi, Stefano, Bongiorno, Stephen D., Bonino, Raffaella, Brez, Alessandro, Bucciantini, Niccoló, Capitanio, Fiamma, Castellano, Simone, Cavazzuti, Elisabetta, Ciprini, Stefano, Costa, Enrico, De Rosa, Alessandra, Del Monte, Ettore, Di Lalla, Niccoló, Donnarumma, Immacolata, Doroshenko, Victor, Dovčiak, Michal, Enoto, Teruaki, Evangelista, Yuri, Fabiani, Sergio, Ferrazzoli, Riccardo, Garcia, Javier A., Gunji, Shuichi, Hayashida, Kiyoshi, Heyl, Jeremy, Iwakiri, Wataru, Kaaret, Philip, Karas, Vladimir, Kislat, Fabian, Kitaguchi, Takao, Kolodziejczak, Jeffery J., Krawczynski, Henric, La Monaca, Fabio, Latronico, Luca, Maldera, Simone, Manfreda, Alberto, Marin, Frédéric, Marinucci, Andrea, Marshall, Herman L., Massaro, Francesco, Matt, Giorgio, Mitsuishi, Ikuyuki, Muleri, Fabio, Ng, C. -Y., O'Dell, Stephen L., Omodei, Nicola, Oppedisano, Chiara, Papitto, Alessandro, Pavlov, George G., Peirson, Abel Lawrence, Perri, Matteo, Pesce-Rollins, Melissa, Petrucci, Pierre-Olivier, Pilia, Maura, Possenti, Andrea, Puccetti, Simonetta, Ramsey, Brian D., Rankin, John, Ratheesh, Ajay, Roberts, Oliver J., Romani, Roger W., Sgró, Carmelo, Slane, Patrick, Soffitta, Paolo, Spandre, Gloria, Swartz, Douglas A., Tamagawa, Toru, Tavecchio, Fabrizio, Taverna, Roberto, Tawara, Yuzuru, Tennant, Allyn F., Thomas, Nicholas E., Tombesi, Francesco, Trois, Alessio, Tsygankov, Sergey S., Turolla, Roberto, Vink, Jacco, Weisskopf, Martin C., Xie, Fei, and Zane, Silvia

Subjects
Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena, Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies
Abstract

We present multiwavelength polarization measurements of the luminous blazar Mrk~501 over a 14-month period. The 2--8 keV X-ray polarization was measured with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) with six 100-ks observations spanning from 2022 March to 2023 April. Each IXPE observation was accompanied by simultaneous X-ray data from NuSTAR, Swift/XRT, and/or XMM-Newton. Complementary optical-infrared polarization measurements were also available in the B, V, R, I, and J bands, as were radio polarization measurements from 4.85 GHz to 225.5 GHz. Among the first five IXPE observations, we did not find significant variability in the X-ray polarization degree and angle with IXPE. However, the most recent sixth observation found an elevated polarization degree at $>3\sigma$ above the average of the other five observations. The optical and radio measurements show no apparent correlations with the X-ray polarization properties. Throughout the six IXPE observations, the X-ray polarization degree remained higher than, or similar to, the R-band optical polarization degree, which remained higher than the radio value. This is consistent with the energy-stratified shock scenario proposed to explain the first two IXPE observations, in which the polarized X-ray, optical, and radio emission arises from different regions., Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ

Published
2024

4. Testing particle acceleration in blazar jets with continuous high-cadence optical polarization observations

Author

Liodakis, Ioannis, Kiehlmann, Sebastian, Marscher, Alan P., Zhang, Haocheng, Blinov, Dmitry, Jorstad, Svetlana G., Agudo, Iván, Benítez, Erika, Berdyugin, Andrei, Bonnoli, Giacomo, Casadio, Carolina, Chen, Chien-Ting, Chen, Wen-Ping, Ehlert, Steven R., Escudero, Juan, Grishina, Tatiana S., Hiriart, David, Hsu, Angela, Imazawa, Ryo, Jermak, Helen E., Jose, Jincen, Kaaret, Philip, Kopatskaya, Evgenia N., Lalchand, Bhavana, Larionova, Elena G., Lindfors, Elina, López, José M., McCall, Callum, Morozova, Daria A., Palaiologou, Efthymios, Pandey, Shivangi, Poutanen, Juri, Rakshit, Suvendu, Reig, Pablo, Sasada, Mahito, Savchenko, Sergey S., Shablovinskaya, Elena, Neha, Sharma, Shrestha, Manisha, Steele, Iain A., Troitskiy, Ivan S., Troitskaya, Yulia V., Uemura, Makoto, Vasilyev, Andrey A., Weaver, Zachary, Wiersema, Klaas, and Weisskopf, Martin C.

Subjects
Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Abstract

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 produce continuous, >24 hour polarization light curves of blazars using telescopes distributed across the globe and the rotation of the Earth to avoid the rising Sun. Our campaign involved 16 telescopes in Asia, Europe, and North America. We observed BL Lacertae and CGRaBS J0211+1051 for a combined 685 telescope hours. We find large variations in the polarization degree and angle for both sources in sub-hour timescales as well as a ~180 degree rotation of the polarization angle in CGRaBS J0211+1051 in less than two days. We compared our high-cadence observations to Particle-In-Cell magnetic reconnection and turbulent plasma simulations. We find that although the state of the art simulation frameworks can produce a large fraction of the polarization properties, they do not account for the entirety of the observed polarization behavior in blazar jets., Comment: 20 pages, 15 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in A&A. The data used in the paper are available here: https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/IETSXS

Published
2024

5. An IXPE-Led X-ray Spectro-Polarimetric Campaign on the Soft State of Cygnus X-1: X-ray Polarimetric Evidence for Strong Gravitational Lensing

Author

Steiner, James F., Nathan, Edward, Hu, Kun, Krawczynski, Henric, Dovciak, Michal, Veledina, Alexandra, Muleri, Fabio, Svoboda, Jiri, Alabarta, Kevin, Parra, Maxime, Bhargava, Yash, Matt, Giorgio, Poutanen, Juri, Petrucci, Pierre-Olivier, Tennant, Allyn F., Baglio, M. Cristina, Baldini, Luca, Barnier, Samuel, Bhattacharyya, Sudip, Bianchi, Stefano, Brigitte, Maimouna, Cabezas, Mauricio, Cangemi, Floriane, Capitanio, Fiamma, Casey, Jacob, Cavero, Nicole Rodriguez, Castellano, Simone, Cavazzuti, Elisabetta, Chun, Sohee, Churazov, Eugene, Costa, Enrico, Di Lalla, Niccolo, Di Marco, Alessandro, Egron, Elise, Ewing, Melissa, Fabiani, Sergio, Garcia, Javier A., Green, David A., Grinberg, Victoria, Hadrava, Petr, Ingram, Adam, Kaaret, Philip, Kislat, Fabian, Kitaguchi, Takao, Kravtsov, Vadim, Kubatova, Brankica, La Monaca, Fabio, Latronico, Luca, Loktev, Vladislav, Malacaria, Christian, Marin, Frederic, Marinucci, Andrea, Maryeva, Olga, Mastroserio, Guglielmo, Mizuno, Tsunefumi, Negro, Michela, Omodei, Nicola, Podgorny, Jakub, Rankin, John, Ratheesh, Ajay, Rhodes, Lauren, Russell, David M., Slechta, Miroslav, Soffitta, Paolo, Spooner, Sean, Suleimanov, Valery, Tombesi, Francesco, Trushkin, Sergei A., Weisskopf, Martin C., Zane, Silvia, Zdziarski, Andrzej A., Zhang, Sixuan, Zhang, Wenda, Zhou, Menglei, Agudo, Ivan, Antonelli, Lucio A., Bachetti, Matteo, Baumgartner, Wayne H., Bellazzini, Ronaldo, Bongiorno, Stephen D., Bonino, Raffaella, Brez, Alessandro, Bucciantini, Niccolo, Chen, Chien-Ting, Ciprini, Stefano, De Rosa, Alessandra, Del Monte, Ettore, Di Gesu, Laura, Donnarumma, Immacolata, Doroshenko, Victor, Ehlert, Steven R., Enoto, Teruaki, Evangelista, Yuri, Ferrazzoli, Riccardo, Gunji, Shuichi, Hayashida, Kiyoshi, Heyl, Jeremy, Iwakiri, Wataru, Jorstad, Svetlana G., Karas, Vladimir, Kolodziejczak, Jeffery J., Liodakis, Ioannis, Maldera, Simone, Manfreda, Alberto, Marscher, Alan P., Marshall, Herman L., Massaro, Francesco, Mitsuishi, Ikuyuki, Ng, Chi-Yung, O'Dell, Stephen L., Oppedisano, Chiara, Papitto, Alessandro, Pavlov, George G., Peirson, Abel L., Perri, Matteo, Pesce-Rollins, Melissa, Pilia, Maura, Possenti, Andrea, Puccetti, Simonetta, Ramsey, Brian D., Roberts, Oliver J., Romani, Roger W., Sgro, Carmelo, Slane, Patrick, Spandre, Gloria, Swartz, Douglas A., Tamagawa, Toru, Tavecchio, Fabrizio, Taverna, Roberto, Tawara, Yuzuru, Thomas, Nicholas E., Trois, Alessio, Tsygankov, Sergey S., Turolla, Roberto, Vink, Jacco, Wu, Kinwah, and Xie, Fei

Subjects
Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Abstract

We present the first X-ray spectropolarimetric results for Cygnus X-1 in its soft state from a campaign of five IXPE observations conducted during 2023 May-June. Companion multiwavelength data during the campaign are likewise shown. The 2-8 keV X-rays exhibit a net polarization degree PD=1.99%+/-0.13% (68% confidence). The polarization signal is found to increase with energy across IXPE's 2-8 keV bandpass. The polarized X-rays exhibit an energy-independent polarization angle of PA=-25.7+/-1.8 deg. East of North (68% confidence). This is consistent with being aligned to Cyg X-1's AU-scale compact radio jet and its pc-scale radio lobes. In comparison to earlier hard-state observations, the soft state exhibits a factor of 2 lower polarization degree, but a similar trend with energy and a similar (also energy-independent) position angle. When scaling by the natural unit of the disk temperature, we find the appearance of a consistent trendline in the polarization degree between soft and hard states. Our favored polarimetric model indicates Cyg X-1's spin is likely high (a* above ~0.96). The substantial X-ray polarization in Cyg X-1's soft state is most readily explained as resulting from a large portion of X-rays emitted from the disk returning and reflecting off the disk surface, generating a high polarization degree and a polarization direction parallel to the black hole spin axis and radio jet. In IXPE's bandpass, the polarization signal is dominated by the returning reflection emission. This constitutes polarimetric evidence for strong gravitational lensing of X-rays close to the black hole., Comment: 20 pages, accepted for publication in ApJL

Published
2024

6. Probing the polarized emission from SMC X-1: the brightest X-ray pulsar observed by IXPE

Author

Forsblom, Sofia V., Tsygankov, Sergey S., Poutanen, Juri, Doroshenko, Victor, Mushtukov, Alexander A., Ng, Mason, Ravi, Swati, Marshall, Herman L., Di Marco, Alessandro, La Monaca, Fabio, Malacaria, Christian, Mastroserio, Guglielmo, Loktev, Vladislav, Possenti, Andrea, Suleimanov, Valery F., Taverna, Roberto, Agudo, Ivan, Antonelli, Lucio A., Bachetti, Matteo, Baldini, Luca, Baumgartner, Wayne H., Bellazzini, Ronaldo, Bianchi, Stefano, Bongiorno, Stephen D., Bonino, Raffaella, Brez, Alessandro, Bucciantini, Niccolo, Capitanio, Fiamma, Castellano, Simone, Cavazzuti, Elisabetta, Chen, Chien-Ting, Ciprini, Stefano, Costa, Enrico, De Rosa, Alessandra, Del Monte, Ettore, Di Gesu, Laura, Di Lalla, Niccolo, Donnarumma, Immacolata, Dovciak, Michal, Ehlert, Steven R., Enoto, Teruaki, Evangelista, Yuri, Fabiani, Sergio, Ferrazzoli, Riccardo, Garcia, Javier A., Gunji, Shuichi, Hayashida, Kiyoshi, Heyl, Jeremy, Iwakiri, Wataru, Jorstad, Svetlana G., Kaaret, Philip, Karas, Vladimir, Kislat, Fabian, Kitaguchi, Takao, Kolodziejczak, Jeffery J., Krawczynski, Henric, Latronico, Luca, Liodakis, Ioannis, Maldera, Simone, Manfreda, Alberto, Marin, Frederic, Marinucci, Andrea, Marscher, Alan P., Massaro, Francesco, Matt, Giorgio, Mitsuishi, Ikuyuki, Mizuno, Tsunefumi, Muleri, Fabio, Negro, Michela, Ng, Chi-Yung, O'Dell, Stephen L., Omodei, Nicola, Oppedisano, Chiara, Papitto, Alessandro, Pavlov, George G., Peirson, Abel L., Perri, Matteo, Pesce-Rollins, Melissa, Petrucci, Pierre-Olivier, Pilia, Maura, Puccetti, Simonetta, Ramsey, Brian D., Rankin, John, Ratheesh, Ajay, Roberts, Oliver J., Romani, Roger W., Sgro, Carmelo, Slane, Patrick, Soffitta, Paolo, Spandre, Gloria, Swartz, Douglas A., Tamagawa, Toru, Tavecchio, Fabrizio, Tawara, Yuzuru, Tennant, Allyn F., Thomas, Nicholas E., Tombesi, Francesco, Trois, Alessio, Turolla, Roberto, Vink, Jacco, Weisskopf, Martin C., Wu, Kinwah, Xie, Fei, and Zane, Silvia

