A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Testing High-energy Emission Models for Blazars with X-Ray Polarimetry
Authors: Peirson Abel L., Liodakis Ioannis, Romani Roger W.
Publisher: IOP Publishing Ltd
Publication year: 2022
Journal: Astrophysical Journal
Journal name in source: ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
Journal acronym: ASTROPHYS J
Article number: 59
Volume: 931
Issue: 1
Number of pages: 6
ISSN: 0004-637X
eISSN: 1538-4357
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac6a54
Web address : https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ac6a54
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/175532233
Both leptonic and hadronic emission processes may contribute to blazar jet emission; which dominates in blazars' high-energy emission component remains an open question. Some intermediate synchrotron peaked blazars transition from their low- to high-energy emission components in the X-ray band making them excellent laboratories to probe both components simultaneously, and good targets for the newly launched Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE). We characterize the spectral energy distributions for three such blazars, CGRaBS J0211+1051, TXS 0506+056, and S5 0716+714, predicting their X-ray polarization behavior by fitting a multizone polarized leptonic jet model. We find that a significant detection of electron synchrotron dominated polarization is possible with a 300 ks observation for S5 0716+714 and CGRaBS J0211+1051 in their flaring states, while even 500 ks observations are unlikely to measure synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) polarization. Importantly, nonleptonic emission processes like proton synchrotron are marginally detectable for our brightest intermediate synchrotron peaked blazar (ISP), S5 0716+714, during a flaring state. Improved IXPE data reduction methods or next-generation telescopes like eXTP are needed to confidently measure SSC polarization.
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