Discovery of X-ray polarization angle rotation in the jet from blazar Mrk 421

Full list of the authors: Di Gesu, Laura; Marshall, Herman L.; Ehlert, Steven R.; Kim, Dawoon E.; Donnarumma, Immacolata; Tavecchio, Fabrizio; Liodakis, Ioannis; Kiehlmann, Sebastian; Agudo, Iván; Jorstad, Svetlana G.; Muleri, Fabio; Marscher, Alan P.; Puccetti, Simonetta; Middei, Riccardo; Perri, Matteo; Pacciani, Luigi; Negro, Michela; Romani, Roger W.; Di Marco, Alessandro; Blinov, Dmitry; Bourbah, Ioakeim G.; Kontopodis, Evangelos; Mandarakas, Nikos; Romanopoulos, Stylianos; Skalidis, Raphael; Vervelaki, Anna; Casadio, Carolina; Escudero, Juan; Myserlis, Ioannis; Gurwell, Mark A.; Rao, Ramprasad; Keating, Garrett K.; Kouch, Pouya M.; Lindfors, Elina; Aceituno, Francisco José; Bernardos, Maria I.; Bonnoli, Giacomo; Casanova, Víctor; García-Comas, Maya; Agís-González, Beatriz; Husillos, César; Marchini, Alessandro; Sota, Alfredo; Imazawa, Ryo; Sasada, Mahito; Fukazawa, Yasushi; Kawabata, Koji S.; Uemura, Makoto; Mizuno, Tsunefumi; Nakaoka, Tatsuya; Akitaya, Hiroshi; Savchenko, Sergey S.; Vasilyev, Andrey A.; Gómez, José L.; Antonelli, Lucio A.; Barnouin, Thibault; Bonino, Raffaella; Cavazzuti, Elisabetta; Costamante, Luigi; Chen, Chien-Ting; Cibrario, Nicolò; De Rosa, Alessandra; Di Pierro, Federico; Errando, Manel; Kaaret, Philip; Karas, Vladimir; Krawczynski, Henric; Lisalda, Lindsey; Madejski, Grzegorz; Malacaria, Christian; Marin, Frédéric; Marinucci, Andrea; Massaro, Francesco; Matt, Giorgio; Mitsuishi, Ikuyuki; O'Dell, Stephen L.; Paggi, Alessandro; Peirson, Abel L.; Petrucci, Pierre-Olivier; Ramsey, Brian D.; Tennant, Allyn F.; Wu, Kinwah; Bachetti, Matteo; Baldini, Luca; Baumgartner, Wayne H.; Bellazzini, Ronaldo; Bianchi, Stefano; Bongiorno, Stephen D.; Brez, Alessandro; Bucciantini, Niccolò; Capitanio, Fiamma; Castellano, Simone; Ciprini, Stefano; Costa, Enrico; Del Monte, Ettore; Di Lalla, Niccolò; Doroshenko, Victor; Dovčiak, Michal; Enoto, Teruaki; Evangelista, Yuri; Fabiani, Sergio; Ferrazzoli, Riccardo; Garcia, Javier A.; Gunji, Shuichi; Hayashida, Kiyoshi; Heyl, Jeremy; Iwakiri, Wataru; Kislat, Fabian; Kitaguchi, Takao; Kolodziejczak, Jeffery J.; La Monaca, Fabio; Latronico, Luca; Maldera, Simone; Manfreda, Alberto; Ng, C. -Y.; Omodei, Nicola; Oppedisano, Chiara; Papitto, Alessandro; Pavlov, George G.; Pesce-Rollins, Melissa; Pilia, Maura; Possenti, Andrea; Poutanen, Juri; Rankin, John; Ratheesh, Ajay; Roberts, Oliver J.; Sgrò, Carmelo; Slane, Patrick; Soffitta, Paolo; Spandre, Gloria; Swartz, Douglas A.; Tamagawa, Toru; Taverna, Roberto; Tawara, Yuzuru; Thomas, Nicholas E.; Tombesi, Francesco; Trois, Alessio; Tsygankov, Sergey S.; Turolla, Roberto; Vink, Jacco; Weisskopf, Martin C.; Xie, Fei; Zane, SilviaThe magnetic-field conditions in astrophysical relativistic jets can be probed by multiwavelength polarimetry, which has been recently extended to X-rays. For example, one can track how the magnetic field changes in the flow of the radiating particles by observing rotations of the electric vector position angle ¿. Here we report the discovery of a ¿X rotation in the X-ray band in the blazar Markarian¿421 at an average flux state. Across the 5¿days of Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer observations on 4¿6 and 7¿9 June 2022, ¿X rotated in total by ¿360°. Over the two respective date ranges, we find constant, within uncertainties, rotation rates (80¿±¿9° per day and 91¿±¿8° per day) and polarization degrees (¿X¿=¿10%¿±¿1%). Simulations of a random walk of the polarization vector indicate that it is unlikely that such rotation(s) are produced by a stochastic process. The X-ray-emitting site does not completely overlap the radio, infrared and optical emission sites, as no similar rotation of ¿ was observed in quasi-simultaneous data at longer wavelengths. We propose that the observed rotation was caused by a helical magnetic structure in the jet, illuminated in the X-rays by a localized shock propagating along this helix. The optically emitting region probably lies in a sheath surrounding an inner spine where the X-ray radiation is released. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.The Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) is a joint US and Italian mission. The US contribution is supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and led and managed by its Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), with industry partner Ball Aerospace (contract NNM15AA18C). The Italian contribution is supported by the Italian Space Agency (Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, ASI) through contract ASI-OHBI-2017-12-I.0, agreements ASI-INAF-2017-12-H0 and ASI-INFN-2017.13-H0, and its Space Science Data Center (SSDC), and by the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) and the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) in Italy. This research used data products provided by the IXPE Team (MSFC, SSDC, INAF and INFN) and distributed with additional software tools by the High-Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC), at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). The IAA-CSIC group acknowledges financial support from the grant CEX2021-001131-S funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 to the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia-CSIC and through grant PID2019-107847RB-C44. The POLAMI observations were carried out at the IRAM 30?m Telescope. IRAM is supported by INSU/CNRS (France), MPG (Germany) and IGN (Spain). The Submillimetre Array is a joint project between the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics and is funded by the Smithsonian