Subjects
Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Abstract

Recent observations of X-ray pulsars (XRPs) performed by the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) have made it possible to investigate the intricate details of these objects in a new way, thanks to the added value of X-ray polarimetry. Here we present the results of the IXPE observations of SMC X-1, a member of the small group of XRPs displaying super-orbital variability. SMC X-1 was observed by IXPE three separate times during the high state of its super-orbital period. The observed luminosity in the 2-8 keV energy band of $L=2\times10^{38}$ erg/s makes SMC X-1 the brightest XRP ever observed by IXPE. We detect significant polarization in all three observations, with values of the phase-averaged polarization degree (PD) and polarization angle (PA) of $3.2\pm0.8$% and $97\deg\pm8\deg$ for Observation 1, $3.0\pm0.9$% and $90\deg\pm8\deg$ for Observation 2, and $5.5\pm1.1$% and $80\deg\pm6\deg$ for Observation 3, for the spectro-polarimetric analysis. The observed PD shows an increase over time with decreasing luminosity, while the PA decreases in decrements of 10\deg. The phase-resolved spectro-polarimetric analysis reveals significant detection of polarization in three out of seven phase bins, with the PD ranging between 2% and 10%, and a corresponding range in the PA from $\sim$70\deg\ to $\sim$100\deg. The pulse-phase resolved PD displays an apparent anti-correlation with the flux. Using the rotating vector model, we obtain constraints on the pulsar's geometrical properties for the individual observations. The position angle of the pulsar displays an evolution over time supporting the idea that we observe changes related to different super-orbital phases. Scattering in the wind of the precessing accretion disk may be responsible for the behavior of the polarimetric properties observed during the high-state of SMC X-1's super-orbital period., Comment: 11 pages, 11 figures, submitted to A&A

Published
2024

7. IXPE observation of PKS 2155-304 reveals the most highly polarized blazar

Author

Kouch, Pouya M., Liodakis, Ioannis, Middei, Riccardo, Kim, Dawoon E., Tavecchio, Fabrizio, Marscher, Alan P., Marshall, Herman L., Ehlert, Steven R., Di Gesu, Laura, Jorstad, Svetlana G., Agudo, Iván, Madejski, Grzegorz M., Romani, Roger W., Errando, Manel, Lindfors, Elina, Nilsson, Kari, Toppari, Ella, Potter, Stephen B., Imazawa, Ryo, Sasada, Mahito, Fukazawa, Yasushi, Kawabata, Koji S., Uemura, Makoto, Mizuno, Tsunefumi, Nakaoka, Tatsuya, Akitaya, Hiroshi, McCall, Callum, Jermak, Helen E., Steele, Iain A., Myserlis, Ioannis, Gurwell, Mark, Keating, Garrett K., Rao, Ramprasad, Kang, Sincheol, Lee, Sang-Sung, Kim, Sang-Hyun, Cheong, Whee Yeon, Jeong, Hyeon-Woo, Angelakis, Emmanouil, Kraus, Alexander, Aceituno, Francisco José, Bonnoli, Giacomo, Casanova, Víctor, Escudero, Juan, Agís-González, Beatriz, Husillos, César, Morcuende, Daniel, Otero-Santos, Jorge, Sota, Alfredo, Bachev, Rumen, Antonelli, Lucio Angelo, Bachetti, Matteo, Baldini, Luca, Baumgartner, Wayne H., Bellazzini, Ronaldo, Bianchi, Stefano, Bongiorno, Stephen D., Bonino, Raffaella, Brez, Alessandro, Bucciantini, Niccolò, Capitanio, Fiamma, Castellano, Simone, Cavazzuti, Elisabetta, Chen, Chien-Ting, Ciprini, Stefano, Costa, Enrico, De Rosa, Alessandra, Del Monte, Ettore, Di Lalla, Niccolò, Di Marco, Alessandro, Donnarumma, Immacolata, Doroshenko, Victor, Dovčiak, Michal, Enoto, Teruaki, Evangelista, Yuri, Fabiani, Sergio, Ferrazzoli, Riccardo, Garcia, Javier A., Gunji, Shuichi, Hayashida, Kiyoshi, Heyl, Jeremy, Iwakiri, Wataru, Kaaret, Philip, Karas, Vladimir, Kislat, Fabian, Kitaguchi, Takao, Kolodziejczak, Jeffery J., Krawczynski, Henric, La Monaca, Fabio, Latronico, Luca, Maldera, Simone, Manfreda, Alberto, Marin, Frédéric, Marinucci, Andrea, Massaro, Francesco, Matt, Giorgio, Mitsuishi, Ikuyuki, Muleri, Fabio, Negro, Michela, Ng, C. -Y., O'Dell, Stephen L., Omodei, Nicola, Oppedisano, Chiara, Papitto, Alessandro, Pavlov, George G., Peirson, Abel Lawrence, Perri, Matteo, Pesce-Rollins, Melissa, Petrucci, Pierre-Olivier, Pilia, Maura, Possenti, Andrea, Poutanen, Juri, Puccetti, Simonetta, Ramsey, Brian D., Rankin, John, Ratheesh, Ajay, Roberts, Oliver J., Sgrò, Carmelo, Slane, Patrick, Soffitta, Paolo, Spandre, Gloria, Swartz, Douglas A., Tamagawa, Toru, Taverna, Roberto, Tawara, Yuzuru, Tennant, Allyn F., Thomas, Nicholas E., Tombesi, Francesco, Trois, Alessio, Tsygankov, Sergey S., Turolla, Roberto, Vink, Jacco, Weisskopf, Martin C., Wu, Kinwah, Xie, Fei, and Zane, Silvia

Subjects
Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Abstract

We report the X-ray polarization properties of the high-synchrotron-peaked (HSP) blazar PKS 2155$-$304 based on observations with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE). We observed the source between Oct 27 and Nov 7, 2023. We also conducted an extensive contemporaneous multiwavelength (MW) campaign. We find that during the first half ($T_1$) of the IXPE pointing, the source exhibited the highest X-ray polarization degree detected for an HSP blazar thus far, (30.7$\pm$2.0)%, which dropped to (15.3$\pm$2.1)% during the second half ($T_2$). The X-ray polarization angle remained stable during the IXPE pointing at 129.4$^\circ$$\pm$1.8$^\circ$ and 125.4$^\circ$$\pm$3.9$^\circ$ during $T_1$ and $T_2$, respectively. Meanwhile, the optical polarization degree remained stable during the IXPE pointing, with average host-galaxy-corrected values of (4.3$\pm$0.7)% and (3.8$\pm$0.9)% during the $T_1$ and $T_2$, respectively. During the IXPE pointing, the optical polarization angle changed achromatically from $\sim$140$^\circ$ to $\sim$90$^\circ$ and back to $\sim$130$^\circ$. Despite several attempts, we only detected (99.7% conf.) the radio polarization once (during $T_2$, at 225.5 GHz): with degree (1.7$\pm$0.4)% and angle 112.5$^\circ$$\pm$5.5$^\circ$. The direction of the broad pc-scale jet is rather ambiguous and has been found to point to the east and south at different epochs; however, on larger scales (> 1.5 pc) the jet points toward the southeast ($\sim$135$^\circ$), similar to all of the MW polarization angles. Moreover, the X-ray to optical polarization degree ratios of $\sim$7 and $\sim$4 during $T_1$ and $T_2$, respectively, are similar to previous IXPE results for several HSP blazars. These findings, combined with the lack of correlation of temporal variability between the MW polarization properties, agree with an energy-stratified shock-acceleration scenario in HSP blazars., Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures, 4 tables, Accepted for publication in A&A

Published
2024

8. X-rays from the Nearby Compact Emission Line Galaxy NGC 2366

Author

Kaaret, Philip and Prestwich, Andrea

Subjects
Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Abstract

Luminous, compact emission-line galaxies (LCGs) are the most abundant class of confirmed Lyman continuum (LyC) emitters. An optical integral field study of the nearby LCG NGC 2366 reveals an outflow originating at the star cluster 'knot B' thought to clear a channel via mechanical feedback that enables LyC escape. We observed NGC 2366 with the Chandra X-ray Observatory and detect X-ray emission from a point source coincident with the apex of the outflow at knot B. The point-like nature and variability of the X-ray emission suggests accretion onto a compact object. The accretion could produce sufficient kinetic energy to power the outflow., Comment: 5 pages, to appear in ApJ

Published
2024

9. Studying geometry of the ultraluminous X-ray pulsar Swift J0243.6+6124 using X-ray and optical polarimetry

Author

Poutanen, Juri, Tsygankov, Sergey S., Doroshenko, Victor, Forsblom, Sofia V., Jenke, Peter, Kaaret, Philip, Berdyugin, Andrei V., Blinov, Dmitry, Kravtsov, Vadim, Liodakis, Ioannis, Tzouvanou, Anastasia, Di Marco, Alessandro, Heyl, Jeremy, La Monaca, Fabio, Mushtukov, Alexander A., Pavlov, George G., Salganik, Alexander, Veledina, Alexandra, Weisskopf, Martin C., Zane, Silvia, Loktev, Vladislav, Suleimanov, Valery F., Wilson-Hodge, Colleen, Berdyugina, Svetlana V., Kagitani, Masato, Piirola, Vilppu, Sakanoi, Takeshi, Agudo, Ivan, Antonelli, Lucio A., Bachetti, Matteo, Baldini, Luca, Baumgartner, Wayne H., Bellazzini, Ronaldo, Bianchi, Stefano, Bongiorno, Stephen D., Bonino, Raffaella, Brez, Alessandro, Bucciantini, Niccolo, Capitanio, Fiamma, Castellano, Simone, Cavazzuti, Elisabetta, Chen, Chien-Ting, Ciprini, Stefano, Costa, Enrico, De Rosa, Alessandra, Del Monte, Ettore, Di Gesu, Laura, Di Lalla, Niccolo, Donnarumma, Immacolata, Dovciak, Michal, Ehlert, Steven R., Enoto, Teruaki, Evangelista, Yuri, Fabiani, Sergio, Ferrazzoli, Riccardo, Garcia, Javier A., Gunji, Shuichi, Hayashida, Kiyoshi, Iwakiri, Wataru, Jorstad, Svetlana G., Karas, Vladimir, Kislat, Fabian, Kitaguchi, Takao, Kolodziejczak, Jeffery J., Latronico, Luca, Maldera, Simone, Manfreda, Alberto, Marin, Frederic, Marinucci, Andrea, Marscher, Alan P., Marshall, Herman L., Massaro, Francesco, Matt, Giorgio, Mitsuishi, Ikuyuki, Mizuno, Tsunefumi, Muleri, Fabio, Negro, Michela, Ng, Chi-Yung, O'Dell, Stephen L., Omodei, Nicola, Oppedisano, Chiara, Papitto, Alessandro, Peirson, Abel L., Perri, Matteo, Pesce-Rollins, Melissa, Petrucci, Pierre-Olivier, Pilia, Maura, Possenti, Andrea, Puccetti, Simonetta, Ramsey, Brian D., Rankin, John, Ratheesh, Ajay, Roberts, Oliver J., Romani, Roger W., Sgro, Carmelo, Slane, Patrick, Soffitta, Paolo, Spandre, Gloria, Swartz, Douglas A., Tamagawa, Toru, Tavecchio, Fabrizio, Taverna, Roberto, Tawara, Yuzuru, Tennant, Allyn F., Thomas, Nicholas E., Tombesi, Francesco, Trois, Alessio, Turolla, Roberto, Vink, Jacco, Wu, Kinwah, and Xie, Fei

Subjects
Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena, Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Abstract

Discovery of pulsations from a number of ultra-luminous X-ray (ULX) sources proved that accretion onto neutron stars can produce luminosities exceeding the Eddington limit by a couple of orders of magnitude. The conditions necessary to achieve such high luminosities as well as the exact geometry of the accretion flow in the neutron star vicinity are, however, a matter of debate. The pulse phase-resolved polarization measurements that became possible with the launch of the IXPE can be used to determine the pulsar geometry and its orientation relative to the orbital plane. They provide an avenue to test different theoretical models of ULX pulsars. In this paper we present the results of three IXPE observations of the first Galactic ULX pulsar Swift J0243.6+6124 during its 2023 outburst. We find strong variations of the polarization characteristics with the pulsar phase. The average polarization degree increases from about 5% to 15% as the flux dropped by a factor of three in the course of the outburst. The polarization angle (PA) as function of the pulsar phase shows two peaks in the first two observations, but changes to a characteristic sawtooth pattern in the remaining data set. This is not consistent with a simple rotating vector model. Assuming the existence of an additional constant polarized component, we were able to fit the three observations with a common rotating vector model and obtain constraints on the pulsar geometry. In particular, we find the pulsar angular momentum inclination with respect to the line-of-sight of 15-40 deg, the magnetic obliquity of 60-80 deg, and the pulsar spin position angle of -50 deg, which differs from the constant component PA of about 10 deg. Combining these X-ray measurements with the optical PA, we find evidence for a 30 deg misalignment between the pulsar spin and the binary orbital axis., Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures, submitted to A&A

Published
2024

10. Discovery of a shock-compressed magnetic field in the north-western rim of the young supernova remnant RX J1713.7-3946 with X-ray polarimetry

Author

Ferrazzoli, Riccardo, Prokhorov, Dmitry, Bucciantini, Niccolò, Slane, Patrick, Vink, Jacco, Cardillo, Martina, Yang, Yi-Jung, Silvestri, Stefano, Zhou, Ping, Costa, Enrico, Omodei, Nicola, Ng, C. -Y., Soffitta, Paolo, Weisskopf, Martin C., Baldini, Luca, Di Marco, Alessandro, Doroshenko, Victor, Heyl, Jeremy, Kaaret, Philip, Kim, Dawoon E., Marin, Frédéric, Mizuno, Tsunefumi, Pesce-Rollins, Melissa, Sgrò, Carmelo, Swartz, Douglas A., Tamagawa, Toru, Xie, Fei, Agudo, Iván, Antonelli, Lucio A., Bachetti, Matteo, Baumgartner, Wayne H., Bellazzini, Ronaldo, Bianchi, Stefano, Bongiorno, Stephen D., Bonino, Raffaella, Brez, Alessandro, Capitanio, Fiamma, Castellano, Simone, Cavazzuti, Elisabetta, Chen, Chien-Ting, Ciprini, Stefano, De Rosa, Alessandra, Del Monte, Ettore, Di Gesu, Laura, Di Lalla, Niccolò, Donnarumma, Immacolata, Dovčiak, Michal, Ehlert, Steven R., Enoto, Teruaki, Evangelista, Yuri, Fabiani, Sergio, Garcia, Javier A., Gunji, Shuichi, Hayashida, Kiyoshi, Iwakiri, Wataru, Jorstad, Svetlana G., Karas, Vladimir, Kislat, Fabian, Kitaguchi, Takao, Kolodziejczak, Jeffery J., Krawczynski, Henric, La Monaca, Fabio, Latronico, Luca, Liodakis, Ioannis, Maldera, Simone, Manfreda, Alberto, Marinucci, Andrea, Marscher, Alan P., Marshall, Herman L., Massaro, Francesco, Matt, Giorgio, Mitsuishi, Ikuyuki, Muleri, Fabio, Negro, Michela, O'Dell, Stephen L., Oppedisano, Chiara, Papitto, Alessandro, Pavlov, George G., Peirson, Abel L., Perri, Matteo, Petrucci, Pierre-Olivier, Pilia, Maura, Possenti, Andrea, Poutanen, Juri, Puccetti, Simonetta, Ramsey, Brian D., Rankin, John, Ratheesh, Ajay, Roberts, Oliver J., Romani, Roger W., Spandre, Gloria, Tavecchio, Fabrizio, Taverna, Roberto, Tawara, Yuzuru, Tennant, Allyn F., Thomas, Nicholas E., Tombesi, Francesco, Trois, Alessio, Tsygankov, Sergey S., Turolla, Roberto, Wu, Kinwah, and Zane, Silvia

Subjects
Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena, Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies
Abstract

Supernova remnants (SNRs) provide insights into cosmic-ray acceleration and magnetic field dynamics at shock fronts. Recent X-ray polarimetric measurements by the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) have revealed radial magnetic fields near particle acceleration sites in young SNRs, including Cassiopeia A, Tycho, and SN 1006. We present here the spatially-resolved IXPE X-ray polarimetric observation of the northwestern rim of SNR RX J1713.7-3946. For the first time, our analysis shows that the magnetic field in particle acceleration sites of this SNR is oriented tangentially with respect to the shock front. Because of the lack of precise Faraday-rotation measurements in the radio band, this was not possible before. The average measured polarization degree (PD) of the synchtrotron emission is 12.5 {\pm} 3.3%, lower than the one measured by IXPE in SN 1006, comparable to the Tycho one, but notably higher than the one in Cassiopeia A. On sub-parsec scales, localized patches within RX J1713.7-3946 display PD up to 41.5 {\pm} 9.5%. These results are compatible with a shock-compressed magnetic field. However, in order to explain the observed PD, either the presence of a radial net magnetic field upstream of the shock, or partial reisotropization of the turbulence downstream by radial magneto-hydrodynamical instabilities, can be invoked. From comparison of PD and magnetic field distribution with {\gamma}-rays and 12 CO data, our results provide new inputs in favor of a leptonic origin of the {\gamma}-ray emission., Comment: 18 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables, published in ApJ Letters

Published
2024
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11. Recovery of the X-ray polarisation of Swift J1727.8$-$1613 after the soft-to-hard spectral transition

Author

Podgorný, J., Svoboda, J., Dovčiak, M., Veledina, A., Poutanen, J., Kaaret, P., Bianchi, S., Ingram, A., Capitanio, F., Datta, S. R., Egron, E., Krawczynski, H., Matt, G., Muleri, F., Petrucci, P. -O., Russell, T. D., Steiner, J. F., Bollemeijer, N., Brigitte, M., Segura, N. Castro, Emami, R., García, J. A., Hu, K., Iacolina, M. N., Kravtsov, V., Marra, L., Mastroserio, G., Muñoz-Darias, T., Nathan, E., Negro, M., Ratheesh, A., Cavero, N. Rodriguez, Taverna, R., Tombesi, F., Yang, Y. J., Zhang, W., and Zhang, Y.

Subjects
Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Abstract

We report on the detection of X-ray polarisation in the black-hole X-ray binary Swift J1727.8$-$1613 during its dim hard spectral state by the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE). This is the first detection of X-ray polarisation at the transition from the soft to the hard state in an X-ray binary. We find an averaged 2$-$8 keV polarisation degree of (3.3 ${\pm}$ 0.4) % and a corresponding polarisation angle of 3{\deg} ${\pm}$ 4{\deg}, which matches the polarisation detected during the rising stage of the outburst, in September$-$October 2023, within 1${\sigma}$ uncertainty. The observational campaign complements previous studies of this source and enables comparison of the X-ray polarisation properties of a single transient across the X-ray hardness-intensity diagram. The complete recovery of the X-ray polarisation properties, including the energy dependence, came after a dramatic drop in the X-ray polarisation during the soft state. The new IXPE observations in the dim hard state at the reverse transition indicate that the accretion properties, including the geometry of the corona, appear to be strikingly similar to the bright hard state during the outburst rise despite the X-ray luminosities differing by two orders of magnitude., Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures. Accepted for publication in A&A Letters

Published
2024
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12. Dramatic Drop in the X-Ray Polarization of Swift J1727.8$-$1613 in the Soft Spectral State

Author

Svoboda, Jiří, Dovčiak, Michal, Steiner, James F., Kaaret, Philip, Podgorný, Jakub, Poutanen, Juri, Veledina, Alexandra, Muleri, Fabio, Taverna, Roberto, Krawczynski, Henric, Brigitte, Maïmouna, Datta, Sudeb Ranjan, Bianchi, Stefano, Segura, Noel Castro, García, Javier A., Ingram, Adam, Matt, Giorgio, Muñoz-Darias, Teo, Nathan, Edward, Weisskopf, Martin C., Altamirano, Diego, Baldini, Luca, Bollemeijer, Niek, Capitanio, Fiamma, Egron, Elise, Emami, Razieh, Hu, Kun, Marra, Lorenzo, Mastroserio, Guglielmo, Negro, Michela, Petrucci, Pierre-Olivier, Ratheesh, Ajay, Cavero, Nicole Rodriguez, Soffitta, Paolo, Tombesi, Francesco, Yang, Yi-Jung, and Zhang, Yuexin

Subjects
Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Abstract

Black-hole X-ray binaries exhibit different spectral and timing properties in different accretion states. The X-ray outburst of a recently discovered and extraordinarily bright source, Swift$~$J1727.8$-$1613, has enabled the first investigation of how the X-ray polarization properties of a source evolve with spectral state. The 2$-$8 keV polarization degree was previously measured by the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) to be $\approx$ 4% in the hard and hard intermediate states. Here we present new IXPE results taken in the soft state, with the X-ray flux dominated by the thermal accretion-disk emission. We find that the polarization degree has dropped dramatically to $\lesssim$ 1%. This result indicates that the measured X-ray polarization is largely sensitive to the accretion state and the polarization fraction is significantly higher in the hard state when the X-ray emission is dominated by up-scattered radiation in the X-ray corona. The combined polarization measurements in the soft and hard states disfavor a very high or low inclination of the system., Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures

Published
2024
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13. X-ray polarization measurement of the gold standard of radio-quiet active galactic nuclei : NGC 1068

Author

Marin, F., Marinucci, A., Laurenti, M., Kim, D. E., Barnouin, T., Di Marco, A., Ursini, F., Bianchi, S., Ravi, S., Marshall, H. L., Matt, G., Chen, C. -T., Gianolli, V. E., Ingram, A., Maksym, W. P., Panagiotou, C., Podgorny, J., Puccetti, S., Ratheesh, A., Tombesi, F., Agudo, I., Antonelli, L. A., Bachetti, M., Baldini, L., Baumgartner, W., Bellazzini, R., Bongiorno, S., Bonino, R., Brez, A., Bucciantini, N., Capitanio, F., Castellano, S., Cavazzuti, E., Ciprini, S., Costa, E., De Rosa, A., Del Monte, E., Di Gesu, L., Di Lalla, N., Donnarumma, I., Doroshenko, V., Dovciak, M., Ehlert, S., Enoto, T., Evangelista, Y., Fabiani, S., Ferrazzoli, R., Garcia, J., Gunji, S., Heyl, J., Iwakiri, W., Jorstad, S., Kaaret, P., Karas, V., Kislat, F., Kitaguchi, T., Kolodziejczak, J., Krawczynski, H., La Monaca, F., Latronico, L., Liodakis, I., Madejski, G., Maldera, S., Manfreda, A., Marscher, A., Massaro, F., Mitsuishi, I., Mizuno, T., Muleri, F., Negro, M., Ng, S., O'Dell, S., Omodei, N., Oppedisano, C., Papitto, A., Pavlov, G., Perri, M., Pesce-Rollins, M., Petrucci, P. -O., Pilia, M., Possenti, A., Poutanen, J., Ramsey, B., Rankin, J., Roberts, O., Romani, R., Sgro, C., Slane, P., Soffitta, P., Spandre, G., Swartz, D., Tamagawa, T., Tavecchio, F., Taverna, R., Tawara, Y., Tennant, A., Thomas, N., Trois, A., Tsygankov, S., Turolla, R., Vink, J., Weisskopf, M., Wu, K., Xie, F., and Zane, S.

Subjects
Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena, Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies, J.2.3, J.2.9
Abstract

We used the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) satellite to measure, for the first time, the 2-8 keV polarization of NGC 1068. We pointed IXPE for a net exposure time of 1.15 Ms on the target, in addition to two ~ 10 ks each Chandra snapshots in order to account for the potential impact of several ultraluminous X-ray source (ULXs) within IXPE's field-of-view. We measured a 2 - 8 keV polarization degree of 12.4% +/- 3.6% and an electric vector polarization angle of 101{\deg} +/- 8{\deg} at 68% confidence level. If we exclude the spectral region containing the bright Fe K lines and other soft X-ray lines where depolarization occurs, the polarization fraction rises up to 21.3% +/- 6.7% in the 3.5 - 6.0 keV band, with a similar polarization angle. The observed polarization angle is found to be perpendicular to the parsec scale radio jet. Using a combined Chandra and IXPE analysis plus multi-wavelength constraints, we estimated that the circumnuclear "torus" may sustain a half-opening angle of 50{\deg} - 55{\deg} (from the vertical axis of the system). Thanks to IXPE, we have measured the X-ray polarization of NGC 1068 and found comparable results, both in terms of polarization angle orientation with respect to the radio-jet and torus half-opening angle, to the X-ray polarimetric measurement achieved for the other archetypal Compton-thick AGN : the Circinus galaxy. Probing the geometric arrangement of parsec-scale matter in extragalactic object is now feasible thanks to X-ray polarimetry., Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables, submited to A&A

Published
2024

14. First detection of polarization in X-rays for PSR B0540-69 and its nebula

Author

Xie, Fei, Wong, Josephine, La Monaca, Fabio, Romani, Roger W., Heyl, Jeremy, Kaaret, Philip, Di Marco, Alessandro, Bucciantini, Niccolò, Liu, Kuan, Ng, Chi-Yung, Di Lalla, Niccolò, Weisskopf, Martin C., Costa, Enrico, Soffitta, Paolo, Muleri, Fabio, Bachetti, Matteo, Pilia, Maura, Rankin, John, Fabiani, Sergio, Agudo, Iván, Antonelli, Lucio A., Baldini, Luca, Baumgartner, Wayne H., Bellazzini, Ronaldo, Bianchi, Stefano, Bongiorno, Stephen D., Bonino, Raffaella, Brez, Alessandro, Capitanio, Fiamma, Castellano, Simone, Cavazzuti, Elisabetta, Chen, Chien-Ting, Ciprini, Stefano, De Rosa, Alessandra, Del Monte, Ettore, Di Gesu, Laura, Donnarumma, Immacolata, Doroshenko, Victor, Dovčiak, Michal, Ehlert, Steven R., Enoto, Teruaki, Evangelista, Yuri, Ferrazzoli, Riccardo, Garcia, Javier A., Gunji, Shuichi, Hayashida, Kiyoshi, Iwakiri, Wataru, Jorstad, Svetlana G., Karas, Vladimir, Kislat, Fabian, Kitaguchi, Takao, Kolodziejczak, Jeffery J., Krawczynski, Henric, Latronico, Luca, Liodakis, Ioannis, Maldera, Simone, Manfreda, Alberto, Marin, Frédéric, Marinucci, Andrea, Marscher, Alan P., Marshall, Herman L., Massaro, Francesco, Matt, Giorgio, Mitsuishi, Ikuyuki, Mizuno, Tsunefumi, Negro, Michela, O'Dell, Stephen L., Omodei, Nicola, Oppedisano, Chiara, Papitto, Alessandro, Pavlov, George G., Peirson, Abel L., Perri, Matteo, Pesce-Rollins, Melissa, Petrucci, Pierre-Olivier, Possenti, Andrea, Poutanen, Juri, Puccetti, Simonetta, Ramsey, Brian D., Ratheesh, Ajay, Roberts, Oliver J., Sgrò, Carmelo, Slane, Patrick, Spandre, Gloria, Swartz, Douglas A., Tamagawa, Toru, Tavecchio, Fabrizio, Taverna, Roberto, Tawara, Yuzuru, Tennant, Allyn F., Thomas, Nicholas E., Tombesi, Francesco, Trois, Alessio, Tsygankov, Sergey S., Turolla, Roberto, Vink, Jacco, Wu, Kinwah, Zane, Silvia, Wadiasingh, Zorawar, Ho, Wynn C. G., Harding, Alice K., Gendreau, Keith C., and Arzoumanian, Zaven

Subjects
Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Abstract

We report on X-ray polarization measurements of the extra-galactic Crab-like PSR B0540-69 and its Pulsar Wind Nebula (PWN) in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), using a ~850 ks Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) exposure. The PWN is unresolved by IXPE. No statistically significant polarization is detected for the image-averaged data, giving a 99% confidence polarization upper limit (MDP99) of 5.3% in 2-8 keV energy range. However, a phase-resolved analysis detects polarization for both the nebula and pulsar in the 4-6 keV energy range. For the PWN defined as the off-pulse phases, the polarization degree (PD) of (24.5 ${\pm}$ 5.3)% and polarization angle (PA) of (78.1 ${\pm}$ 6.2){\deg} is detected at 4.6${\sigma}$ significance level, consistent with the PA observed in the optical band. In a single on-pulse window, a hint of polarization is measured at 3.8${\sigma}$ with polarization degree of (50.0 ${\pm}$ 13.1)% and polarization angle of (6.2 ${\pm}$ 7.4){\deg}. A 'simultaneous' PSR/PWN analysis finds two bins at the edges of the pulse exceeding 3${\sigma}$ PD significance, with PD of (68 ${\pm}$ 20)% and (62 ${\pm}$ 20)%; intervening bins at 2-3${\sigma}$ significance have lower PD, hinting at additional polarization structure., Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, 4 tables, author's version of the paper accepted for publication in ApJ

Published
2024

15. Discovery of a strong rotation of the X-ray polarization angle in the galactic burster GX 13+1

Author

Bobrikova, Anna, Forsblom, Sofia V., Di Marco, Alessandro, La Monaca, Fabio, Poutanen, Juri, Ng, Mason, Ravi, Swati, Loktev, Vladislav, Kajava, Jari J. E., Ursini, Francesco, Veledina, Alexandra, Rogantini, Daniele, Salmi, Tuomo, Bianchi, Stefano, Capitanio, Fiamma, Done, Chris, Fabiani, Sergio, Gnarini, Andrea, Heyl, Jeremy, Kaaret, Philip, Matt, Giorgio, Muleri, Fabio, Nitindala, Anagha P., Rankin, John, Weisskopf, Martin C., Agudo, Ivan, Antonelli, Lucio A., Bachetti, Matteo, Baldini, Luca, Baumgartner, Wayne H., Bellazzini, Ronaldo, Bongiorno, Stephen D., Bonino, Raffaella, Brez, Alessandro, Bucciantini, Niccolo, Castellano, Simone, Cavazzuti, Elisabetta, Chen, Chien-Ting, Ciprini, Stefano, Costa, Enrico, De Rosa, Alessandra, Del Monte, Ettore, Di Gesu, Laura, Di Lalla, Niccolo, Donnarumma, Immacolata, Doroshenko, Victor, Dovciak, Michal, Ehlert, Steven R., Enoto, Teruaki, Evangelista, Yuri, Ferrazzoli, Riccardo, Garcia, Javier A., Gunji, Shuichi, Hayashida, Kiyoshi, Iwakiri, Wataru, Jorstad, Svetlana G., Karas, Vladimir, Kislat, Fabian, Kitaguchi, Takao, Kolodziejczak, Jeffery J., Krawczynski, Henric, Latronico, Luca, Liodakis, Ioannis, Maldera, Simone, Manfreda, Alberto, Marin, Frederic, Marinucci, Andrea, Marscher, Alan P., Marshall, Herman L., Massaro, Francesco, Mitsuishi, Ikuyuki, Mizuno, Tsunefumi, Negro, Michela, Ng, Chi-Yung, O'Dell, Stephen L., Omodei, Nicola, Oppedisano, Chiara, Papitto, Alessandro, Pavlov, George G., Peirson, Abel L., Perri, Matteo, Pesce-Rollins, Melissa, Petrucci, Pierre-Olivier, Pilia, Maura, Possenti, Andrea, Puccetti, Simonetta, Ramsey, Brian D., Ratheesh, Ajay J., Roberts, Oliver, Romani, Roger W., Sgro, Carmelo, Slane, Patrick, Soffitta, Paolo, Spandre, Gloria, Swartz, Douglas A., Tamagawa, Toru, Tavecchio, Fabrizio, Taverna, Roberto, Tawara, Yuzuru, Tennant, Allyn F., Thomas, Nicholas E., Tombesi, Francesco, Trois, Alessio, Tsygankov, Sergey S., Turolla, Roberto, Vink, Jacco, Wu, Kinwah, Xie, Fei, and Zane, Silvia

Subjects
Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Abstract

Weakly magnetized neutron stars in X-ray binaries show complex phenomenology with several spectral components that can be associated with the accretion disk, boundary and/or spreading layer, a corona, and a wind. Spectroscopic information alone is, however, not enough to disentangle these components. Additional information about the nature of the spectral components and in particular the geometry of the emission region can be provided by X-ray polarimetry. One of the objects of the class, a bright, persistent, and rather peculiar galactic Type I X-ray burster was observed with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) and the X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission Newton (XMM-Newton). Using the XMM-Newton data we estimated the current state of the source as well as detected strong absorption lines associated with the accretion disk wind. IXPE data showed the source to be significantly polarized in the 2-8 keV energy band with the overall polarization degree (PD) of 1.4% at a polarization angle (PA) of -2 degrees (errors at 68% confidence level). During the two-day long observation, we detected rotation of the PA by about 70 degrees with the corresponding changes in the PD from 2% to non-detectable and then up to 5%. These variations in polarization properties are not accompanied by visible changes in spectroscopic characteristics. The energy-resolved polarimetric analysis showed a significant change in polarization, from being strongly dependent on energy at the beginning of the observation to being almost constant with energy in the later parts of the observation. As a possible interpretation, we suggest the presence of a constant component of polarization, strong wind scattering, or different polarization of the two main spectral components with individually peculiar behavior. The rotation of the PA suggests a 30-degree misalignment of the neutron star spin from the orbital axis., Comment: 12 pages, 12 figures, submitted to A&A

Published
2024

16. Detection of X-ray Polarization from the Blazar 1ES 1959+650 with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer

Author

Errando, Manel, Liodakis, Ioannis, Marscher, Alan P., Marshall, Herman L., Middei, Riccardo, Negro, Michela, Peirson, Abel Lawrence, Perri, Matteo, Puccetti, Simonetta, Rabinowitz, Pazit L., Agudo, Iván, Jorstad, Svetlana G., Savchenko, Sergey S., Blinov, Dmitry, Bourbah, Ioakeim G., Kiehlmann, Sebastian, Kontopodis, Evangelos, Mandarakas, Nikos, Romanopoulos, Stylianos, Skalidis, Raphael, Vervelaki, Anna, Aceituno, Francisco José, Bernardos, Maria I., Bonnoli, Giacomo, Casanova, Víctor, Agís-González, Beatriz, Husillos, César, Marchini, Alessandro, Sota, Alfredo, Kouch, Pouya M., Lindfors, Elina, Casadio, Carolina, Escudero, Juan, Myserlis, Ioannis, Imazawa, Ryo, Sasada, Mahito, Fukazawa, Yasushi, Kawabata, Koji S., Uemura, Makoto, Mizuno, Tsunefumi, Nakaoka, Tatsuya, Akitaya, Hiroshi, Gurwell, Mark, Keating, Garrett K., Rao, Ramprasad, Ingram, Adam, Massaro, Francesco, Antonelli, Lucio Angelo, Bonino, Raffaella, Cavazzuti, Elisabetta, Chen, Chien-Ting, Cibrario, Nicolò, Ciprini, Stefano, De Rosa, Alessandra, Di Gesu, Laura, Di Pierro, Federico, Donnarumma, Immacolata, Ehlert, Steven R., Fenu, Francesco, Gau, Ephraim, Karas, Vladimir, Kim, Dawoon E., Krawczynski, Henric, Laurenti, Marco, Lisalda, Lindsey, López-Coto, Rubén, Madejski, Grzegorz, Marin, Frédéric, Marinucci, Andrea, Mitsuishi, Ikuyuki, Muleri, Fabio, Pacciani, Luigi, Paggi, Alessandro, Petrucci, Pierre-Olivier, Cavero, Nicole Rodriguez, Romani, Roger W., Tavecchio, Fabrizio, Tugliani, Stefano, Wu, Kinwah, Bachetti, Matteo, Baldini, Luca, Baumgartner, Wayne H., Bellazzini, Ronaldo, Bianchi, Stefano, Bongiorno, Stephen D., Brez, Alessandro, Bucciantini, Niccolò, Capitanio, Fiamma, Castellano, Simone, Costa, Enrico, Del Monte, Ettore, Di Lalla, Niccolò, Di Marco, Alessandro, Doroshenko, Victor, Dovčiak, Michal, Enoto, Teruaki, Evangelista, Yuri, Fabiani, Sergio, Ferrazzoli, Riccardo, Garcia, Javier A., Gunji, Shuichi, Hayashida, Kiyoshi, Heyl, Jeremy, Iwakiri, Wataru, Kaaret, Philip, Kislat, Fabian, Kitaguchi, Takao, Kolodziejczak, Jeffery J., La Monaca, Fabio, Latronico, Luca, Maldera, Simone, Manfreda, Alberto, Matt, Giorgio, Ng, C. -Y., O'Dell, Stephen L., Omodei, Nicola, Oppedisano, Chiara, Papitto, Alessandro, Pavlov, George G., Pesce-Rollins, Melissa, Pilia, Maura, Possenti, Andrea, Poutanen, Juri, Ramsey, Brian D., Rankin, John, Ratheesh, Ajay, Roberts, Oliver J., Sgrò, Carmelo, Slane, Patrick, Soffitta, Paolo, Spandre, Gloria, Swartz, Douglas A., Tamagawa, Toru, Taverna, Roberto, Tawara, Yuzuru, Tennant, Allyn F., Thomas, Nicholas E., Tombesi, Francesco, Trois, Alessio, Tsygankov, Sergey S., Turolla, Roberto, Vink, Jacco, Weisskopf, Martin C., Xie, Fei, and Zane, Silvia

Subjects
Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Abstract

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 blazars. These jets, particularly in blazars whose spectral energy distribution peaks at X-ray energies, emit X-rays via synchrotron radiation from high-energy particles within the jet. IXPE observations of the X-ray selected BL Lac-type blazar 1ES 1959+650 in 2022 May 3-4 showed a significant linear polarization degree of $\Pi_\mathrm{x} = 8.0\% \pm 2.3\%$ at an electric-vector position angle $\psi_\mathrm{x} = 123^\circ \pm 8^\circ$. However, in 2022 June 9-12, only an upper limit of $\Pi_\mathrm{x} \leq 5.1\%$ could be derived (at the 99% confidence level). The degree of optical polarization at that time $\Pi_\mathrm{O} \sim 5\%$ is comparable to the X-ray measurement. We investigate possible scenarios for these findings, including temporal and geometrical depolarization effects. Unlike some other X-ray selected BL Lac objects, there is no significant chromatic dependence of the measured polarization in 1ES 1959+650, and its low X-ray polarization may be attributed to turbulence in the jet flow with dynamical timescales shorter than 1 day., Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal

Published
2024
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17. An Angular Diameter Measurement of $\beta$ UMa via Stellar Intensity Interferometry with the VERITAS Observatory

Author

Acharyya, A., Aufdenberg, J. P., Bangale, P., Bartkoske, J. T., Batista, P., Benbow, W., Chromey, A. J., Davis, J. D., Feng, Q., Foote, G. M., Furniss, A., Hanlon, W., Hinrichs, C. E., Holder, J., Jin, W., Kaaret, P., Kertzman, M., Kieda, D., Kleiner, T. K., Korzoun, N., LeBohec, T., Lisa, M. A., Lundy, M., Matthews, N., McGrath, C. E, Millard, M. J., Moriarty, P., Nikkhah, S., O'Brien, S., Ong, R. A., Pohl, M., Pueschel, E., Quinn, J., Rabinowitz, P. L., Ragan, K., Roache, E., Rose, J. G., Sackrider, J. L., Sadeh, I., Saha, L., Sembroski, G. H., Shang, R., Tak, D., Ticoras, M., Tucci, J. V., Wong, S. L., and Collaboration, The VERITAS

Subjects
Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics, Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Abstract

We use the VERITAS imaging air Cherenkov Telescope (IACT) array to obtain the first measured angular diameter of $\beta$ UMa at visual wavelengths using stellar intensity interferometry (SII) and independently constrain the limb-darkened angular diameter. The age of the Ursa Major moving group has been assessed from the ages of its members, including nuclear member Merak ($\beta$ UMa), an A1-type subgiant, by comparing effective temperature and luminosity constraints to model stellar evolution tracks. Previous interferometric limb-darkened angular-diameter measurements of $\beta$ UMa in the near-infrared (CHARA Array, $1.149 \pm 0.014$ mas) and mid-infrared (Keck Nuller, $1.08 \pm 0.07$ mas), together with the measured parallax and bolometric flux, have constrained the effective temperature. This paper presents current VERITAS-SII observation and analysis procedures to derive squared visibilities from correlation functions. We fit the resulting squared visibilities to find a limb-darkened angular diameter of $1.07 \pm 0.04 {\rm (stat)} \pm 0.05$ (sys) mas, using synthetic visibilities from a stellar atmosphere model that provides a good match to the spectrum of $\beta$ UMa in the optical wave band. The VERITAS-SII limb-darkened angular diameter yields an effective temperature of $9700\pm200\pm 200$ K, consistent with ultraviolet spectrophotometry, and an age of $390\pm 29 \pm 32 $ Myr, using MESA Isochrones and Stellar Tracks (MIST). This age is consistent with $408 \pm 6$ Myr from the CHARA Array angular diameter.

Published
2024

18. Picosecond volume expansion drives a later-time insulator–metal transition in a nano-textured Mott insulator

Author

Verma, Anita, Golež, Denis, Gorobtsov, Oleg Yu., Kaj, Kelson, Russell, Ryan, Kaaret, Jeffrey Z., Lamb, Erik, Khalsa, Guru, Nair, Hari P., Sun, Yifei, Bouck, Ryan, Schreiber, Nathaniel, Ruf, Jacob P., Ramaprasad, Varun, Kubota, Yuya, Togashi, Tadashi, Stoica, Vladimir A., Padmanabhan, Hari, Freeland, John W., Benedek, Nicole A., Shpyrko, Oleg G., Harter, John W., Averitt, Richard D., Schlom, Darrell G., Shen, Kyle M., Millis, Andrew J., and Singer, Andrej

Published
2024
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19. An IXPE-led X-Ray Spectropolarimetric Campaign on the Soft State of Cygnus X-1: X-Ray Polarimetric Evidence for Strong Gravitational Lensing

Author

James F. Steiner, Edward Nathan, Kun Hu, Henric Krawczynski, Michal Dovčiak, Alexandra Veledina, Fabio Muleri, Jiri Svoboda, Kevin Alabarta, Maxime Parra, Yash Bhargava, Giorgio Matt, Juri Poutanen, Pierre-Olivier Petrucci, Allyn F. Tennant, M. Cristina Baglio, Luca Baldini, Samuel Barnier, Sudip Bhattacharyya, Stefano Bianchi, Maimouna Brigitte, Mauricio Cabezas, Floriane Cangemi, Fiamma Capitanio, Jacob Casey, Nicole Rodriguez Cavero, Simone Castellano, Elisabetta Cavazzuti, Sohee Chun, Eugene Churazov, Enrico Costa, Niccolò Di Lalla, Alessandro Di Marco, Elise Egron, Melissa Ewing, Sergio Fabiani, Javier A. García, David A. Green, Victoria Grinberg, Petr Hadrava, Adam Ingram, Philip Kaaret, Fabian Kislat, Takao Kitaguchi, Vadim Kravtsov, Brankica Kubátová, Fabio La Monaca, Luca Latronico, Vladislav Loktev, Christian Malacaria, Frédéric Marin, Andrea Marinucci, Olga Maryeva, Guglielmo Mastroserio, Tsunefumi Mizuno, Michela Negro, Nicola Omodei, Jakub Podgorný, John Rankin, Ajay Ratheesh, Lauren Rhodes, David M. Russell, Miroslav Šlechta, Paolo Soffitta, Sean Spooner, Valery Suleimanov, Francesco Tombesi, Sergei A. Trushkin, Martin C. Weisskopf, Silvia Zane, Andrzej A. Zdziarski, Sixuan Zhang, Wenda Zhang, Menglei Zhou, Iván Agudo, Lucio A. Antonelli, Matteo Bachetti, Wayne H. Baumgartner, Ronaldo Bellazzini, Stephen D. Bongiorno, Raffaella Bonino, Alessandro Brez, Niccolò Bucciantini, Chien-Ting Chen, Stefano Ciprini, Alessandra De Rosa, Ettore Del Monte, Laura Di Gesu, Immacolata Donnarumma, Victor Doroshenko, Steven R. Ehlert, Teruaki Enoto, Yuri Evangelista, Riccardo Ferrazzoli, Shuichi Gunji, Kiyoshi Hayashida, Jeremy Heyl, Wataru Iwakiri, Svetlana G. Jorstad, Vladimir Karas, Jeffery J. Kolodziejczak, Ioannis Liodakis, Simone Maldera, Alberto Manfreda, Alan P. Marscher, Herman L. Marshall, Francesco Massaro, Ikuyuki Mitsuishi, Chi-Yung Ng, Stephen L. O’Dell, Chiara Oppedisano, Alessandro Papitto, George G. Pavlov, Abel L. Peirson, Matteo Perri, Melissa Pesce-Rollins, Maura Pilia, Andrea Possenti, Simonetta Puccetti, Brian D. Ramsey, Oliver J. Roberts, Roger W. Romani, Carmelo Sgrò, Patrick Slane, Gloria Spandre, Douglas A. Swartz, Toru Tamagawa, Fabrizio Tavecchio, Roberto Taverna, Yuzuru Tawara, Nicholas E. Thomas, Alessio Trois, Sergey S. Tsygankov, Roberto Turolla, Jacco Vink, Kinwah Wu, and Fei Xie

Subjects
Accretion, Polarimetry, X-ray astronomy, Stellar mass black holes, Astrophysics, QB460-466
Abstract

We present the first X-ray spectropolarimetric results for Cygnus X-1 in its soft state from a campaign of five IXPE observations conducted during 2023 May–June. Companion multiwavelength data during the campaign are likewise shown. The 2–8 keV X-rays exhibit a net polarization degree PD = 1.99% ± 0.13% (68% confidence). The polarization signal is found to increase with energy across the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer’s (IXPE) 2–8 keV bandpass. The polarized X-rays exhibit an energy-independent polarization angle of PA = −25.°7 ± 1.°8 east of north (68% confidence). This is consistent with being aligned to Cyg X-1’s au-scale compact radio jet and its parsec-scale radio lobes. In comparison to earlier hard-state observations, the soft state exhibits a factor of 2 lower polarization degree but a similar trend with energy and a similar (also energy-independent) position angle. When scaling by the natural unit of the disk temperature, we find the appearance of a consistent trend line in the polarization degree between the soft and hard states. Our favored polarimetric model indicates that Cyg X-1’s spin is likely high ( a _* ≳ 0.96). The substantial X-ray polarization in Cyg X-1's soft state is most readily explained as resulting from a large portion of X-rays emitted from the disk returning and reflecting off the disk surface, generating a high polarization degree and a polarization direction parallel to the black hole spin axis and radio jet. In IXPE’s bandpass, the polarization signal is dominated by the returning reflection emission. This constitutes polarimetric evidence for strong gravitational lensing of X-rays close to the black hole.

Published
2024
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20. Highly Significant Detection of X-Ray Polarization from the Brightest Accreting Neutron Star Sco X-1

Author

Fabio La Monaca, Alessandro Di Marco, Juri Poutanen, Matteo Bachetti, Sara Elisa Motta, Alessandro Papitto, Maura Pilia, Fei Xie, Stefano Bianchi, Anna Bobrikova, Enrico Costa, Wei Deng, Ming-Yu Ge, Giulia Illiano, Shu-Mei Jia, Henric Krawczynski, Eleonora Veronica Lai, Kuan Liu, Guglielmo Mastroserio, Fabio Muleri, John Rankin, Paolo Soffitta, Alexandra Veledina, Filippo Ambrosino, Melania Del Santo, Wei Chen, Javier A. Garcia, Philip Kaaret, Thomas D. Russell, Wen-Hao Wei, Shuang-Nan Zhang, Chao Zuo, Zaven Arzoumanian, Massimo Cocchi, Andrea Gnarini, Ruben Farinelli, Keith Gendreau, Francesco Ursini, Martin C. Weisskopf, Silvia Zane, Iván Agudo, Lucio A. Antonelli, Luca Baldini, Wayne H. Baumgartner, Ronaldo Bellazzini, Stephen D. Bongiorno, Raffaella Bonino, Alessandro Brez, Niccolò Bucciantini, Fiamma Capitanio, Simone Castellano, Elisabetta Cavazzuti, Chien-Ting Chen, Stefano Ciprini, Alessandra De Rosa, Ettore Del Monte, Laura Di Gesu, Niccolò Di Lalla, Immacolata Donnarumma, Victor Doroshenko, Michal Dovčiak, Steven R. Ehlert, Teruaki Enoto, Yuri Evangelista, Sergio Fabiani, Riccardo Ferrazzoli, Shuichi Gunji, Kiyoshi Hayashida, Jeremy Heyl, Wataru Iwakiri, Svetlana G. Jorstad, Vladimir Karas, Fabian Kislat, Takao Kitaguchi, Jeffery J. Kolodziejczak, Luca Latronico, Ioannis Liodakis, Simone Maldera, Alberto Manfreda, Frédéric Marin, Andrea Marinucci, Alan P. Marscher, Herman L. Marshall, Francesco Massaro, Giorgio Matt, Ikuyuki Mitsuishi, Tsunefumi Mizuno, Michela Negro, Chi-Yung Ng, Stephen L. O’Dell, Nicola Omodei, Chiara Oppedisano, George G. Pavlov, Abel L. Peirson, Matteo Perri, Melissa Pesce-Rollins, Pierre-Olivier Petrucci, Andrea Possenti, Simonetta Puccetti, Brian D. Ramsey, Ajay Ratheesh, Oliver J. Roberts, Roger W. Romani, Carmelo Sgrò, Patrick Slane, Gloria Spandre, Douglas A. Swartz, Toru Tamagawa, Fabrizio Tavecchio, Roberto Taverna, Yuzuru Tawara, Allyn F. Tennant, Nicholas E. Thomas, Francesco Tombesi, Alessio Trois, Sergey S. Tsygankov, Roberto Turolla, Jacco Vink, Kinwah Wu, and IXPE Collaboration

Subjects
Polarimetry, Spectropolarimetry, Neutron stars, Accretion, Stellar accretion disks, Low-mass x-ray binary stars, Astrophysics, QB460-466
Abstract

The Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer measured with high significance the X-ray polarization of the brightest Z-source, Sco X-1, resulting in the nominal 2–8 keV energy band in a polarization degree of 1.0% ± 0.2% and a polarization angle of 8° ± 6° at a 90% confidence level. This observation was strictly simultaneous with observations performed by NICER, NuSTAR, and Insight-HXMT, which allowed for a precise characterization of its broadband spectrum from soft to hard X-rays. The source has been observed mainly in its soft state, with short periods of flaring. We also observed low-frequency quasiperiodic oscillations. From a spectropolarimetric analysis, we associate a polarization to the accretion disk at

Published
2024
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21. Discovery of a Shock-compressed Magnetic Field in the Northwestern Rim of the Young Supernova Remnant RX J1713.7–3946 with X-Ray Polarimetry

Author

Riccardo Ferrazzoli, Dmitry Prokhorov, Niccolò Bucciantini, Patrick Slane, Jacco Vink, Martina Cardillo, Yi-Jung Yang, Stefano Silvestri, Ping Zhou, Enrico Costa, Nicola Omodei, C.-Y. Ng, Paolo Soffitta, Martin C. Weisskopf, Luca Baldini, Alessandro Di Marco, Victor Doroshenko, Jeremy Heyl, Philip Kaaret, Dawoon E. Kim, Frédéric Marin, Tsunefumi Mizuno, Melissa Pesce-Rollins, Carmelo Sgrò, Douglas A. Swartz, Toru Tamagawa, Fei Xie, Iván Agudo, Lucio A. Antonelli, Matteo Bachetti, Wayne H. Baumgartner, Ronaldo Bellazzini, Stefano Bianchi, Stephen D. Bongiorno, Raffaella Bonino, Alessandro Brez, Fiamma Capitanio, Simone Castellano, Elisabetta Cavazzuti, Chien-Ting Chen, Stefano Ciprini, Alessandra De Rosa, Ettore Del Monte, Laura Di Gesu, Niccolò Di Lalla, Immacolata Donnarumma, Michal Dovčiak, Steven R. Ehlert, Teruaki Enoto, Yuri Evangelista, Sergio Fabiani, Javier A. Garcia, Shuichi Gunji, Kiyoshi Hayashida, Wataru Iwakiri, Svetlana G. Jorstad, Vladimir Karas, Fabian Kislat, Takao Kitaguchi, Jeffery J. Kolodziejczak, Henric Krawczynski, Fabio La Monaca, Luca Latronico, Ioannis Liodakis, Simone Maldera, Alberto Manfreda, Andrea Marinucci, Alan P. Marscher, Herman L. Marshall, Francesco Massaro, Giorgio Matt, Ikuyuki Mitsuishi, Fabio Muleri, Michela Negro, Stephen L. O’Dell, Chiara Oppedisano, Alessandro Papitto, George G. Pavlov, Abel L. Peirson, Matteo Perri, Pierre-Olivier Petrucci, Maura Pilia, Andrea Possenti, Juri Poutanen, Simonetta Puccetti, Brian D. Ramsey, John Rankin, Ajay Ratheesh, Oliver J. Roberts, Roger W. Romani, Gloria Spandre, Fabrizio Tavecchio, Roberto Taverna, Yuzuru Tawara, Allyn F. Tennant, Nicholas E. Thomas, Francesco Tombesi, Alessio Trois, Sergey S. Tsygankov, Roberto Turolla, Kinwah Wu, and Silvia Zane

Subjects
X-ray astronomy, Polarimetry, Supernova remnants, Astrophysics, QB460-466
Abstract

Supernova remnants (SNRs) provide insights into cosmic-ray acceleration and magnetic field dynamics at shock fronts. Recent X-ray polarimetric measurements by the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) have revealed radial magnetic fields near particle acceleration sites in young SNRs, including Cassiopeia A, Tycho, and SN 1006. We present here the spatially resolved IXPE X-ray polarimetric observation of the northwestern rim of SNR RX J1713.7–3946. For the first time, our analysis shows that the magnetic field in the particle acceleration sites of this SNR is oriented tangentially with respect to the shock front. Because of the lack of precise Faraday rotation measurements in the radio band, this was not possible before. The average measured polarization degree (PD) of the synchrotron emission is 12.5% ± 3.3%, lower than the one measured by IXPE in SN 1006, comparable to the Tycho one, but notably higher than the one in Cassiopeia A. On subparsec scales, localized patches within RX J1713.7–3946 display a PD of up to 41.5% ± 9.5%. These results are compatible with a shock-compressed magnetic field. However, in order to explain the observed PD, either the presence of a radial net magnetic field upstream of the shock or partial reisotropization of the turbulence downstream by radial magnetohydrodynamical instabilities can be invoked. From comparison of PD and magnetic field distribution with γ -rays and ^12 CO data, our results provide new inputs in favor of a leptonic origin of the γ -ray emission.

Published
2024
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22. Dramatic Drop in the X-Ray Polarization of Swift J1727.8–1613 in the Soft Spectral State

Author

Jiří Svoboda, Michal Dovčiak, James F. Steiner, Philip Kaaret, Jakub Podgorný, Juri Poutanen, Alexandra Veledina, Fabio Muleri, Roberto Taverna, Henric Krawczynski, Maïmouna Brigitte, Sudeb Ranjan Datta, Stefano Bianchi, Teo Muñoz-Darias, Michela Negro, Nicole Rodriguez Cavero, Noel Castro Segura, Niek Bollemeijer, Javier A. García, Adam Ingram, Giorgio Matt, Edward Nathan, Martin C. Weisskopf, Diego Altamirano, Luca Baldini, Fiamma Capitanio, Elise Egron, Razieh Emami, Kun Hu, Lorenzo Marra, Guglielmo Mastroserio, Pierre-Olivier Petrucci, Ajay Ratheesh, Paolo Soffitta, Francesco Tombesi, Yi-Jung Yang, and Yuexin Zhang

Subjects
Black hole physics, X-ray astronomy, Polarimetry, Stellar mass black holes, Astrophysics, QB460-466
Abstract

Black hole X-ray binaries exhibit different spectral and timing properties in different accretion states. The X-ray outburst of a recently discovered and extraordinarily bright source, Swift J1727.8–1613, has enabled the first investigation of how the X-ray polarization properties of a source evolve with spectral state. The 2–8 keV polarization degree was previously measured by the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) to be ≈4% in the hard and hard intermediate states. Here we present new IXPE results taken in the soft state, with the X-ray flux dominated by the thermal accretion disk emission. We find that the polarization degree has dropped dramatically to ≲1%. This result indicates that the measured X-ray polarization is largely sensitive to the accretion state and the polarization fraction is significantly higher in the hard state when the X-ray emission is dominated by upscattered radiation in the X-ray corona. The combined polarization measurements in the soft and hard states disfavor a very high or low inclination of the system.

Published
2024
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23. X-Ray Polarization of the Eastern Lobe of SS 433

Author

Philip Kaaret, Riccardo Ferrazzoli, Stefano Silvestri, Michela Negro, Alberto Manfreda, Kinwah Wu, Enrico Costa, Paolo Soffitta, Samar Safi-Harb, Juri Poutanen, Alexandra Veledina, Alessandro Di Marco, Patrick Slane, Stefano Bianchi, Adam Ingram, Roger W. Romani, Nicolò Cibrario, Brydyn Mac Intyre, Romana Mikus̆incová, Ajay Ratheesh, James F. Steiner, Jiri Svoboda, Stefano Tugliani, Iván Agudo, Lucio A. Antonelli, Matteo Bachetti, Luca Baldini, Wayne H. Baumgartner, Ronaldo Bellazzini, Stephen D. Bongiorno, Raffaella Bonino, Alessandro Brez, Niccolò Bucciantini, Fiamma Capitanio, Simone Castellano, Elisabetta Cavazzuti, Chien-Ting Chen, Stefano Ciprini, Alessandra De Rosa, Ettore Del Monte, Laura Di Gesu, Niccolò Di Lalla, Immacolata Donnarumma, Victor Doroshenko, Michal Dovčiak, Steven R. Ehlert, Teruaki Enoto, Yuri Evangelista, Sergio Fabiani, Javier A. García, Shuichi Gunji, Kiyoshi Hayashida, Jeremy Heyl, Wataru Iwakiri, Svetlana G. Jorstad, Vladimir Karas, Fabian Kislat, Takao Kitaguchi, Jeffery J. Kolodziejczak, Henric Krawczynski, Fabio La Monaca, Luca Latronico, Ioannis Liodakis, Simone Maldera, Frédéric Marin, Andrea Marinucci, Alan P. Marscher, Herman L. Marshall, Francesco Massaro, Giorgio Matt, Ikuyuki Mitsuishi, Tsunefumi Mizuno, Fabio Muleri, Chi-Yung Ng, Stephen L. O’Dell, Nicola Omodei, Chiara Oppedisano, Alessandro Papitto, George G. Pavlov, Abel L. Peirson, Matteo Perri, Melissa Pesce-Rollins, Pierre-Olivier Petrucci, Maura Pilia, Andrea Possenti, Simonetta Puccetti, Brian D. Ramsey, John Rankin, Oliver J. Roberts, Carmelo Sgrò, Gloria Spandre, Douglas A. Swartz, Toru Tamagawa, Fabrizio Tavecchio, Roberto Taverna, Yuzuru Tawara, Allyn F. Tennant, Nicholas E. Thomas, Francesco Tombesi, Alessio Trois, Sergey S. Tsygankov, Roberto Turolla, Jacco Vink, Martin C. Weisskopf, Fei Xie, and Silvia Zane

Subjects
High mass x-ray binary stars, Jets, High energy astrophysics, Supernova remnants, Astrophysical black holes, Astrophysics, QB460-466
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 γ -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%–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° (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.

Published
2024
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24. X-Ray Polarized View of the Accretion Geometry in the X-Ray Binary Circinus X-1

Author

John Rankin, Fabio La Monaca, Alessandro Di Marco, Juri Poutanen, Anna Bobrikova, Vadim Kravtsov, Fabio Muleri, Maura Pilia, Alexandra Veledina, Rob Fender, Philip Kaaret, Dawoon E. Kim, Andrea Marinucci, Herman L. Marshall, Alessandro Papitto, Allyn F. Tennant, Sergey S. Tsygankov, Martin C. Weisskopf, Kinwah Wu, Silvia Zane, Filippo Ambrosino, Ruben Farinelli, Andrea Gnarini, Iván Agudo, Lucio A. Antonelli, Matteo Bachetti, Luca Baldini, Wayne H. Baumgartner, Ronaldo Bellazzini, Stefano Bianchi, Stephen D. Bongiorno, Raffaella Bonino, Alessandro Brez, Niccolò Bucciantini, Fiamma Capitanio, Simone Castellano, Elisabetta Cavazzuti, Chien-Ting Chen, Stefano Ciprini, Enrico Costa, Alessandra De Rosa, Ettore Del Monte, Laura Di Gesu, Niccolò Di Lalla, Immacolata Donnarumma, Victor Doroshenko, Michal Dovčiak, Steven R. Ehlert, Teruaki Enoto, Yuri Evangelista, Sergio Fabiani, Riccardo Ferrazzoli, Javier A. Garcia, Shuichi Gunji, Kiyoshi Hayashida, Jeremy Heyl, Wataru Iwakiri, Svetlana G. Jorstad, Vladimir Karas, Fabian Kislat, Takao Kitaguchi, Jeffery J. Kolodziejczak, Henric Krawczynski, Luca Latronico, Ioannis Liodakis, Simone Maldera, Alberto Manfreda, Frédéric Marin, Alan P. Marscher, Francesco Massaro, Giorgio Matt, Ikuyuki Mitsuishi, Tsunefumi Mizuno, Michela Negro, Chi-Yung Ng, Stephen L. O’Dell, Nicola Omodei, Chiara Oppedisano, George G. Pavlov, Abel L. Peirson, Matteo Perri, Melissa Pesce-Rollins, Pierre-Olivier Petrucci, Andrea Possenti, Simonetta Puccetti, Brian D. Ramsey, Ajay Ratheesh, Oliver J. Roberts, Roger W. Romani, Carmelo Sgrò, Patrick Slane, Paolo Soffitta, Gloria Spandre, Douglas A. Swartz, Toru Tamagawa, Fabrizio Tavecchio, Roberto Taverna, Yuzuru Tawara, Nicholas E. Thomas, Francesco Tombesi, Alessio Trois, Roberto Turolla, Jacco Vink, and Fei Xie

Subjects
X-ray binary stars, Polarimetry, X-ray astronomy, X-ray sources, Astrophysics, QB460-466
Abstract

Cir X-1 is a neutron star X-ray binary characterized by strong variations in flux during its eccentric ∼16.6 day orbit. There are also strong variations in the spectral state, and it has historically shown both atoll and Z state properties. We observed the source with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer during two orbital segments, 6 days apart, for a total of 263 ks. We find an X-ray polarization degree in these segments of 1.6% ± 0.3% and 1.4% ± 0.3% at polarization angles of 37° ± 5° and −12° ± 7°, respectively. Thus, we observed a rotation of the polarization angle by 49° ± 8° along the orbit. Because variations of accretion flow, and then of the hardness ratio, are expected during the orbit, we also studied the polarization binned in hardness ratio and found the polarization angle differing by 67° ± 11° between the lowest and highest values of the hardness ratio. We discuss possible interpretations of this result that could indicate a possible misalignment between the symmetry axes of the accretion disk and the Comptonizing region caused by the misalignment of the neutron star’s angular momentum with respect to the orbital one.

Published
2024
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25. Recovery of the X-ray polarisation of Swift J1727.8−1613 after the soft-to-hard spectral transition

Author

Podgorný, J., primary, Svoboda, J., additional, Dovčiak, M., additional, Veledina, A., additional, Poutanen, J., additional, Kaaret, P., additional, Bianchi, S., additional, Ingram, A., additional, Capitanio, F., additional, Datta, S. R., additional, Egron, E., additional, Krawczynski, H., additional, Matt, G., additional, Muleri, F., additional, Petrucci, P.-O., additional, Russell, T. D., additional, Steiner, J. F., additional, Bollemeijer, N., additional, Brigitte, M., additional, Castro Segura, N., additional, Emami, R., additional, García, J., additional, Hu, K., additional, Iacolina, M. N., additional, Kravtsov, V., additional, Marra, L., additional, Mastroserio, G., additional, Muñoz-Darias, T., additional, Nathan, E., additional, Negro, M., additional, Ratheesh, A., additional, Rodriguez Cavero, N., additional, Taverna, R., additional, Tombesi, F., additional, Yang, Y. J., additional, Zhang, W., additional, and Zhang, Y., additional

Published
2024
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26. X-ray polarization measurement of the gold standard of radio-quiet active galactic nuclei: NGC 1068

Author

Marin, F., primary, Marinucci, A., additional, Laurenti, M., additional, Kim, D.E., additional, Barnouin, T., additional, Di Marco, A., additional, Ursini, F., additional, Bianchi, S., additional, Ravi, S., additional, Marshall, H.L., additional, Matt, G., additional, Chen, C.-T., additional, Gianolli, V.E., additional, Ingram, A., additional, Middei, R., additional, Maksym, W.P., additional, Panagiotou, C., additional, Podgorny, J., additional, Puccetti, S., additional, Ratheesh, A., additional, Tombesi, F., additional, Agudo, I., additional, Antonelli, L.A., additional, Bachetti, M., additional, Baldini, L., additional, Baumgartner, W., additional, Bellazzini, R., additional, Bongiorno, S., additional, Bonino, R., additional, Brez, A., additional, Bucciantini, N., additional, Capitanio, F., additional, Castellano, S., additional, Cavazzuti, E., additional, Ciprini, S., additional, Costa, E., additional, De Rosa, A., additional, Del Monte, E., additional, Di Gesu, L., additional, Di Lalla, N., additional, Donnarumma, I., additional, Doroshenko, V., additional, Dovčiak, M., additional, Ehlert, S., additional, Enoto, T., additional, Evangelista, Y., additional, Fabiani, S., additional, Ferrazzoli, R., additional, Garcia, J., additional, Gunji, S., additional, Heyl, J., additional, Iwakiri, W., additional, Jorstad, S., additional, Kaaret, P., additional, Karas, V., additional, Kislat, F., additional, Kitaguchi, T., additional, Kolodziejczak, J., additional, Krawczynski, H., additional, La Monaca, F., additional, Latronico, L., additional, Liodakis, I., additional, Madejski, G., additional, Maldera, S., additional, Manfreda, A., additional, Marscher, A., additional, Massaro, F., additional, Mitsuishi, I., additional, Mizuno, T., additional, Muleri, F., additional, Negro, M., additional, Ng, S., additional, O'Dell, S., additional, Omodei, N., additional, Oppedisano, C., additional, Papitto, A., additional, Pavlov, G., additional, Perri, M., additional, Pesce-Rollins, M., additional, Petrucci, P.-O., additional, Pilia, M., additional, Possenti, A., additional, Poutanen, J., additional, Ramsey, B., additional, Rankin, J., additional, Roberts, O., additional, Romani, R., additional, Sgrò, C., additional, Slane, P., additional, Soffitta, P., additional, Spandre, G., additional, Swartz, D., additional, Tamagawa, T., additional, Tavecchio, F., additional, Taverna, R., additional, Tawara, Y., additional, Tennant, A., additional, Thomas, N., additional, Trois, A., additional, Tsygankov, S., additional, Turolla, R., additional, Vink, J., additional, Weisskopf, M., additional, Wu, K., additional, Xie, F., additional, and Zane, S., additional

Published
2024
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27. Tracking the X-Ray Polarization of the Black Hole Transient Swift J1727.8–1613 during a State Transition

Author

Adam Ingram, Niek Bollemeijer, Alexandra Veledina, Michal Dovčiak, Juri Poutanen, Elise Egron, Thomas D. Russell, Sergei A. Trushkin, Michela Negro, Ajay Ratheesh, Fiamma Capitanio, Riley Connors, Joseph Neilsen, Alexander Kraus, Maria Noemi Iacolina, Alberto Pellizzoni, Maura Pilia, Francesco Carotenuto, Giorgio Matt, Guglielmo Mastroserio, Philip Kaaret, Stefano Bianchi, Javier A. García, Matteo Bachetti, Kinwah Wu, Enrico Costa, Melissa Ewing, Vadim Kravtsov, Henric Krawczynski, Vladislav Loktev, Andrea Marinucci, Lorenzo Marra, Romana Mikušincová, Edward Nathan, Maxime Parra, Pierre-Olivier Petrucci, Simona Righini, Paolo Soffitta, James F. Steiner, Jiří Svoboda, Francesco Tombesi, Stefano Tugliani, Francesco Ursini, Yi-Jung Yang, Silvia Zane, Wenda Zhang, Iván Agudo, Lucio A. Antonelli, Luca Baldini, Wayne H. Baumgartner, Ronaldo Bellazzini, Stephen D. Bongiorno, Raffaella Bonino, Alessandro Brez, Niccolò Bucciantini, Simone Castellano, Elisabetta Cavazzuti, Chien-Ting Chen, Stefano Ciprini, Alessandra De Rosa, Ettore Del Monte, Laura Di Gesu, Niccolò Di Lalla, Alessandro Di Marco, Immacolata Donnarumma, Victor Doroshenko, Steven R. Ehlert, Teruaki Enoto, Yuri Evangelista, Sergio Fabiani, Riccardo Ferrazzoli, Shuichi Gunji, Kiyoshi Hayashida, Jeremy Heyl, Wataru Iwakiri, Svetlana G. Jorstad, Vladimir Karas, Fabian Kislat, Takao Kitaguchi, Jeffery J. Kolodziejczak, Fabio La Monaca, Luca Latronico, Ioannis Liodakis, Simone Maldera, Alberto Manfreda, Frédéric Marin, Alan P. Marscher, Herman L. Marshall, Francesco Massaro, Ikuyuki Mitsuishi, Tsunefumi Mizuno, Fabio Muleri, Chi-Yung Ng, Stephen L. O’Dell, Nicola Omodei, Chiara Oppedisano, Alessandro Papitto, George G. Pavlov, Abel L. Peirson, Matteo Perri, Melissa Pesce-Rollins, Andrea Possenti, Simonetta Puccetti, Brian D. Ramsey, John Rankin, Oliver J. Roberts, Roger W. Romani, Carmelo Sgrò, Patrick Slane, Gloria Spandre, Douglas A. Swartz, Toru Tamagawa, Fabrizio Tavecchio, Roberto Taverna, Yuzuru Tawara, Allyn F. Tennant, Nicholas E. Thomas, Alessio Trois, Sergey S. Tsygankov, Roberto Turolla, Jacco Vink, Martin C. Weisskopf, Fei Xie, and IXPE Collaboration

Subjects
Accretion, X-ray astronomy, Low-mass x-ray binary stars, Polarimetry, Astrophysical black holes, Astrophysics, QB460-466
Abstract

We report on an observational campaign on the bright black hole (BH) X-ray binary Swift J1727.8–1613 centered around five observations by the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer. These observations track for the first time the evolution of the X-ray polarization of a BH X-ray binary across a hard to soft state transition. The 2–8 keV polarization degree decreased from ∼4% to ∼3% across the five observations, but the polarization angle remained oriented in the north–south direction throughout. Based on observations with the Australia Telescope Compact Array, we find that the intrinsic 7.25 GHz radio polarization aligns with the X-ray polarization. Assuming the radio polarization aligns with the jet direction (which can be tested in the future with higher-spatial-resolution images of the jet), our results imply that the X-ray corona is extended in the disk plane, rather than along the jet axis, for the entire hard intermediate state. This in turn implies that the long (≳10 ms) soft lags that we measure with the Neutron star Interior Composition ExploreR are dominated by processes other than pure light-crossing delays. Moreover, we find that the evolution of the soft lag amplitude with spectral state does not follow the trend seen for other sources, implying that Swift J1727.8–1613 is a member of a hitherto undersampled subpopulation.

Published
2024
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28. X-Rays from the Nearby Compact Emission-line Galaxy NGC 2366

Author

Philip Kaaret and Andrea Prestwich

Subjects
Blue compact dwarf galaxies, Galaxy winds, H II regions, X-ray binary stars, Reionization, Starburst galaxies, Astrophysics, QB460-466
Abstract

Luminous, compact emission-line galaxies (LCGs) are the most abundant class of confirmed Lyman continuum (LyC) emitters. An optical integral field study of the nearby LCG NGC 2366 reveals an outflow originating at the star cluster “knot B” thought to clear a channel via mechanical feedback that enables LyC escape. We observed NGC 2366 with the Chandra X-ray Observatory and detected X-ray emission from a point source coincident with the apex of the outflow at knot B. The pointlike nature and variability of the X-ray emission suggests accretion onto a compact object. The accretion could produce sufficient kinetic energy to power the outflow.

Published
2024
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29. An Angular Diameter Measurement of β UMa via Stellar Intensity Interferometry with the VERITAS Observatory

Author

A. Acharyya, J. P. Aufdenberg, P. Bangale, J. T. Bartkoske, P. Batista, W. Benbow, A. J. Chromey, J. D. Davis, Q. Feng, G. M. Foote, A. Furniss, W. Hanlon, C. E. Hinrichs, J. Holder, W. Jin, P. Kaaret, M. Kertzman, D. Kieda, T. K. Kleiner, N. Korzoun, T. LeBohec, M. A. Lisa, M. Lundy, N. Matthews, C. E McGrath, M. J. Millard, P. Moriarty, S. Nikkhah, S. O’Brien, R. A. Ong, M. Pohl, E. Pueschel, J. Quinn, P. L. Rabinowitz, K. Ragan, E. Roache, J. G. Rose, J. L. Sackrider, I. Sadeh, L. Saha, G. H. Sembroski, R. Shang, D. Tak, M. Ticoras, J. V. Tucci, D. A. Williams, S. L. Wong, and The VERITAS Collaboration

Subjects
Long baseline interferometry, Fundamental parameters of stars, Astronomy data modeling, Astrophysics, QB460-466
Abstract

We use the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging telescope Array System (VERITAS) imaging air Cherenkov telescope array to obtain the first measured angular diameter of β UMa at visual wavelengths using stellar intensity interferometry (SII) and independently constrain the limb-darkened angular diameter. The age of the Ursa Major moving group has been assessed from the ages of its members, including nuclear member Merak ( β UMa), an A1-type subgiant, by comparing effective temperature and luminosity constraints to model stellar evolution tracks. Previous interferometric limb-darkened angular-diameter measurements of β UMa in the near-infrared (Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) Array, 1.149 ± 0.014 mas) and mid-infrared (Keck Nuller, 1.08 ± 0.07 mas), together with the measured parallax and bolometric flux, have constrained the effective temperature. This paper presents current VERITAS-SII observation and analysis procedures to derive squared visibilities from correlation functions. We fit the resulting squared visibilities to find a limb-darkened angular diameter of 1.07 ± 0.04 (stat) ± 0.05 (sys) mas, using synthetic visibilities from a stellar atmosphere model that provides a good match to the spectrum of β UMa in the optical wave band. The VERITAS-SII limb-darkened angular diameter yields an effective temperature of 9700 ± 200 ± 200 K, consistent with ultraviolet spectrophotometry, and an age of 390 ± 29 ± 32 Myr, using MESA Isochrones and Stellar Tracks. This age is consistent with 408 ± 6 Myr from the CHARA Array angular diameter.

Published
2024
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30. X-Ray Polarization of the Black Hole X-Ray Binary 4U 1630–47 Challenges the Standard Thin Accretion Disk Scenario

Author

Ajay Ratheesh, Michal Dovčiak, Henric Krawczynski, Jakub Podgorný, Lorenzo Marra, Alexandra Veledina, Valery F. Suleimanov, Nicole Rodriguez Cavero, James F. Steiner, Jiří Svoboda, Andrea Marinucci, Stefano Bianchi, Michela Negro, Giorgio Matt, Francesco Tombesi, Juri Poutanen, Adam Ingram, Roberto Taverna, Andrew West, Vladimir Karas, Francesco Ursini, Paolo Soffitta, Fiamma Capitanio, Domenico Viscolo, Alberto Manfreda, Fabio Muleri, Maxime Parra, Banafsheh Beheshtipour, Sohee Chun, Nicolò Cibrario, Niccolò Di Lalla, Sergio Fabiani, Kun Hu, Philip Kaaret, Vladislav Loktev, Romana Mikušincová, Tsunefumi Mizuno, Nicola Omodei, Pierre-Olivier Petrucci, Simonetta Puccetti, John Rankin, Silvia Zane, Sixuan Zhang, Iván Agudo, Lucio A. Antonelli, Matteo Bachetti, Luca Baldini, Wayne H. Baumgartner, Ronaldo Bellazzini, Stephen D. Bongiorno, Raffaella Bonino, Alessandro Brez, Niccolò Bucciantini, Simone Castellano, Elisabetta Cavazzuti, Chien-Ting Chen, Stefano Ciprini, Enrico Costa, Alessandra De Rosa, Ettore Del Monte, Laura Di Gesu, Alessandro Di Marco, Immacolata Donnarumma, Victor Doroshenko, Steven R. Ehlert, Teruaki Enoto, Yuri Evangelista, Riccardo Ferrazzoli, Javier A. Garcia, Shuichi Gunji, Kiyoshi Hayashida, Jeremy Heyl, Wataru Iwakiri, Svetlana G. Jorstad, Fabian Kislat, Takao Kitaguchi, Jeffery J. Kolodziejczak, Fabio La Monaca, Luca Latronico, Ioannis Liodakis, Simone Maldera, Frédéric Marin, Alan P. Marscher, Herman L. Marshall, Francesco Massaro, Ikuyuki Mitsuishi, Stephen C.-Y. Ng, Stephen L. O’Dell, Chiara Oppedisano, Alessandro Papitto, George G. Pavlov, Abel L. Peirson, Matteo Perri, Melissa Pesce-Rollins, Maura Pilia, Andrea Possenti, Brian D. Ramsey, Oliver J. Roberts, Roger W. Romani, Carmelo Sgrò, Patrick Slane, Gloria Spandre, Douglas A. Swartz, Toru Tamagawa, Fabrizio Tavecchio, Yuzuru Tawara, Allyn F. Tennant, Nicholas E. Thomas, Alessio Trois, Sergey S. Tsygankov, Roberto Turolla, Jacco Vink, Martin C. Weisskopf, Kinwah Wu, and Fei Xie

Subjects
Polarimetry, X-ray astronomy, Stellar mass black holes, Accretion, Astrophysics, QB460-466
Abstract

A large energy-dependent X-ray polarization degree is detected by the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) in the high-soft emission state of the black hole X-ray binary 4U 1630–47. The highly significant detection (at ≈50 σ confidence level) of an unexpectedly high polarization, rising from ∼6% at 2 keV to ∼10% at 8 keV, cannot be easily reconciled with standard models of thin accretion disks. In this work, we compare the predictions of different theoretical models with the IXPE data and conclude that the observed polarization properties are compatible with a scenario in which matter accretes onto the black hole through a thin disk covered by a partially ionized atmosphere flowing away at mildly relativistic velocities.

Published
2024
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31. X-Ray Polarimetry of the Dipping Accreting Neutron Star 4U 1624–49

Author

M. Lynne Saade, Philip Kaaret, Andrea Gnarini, Juri Poutanen, Francesco Ursini, Stefano Bianchi, Anna Bobrikova, Fabio La Monaca, Alessandro Di Marco, Fiamma Capitanio, Alexandra Veledina, Iván Agudo, Lucio A. Antonelli, Matteo Bachetti, Luca Baldini, Wayne H. Baumgartner, Ronaldo Bellazzini, Stephen D. Bongiorno, Raffaella Bonino, Alessandro Brez, Niccolò Bucciantini, Simone Castellano, Elisabetta Cavazzuti, Chien-Ting Chen, Stefano Ciprini, Enrico Costa, Alessandra De Rosa, Ettore Del Monte, Laura Di Gesu, Niccolò Di Lalla, Immacolata Donnarumma, Victor Doroshenko, Michal Dovčiak, Steven R. Ehlert, Teruaki Enoto, Yuri Evangelista, Sergio Fabiani, Riccardo Ferrazzoli, Javier A. García, Shuichi Gunji, Kiyoshi Hayashida, Jeremy Heyl, Wataru Iwakiri, Svetlana G. Jorstad, Vladimir Karas, Fabian Kislat, Takao Kitaguchi, Jeffery J. Kolodziejczak, Henric Krawczynski, Luca Latronico, Ioannis Liodakis, Simone Maldera, Alberto Manfreda, Frédéric Marin, Andrea Marinucci, Alan P. Marscher, Herman L. Marshall, Francesco Massaro, Giorgio Matt, Ikuyuki Mitsuishi, Tsunefumi Mizuno, Fabio Muleri, Michela Negro, Chi-Yung Ng, Stephen L. O’Dell, Nicola Omodei, Chiara Oppedisano, Alessandro Papitto, George G. Pavlov, Abel L. Peirson, Matteo Perri, Melissa Pesce-Rollins, Pierre-Olivier Petrucci, Maura Pilia, Andrea Possenti, Simonetta Puccetti, Brian D. Ramsey, John Rankin, Ajay Ratheesh, Oliver J. Roberts, Roger W. Romani, Carmelo Sgrò, Patrick Slane, Paolo Soffitta, Gloria Spandre, Douglas A. Swartz, Toru Tamagawa, Fabrizio Tavecchio, Roberto Taverna, Yuzuru Tawara, Allyn F. Tennant, Nicholas E. Thomas, Francesco Tombesi, Alessio Trois, Sergey S. Tsygankov, Roberto Turolla, Jacco Vink, Martin C. Weisskopf, Kinwah Wu, Fei Xie, and Silvia Zane

Subjects
X-ray binary stars, Neutron stars, X-ray astronomy, Polarimetry, Astrophysics, QB460-466
Abstract

We present the first X-ray polarimetric study of the dipping accreting neutron star 4U 1624−49 with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer. We report a detection of polarization in the nondip time intervals with a confidence level of 99.99%. We find an average polarization degree (PD) of 3.1% ± 0.7% and a polarization angle of 81° ± 6° east of north in the 2–8 keV band. We report an upper limit on the PD of 22% during the X-ray dips with 95% confidence. The PD increases with energy, reaching from 3.0% ± 0.9% in the 4–6 keV band to 6% ± 2% in the 6–8 keV band. This indicates the polarization likely arises from Comptonization. The high PD observed is unlikely to be produced by Comptonization in the boundary layer or spreading layer alone. It can be produced by the addition of an extended geometrically thin slab corona covering part of the accretion disk, as assumed in previous models of dippers, and/or a reflection component from the accretion disk.

Published
2024
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32. Detection of X-Ray Polarization from the Blazar 1ES 1959+650 with the Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer

Author

Manel Errando, Ioannis Liodakis, Alan P. Marscher, Herman L. Marshall, Riccardo Middei, Michela Negro, Abel Lawrence Peirson, Matteo Perri, Simonetta Puccetti, Pazit L. Rabinowitz, Iván Agudo, Svetlana G. Jorstad, Sergey S. Savchenko, Dmitry Blinov, Ioakeim G. Bourbah, Sebastian Kiehlmann, Evangelos Kontopodis, Nikos Mandarakas, Stylianos Romanopoulos, Raphael Skalidis, Anna Vervelaki, Francisco José Aceituno, Maria I. Bernardos, Giacomo Bonnoli, Víctor Casanova, Beatriz Agís-González, César Husillos, Alessandro Marchini, Alfredo Sota, Pouya M. Kouch, Elina Lindfors, Carolina Casadio, Juan Escudero, Ioannis Myserlis, Ryo Imazawa, Mahito Sasada, Yasushi Fukazawa, Koji S. Kawabata, Makoto Uemura, Tsunefumi Mizuno, Tatsuya Nakaoka, Hiroshi Akitaya, Mark Gurwell, Garrett K. Keating, Ramprasad Rao, Adam Ingram, Francesco Massaro, Lucio Angelo Antonelli, Raffaella Bonino, Elisabetta Cavazzuti, Chien-Ting Chen, Nicolò Cibrario, Stefano Ciprini, Alessandra De Rosa, Laura Di Gesu, Federico Di Pierro, Immacolata Donnarumma, Steven R. Ehlert, Francesco Fenu, Ephraim Gau, Vladimir Karas, Dawoon E. Kim, Henric Krawczynski, Marco Laurenti, Lindsey Lisalda, Rubén López-Coto, Grzegorz Madejski, Frédéric Marin, Andrea Marinucci, Ikuyuki Mitsuishi, Fabio Muleri, Luigi Pacciani, Alessandro Paggi, Pierre-Olivier Petrucci, Nicole Rodriguez Cavero, Roger W. Romani, Fabrizio Tavecchio, Stefano Tugliani, Kinwah Wu, Matteo Bachetti, Luca Baldini, Wayne H. Baumgartner, Ronaldo Bellazzini, Stefano Bianchi, Stephen D. Bongiorno, Alessandro Brez, Niccolò Bucciantini, Fiamma Capitanio, Simone Castellano, Enrico Costa, Ettore Del Monte, Niccolò Di Lalla, Alessandro Di Marco, Victor Doroshenko, Michal Dovčiak, Teruaki Enoto, Yuri Evangelista, Sergio Fabiani, Riccardo Ferrazzoli, Javier A. Garcia, Shuichi Gunji, Kiyoshi Hayashida, Jeremy Heyl, Wataru Iwakiri, Philip Kaaret, Fabian Kislat, Takao Kitaguchi, Jeffery J. Kolodziejczak, Fabio La Monaca, Luca Latronico, Simone Maldera, Alberto Manfreda, Giorgio Matt, C.-Y. Ng, Stephen L. O’Dell, Nicola Omodei, Chiara Oppedisano, Alessandro Papitto, George G. Pavlov, Melissa Pesce-Rollins, Maura Pilia, Andrea Possenti, Juri Poutanen, Brian D. Ramsey, John Rankin, Ajay Ratheesh, Oliver J. Roberts, Carmelo Sgrò, Patrick Slane, Paolo Soffitta, Gloria Spandre, Douglas A. Swartz, Toru Tamagawa, Roberto Taverna, Yuzuru Tawara, Allyn F. Tennant, Nicholas E. Thomas, Francesco Tombesi, Alessio Trois, Sergey S. Tsygankov, Roberto Turolla, Jacco Vink, Martin C. Weisskopf, Fei Xie, and Silvia Zane

Subjects
Relativistic jets, X-ray active galactic nuclei, Active galactic nuclei, Blazars, Polarimetry, Spectropolarimetry, Astrophysics, QB460-466
Abstract

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 nonthermal radiation in relativistic jets of blazars. These jets, particularly in blazars whose spectral energy distribution peaks at X-ray energies, emit X-rays via synchrotron radiation from high-energy particles within the jet. IXPE observations of the X-ray-selected BL Lac–type blazar 1ES 1959+650 on 2022 May 3–4 showed a significant linear polarization degree of Π _x = 8.0% ± 2.3% at an electric-vector position angle ψ _x = 123° ± 8°. However, on 2022 June 9–12, only an upper limit of Π _x ≤ 5.1% could be derived (at the 99% confidence level). The degree of optical polarization at that time, Π _O ∼ 5%, is comparable to the X-ray measurement. We investigate possible scenarios for these findings, including temporal and geometrical depolarization effects. Unlike some other X-ray-selected BL Lac objects, there is no significant chromatic dependence of the measured polarization in 1ES 1959+650, and its low X-ray polarization may be attributed to turbulence in the jet flow with dynamical timescales shorter than 1 day.

Published
2024
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33. Soft X-Ray Energy Spectra in the Wide-field Galactic Disk Area Revealed with HaloSat

Author

Kazuki Ampuku, Ikuyuki Mitsuishi, Koki Sakuta, Philip Kaaret, Daniel M. LaRocca, and Lorella Angelini

Subjects
X-ray astronomy, Diffuse x-ray background, Galaxy disks, Galaxy stellar disks, the Milky Way, Astrophysics, QB460-466
Abstract

We analyzed data from HaloSat observations for five fields in the Galactic disk located far away from the Galactic center (135° < l < 254°) to understand the nature of soft X-ray energy emission in the Galactic disk. The fields have 14° diameter and were selected to contain no significant high-flux X-ray sources. All five HaloSat soft X-ray energy spectra (0.4–7 keV with energy resolution of < 100 eV below 1 keV) show a possibility of the presence of unresolved high-temperature plasma in the Galactic disk (UHTPGD) with a temperature of 0.8–1.0 keV and an emission measure of (8–11) × 10 ^−4 cm ^−6 pc in addition to the soft X-ray diffuse background components mainly studied at higher Galactic latitudes (solar wind charge exchange emission, Local Hot Bubble, Milky Way halo emission, and the cosmic X-ray background). This suggests that the UHTPGD is present across the whole Galactic disk. We also observed UHTPGD emission in a region with no bright sources in an XMM-Newton field contained within one of the HaloSat fields. The temperature and emission measure are consistent with those measured with HaloSat. Moreover, the stacked spectra of the X-ray pointlike sources and near-infrared-identified point sources such as stars in the XMM-Newton field also show a spectral feature similar to the UHTPGD emission. This suggests that the UHTPGD may partly originate from pointlike sources such as stars.

Published
2024
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34. First Detection of Polarization in X-Rays for PSR B0540-69 and Its Nebula

Author

Fei Xie, Josephine Wong, Fabio La Monaca, Roger W. Romani, Jeremy Heyl, Philip Kaaret, Alessandro Di Marco, Niccolò Bucciantini, Kuan Liu, Chi-Yung Ng, Niccolò Di Lalla, Martin C. Weisskopf, Enrico Costa, Paolo Soffitta, Fabio Muleri, Matteo Bachetti, Maura Pilia, John Rankin, Sergio Fabiani, Iván Agudo, Lucio A. Antonelli, Luca Baldini, Wayne H. Baumgartner, Ronaldo Bellazzini, Stefano Bianchi, Stephen D. Bongiorno, Raffaella Bonino, Alessandro Brez, Fiamma Capitanio, Simone Castellano, Elisabetta Cavazzuti, Chien-Ting Chen, Stefano Ciprini, Alessandra De Rosa, Ettore Del Monte, Laura Di Gesu, Immacolata Donnarumma, Victor Doroshenko, Michal Dovčiak, Steven R. Ehlert, Teruaki Enoto, Yuri Evangelista, Riccardo Ferrazzoli, Javier A. Garcia, Shuichi Gunji, Kiyoshi Hayashida, Wataru Iwakiri, Svetlana G. Jorstad, Vladimir Karas, Fabian Kislat, Takao Kitaguchi, Jeffery J. Kolodziejczak, Henric Krawczynski, Luca Latronico, Ioannis Liodakis, Simone Maldera, Alberto Manfreda, Frédéric Marin, Andrea Marinucci, Alan P. Marscher, Herman L. Marshall, Francesco Massaro, Giorgio Matt, Ikuyuki Mitsuishi, Tsunefumi Mizuno, Michela Negro, Stephen L. O’Dell, Nicola Omodei, Chiara Oppedisano, Alessandro Papitto, George G. Pavlov, Abel L. Peirson, Matteo Perri, Melissa Pesce-Rollins, Pierre-Olivier Petrucci, Andrea Possenti, Juri Poutanen, Simonetta Puccetti, Brian D. Ramsey, Ajay Ratheesh, Oliver J. Roberts, Carmelo Sgrò, Patrick Slane, Gloria Spandre, Douglas A. Swartz, Toru Tamagawa, Fabrizio Tavecchio, Roberto Taverna, Yuzuru Tawara, Allyn F. Tennant, Nicholas E. Thomas, Francesco Tombesi, Alessio Trois, Sergey S. Tsygankov, Roberto Turolla, Jacco Vink, Kinwah Wu, Silvia Zane, IXPE Collaboration, Zorawar Wadiasingh, Wynn C. G. Ho, Alice K. Harding, Keith C. Gendreau, and Zaven Arzoumanian

Subjects
Pulsars, Pulsar wind nebulae, Polarimetry, Astrophysics, QB460-466
Abstract

We report on X-ray polarization measurements of the extragalactic Crab-like PSR B0540-69 and its Pulsar Wind Nebula (PWN) in the Large Magellanic Cloud, using a ∼850 ks Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) exposure. The PWN is unresolved by IXPE. No statistically significant polarization is detected for the image-averaged data, giving a 99% confidence polarization upper limit (MDP _99 ) of 5.3% in the 2–8 keV energy range. However, a phase-resolved analysis detects polarization for both the nebula and pulsar in the 4–6 keV energy range. For the PWN defined as the off-pulse phases, the polarization degree (PD) of (24.5 ± 5.3)% and polarization angle (PA) of (78.1 ± 6.2)° is detected at 4.6 σ significance level, consistent with the PA observed in the optical band. In a single on-pulse window, a hint of polarization is measured at 3.8 σ with PD of (50.0 ± 13.1)% and PA of (6.2 ± 7.4)°. A “simultaneous” PSR/PWN analysis finds two bins at the edges of the pulse exceeding 3 σ PD significance, with PD of (68 ± 20)% and (62 ± 20)%; intervening bins at 2–3 σ significance have lower PD, hinting at additional polarization structure.

Published
2024
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36. Ultrafast Optically Induced Perturbation of Oxygen Octahedral Rotations in Multiferroic BiFeO3Thin Films

Author

Li, Ni, Lee, Hyeon Jun, Sri Gyan, Deepankar, Ahn, Youngjun, Landahl, Eric C., Carnis, Jerome, Lee, Jun Young, Kim, Tae Yeon, Unithrattil, Sanjith, Jo, Ji Young, Chun, Sae Hwan, Kim, Sunam, Park, Sang-Youn, Eom, Intae, Adamo, Carolina, Li, Sabrina J., Kaaret, Jeffrey Z., Schlom, Darrell G., Wen, Haidan, Benedek, Nicole A., and Evans, Paul G.

Abstract

The functional properties of complex oxides, including magnetism and ferroelectricity, are closely linked to subtle structural distortions. Ultrafast optical excitations provide the means to manipulate structural features and ultimately to affect the functional properties of complex oxides with picosecond-scale precision. We report that the lattice expansion of multiferroic BiFeO3following above-bandgap optical excitation leads to distortion of the oxygen octahedral rotation (OOR) pattern. The continuous coupling between OOR and strain was probed using time-resolved X-ray free-electron laser diffraction with femtosecond time resolution. Density functional theory calculations predict a relationship between the OOR and the elastic strain consistent with the experiment, demonstrating a route to employing this approach in a wider range of systems. Ultrafast control of the functional properties of BiFeO3thin films is enabled by this approach because the OOR phenomena are related to ferroelectricity, and via the Fe–O–Fe bond angles, the superexchange interaction between Fe atoms.

Published
2024
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