Institution and the Academia Sinica. Mauna Kea, the location of the SMA, is a culturally important site for the indigenous Hawaiian people; we are privileged to study the cosmos from its summit. Some of the data reported here are based on observations made with the Nordic Optical Telescope, owned in collaboration with the University of Turku and Aarhus University, and operated jointly by Aarhus University, the University of Turku and the University of Oslo, representing Denmark, Finland and Norway, the University of Iceland and Stockholm University at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos, La Palma, Spain, of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias. E.L. was supported by Academy of Finland projects 317636 and 320045. The data presented here were obtained (in part) with ALFOSC, which is provided by the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia (IAA) under a joint agreement with the University of Copenhagen and NOT. We are grateful to V. Braga, M. Monelli and M. Saenchez Benavente for performing the observations at the Nordic Optical Telescope. Part of the French contributions is supported by the Scientific Research National Center (CNRS) and the French spatial agency (CNES). The research at Boston University was supported in part by National Science Foundation grant AST-2108622, NASA Fermi Guest Investigator grants 80NSSC21K1917 and 80NSSC22K1571, and NASA Swift Guest Investigator grant 80NSSC22K0537. This research was conducted in part using the Mimir instrument, jointly developed at Boston University and Lowell Observatory and supported by NASA, NSF and the W.M. Keck Foundation. We thank D. Clemens for guidance in the analysis of the Mimir data. This work was supported by JST, the establishment of university fellowships towards the creation of science and technology innovation, grant number JPMJFS2129. This work was supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI grant number JP21H01137. This work was also partially supported by the Optical and Near-Infrared Astronomy Inter-University Cooperation Program from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) of Japan. We are grateful to the observation and operating members of the Kanata Telescope. Some of the data are based on observations collected at the Observatorio de Sierra Nevada, owned and operated by the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia (IAA-CSIC). Further data are based on observations collected at the Centro Astronomico Hispano en Andalucia (CAHA), operated jointly by Junta de Andalucia and Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (IAA-CSIC). This research has made use of data from the RoboPol programme, a collaboration between Caltech, the University of Crete, IA-FORTH, IUCAA, the MPIfR and the Nicolaus Copernicus University, which was conducted at Skinakas Observatory in Crete, Greece. D.B., S.K., R.S. and N.M., acknowledge support from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Unions Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme under grant agreement no. 771282. C.C. acknowledges support from the European Research Council (ERC) under the HORIZON ERC Grants 2021 programme under grant agreement no. 101040021. The research at Boston University was supported in part by National Science Foundation grant AST-2108622, NASA Fermi Guest Investigator grant 80NSSC21K1917 and 80NSSC22K1571, and NASA Swift Guest Investigator grant 80NSSC22K0537. This work was supported by NSF grant AST-2109127. We acknowledge the use of public data from the Swift data archive. Data from the Steward Observatory spectropolarimetric monitoring project were used. This programme is supported by Fermi Guest Investigator grants NNX08AW56G, NNX09AU10G, NNX12AO93G and NNX15AU81G. We acknowledge funding to support our NOT observations from the Finnish Centre for Astronomy with ESO (FINCA), University of Turku, Finland (Academy of Finland grant no 306531). This work has made use of data from the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) project. The Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) project is primarily funded to search for near-Earth asteroids through NASA grants NN12AR55G, 80NSSC18K0284 and 80NSSC18K1575; by-products of the NEO search include images and catalogues from the survey area. This work was partially funded by Kepler/K2 grant J1944/80NSSC19K0112 and HST GO-15889, and STFC grants ST/T000198/1 and ST/S006109/1. The ATLAS science products have been made possible through the contributions of the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy, the Queen's University Belfast, the Space Telescope Science Institute, the South African Astronomical Observatory and The Millennium Institute of Astrophysics (MAS), Chile. The Very Long Baseline Array is an instrument of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under a cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc

Detection of an unidentified soft X-ray emission feature in NGC 5548

Context. NGC 5548 is an X-ray bright Seyfert 1 active galaxy. It exhibits a variety of spectroscopic features in the soft X-ray band, in particular including the absorption by the active galactic nucleus (AGN) outflows of a broad range of ionization states, with column densities up to 1027 m-2, and having speeds up to several thousand kilometers per second. The known emission features are in broad agreement with photoionized X-ray narrow and broad emission line models. Aims. We report on an X-ray spectroscopic study using 1.1 Ms XMM-Newton and 0.9 Ms Chandra grating observations of NGC 5548 spanning two decades. The aim is to search and characterize any potential spectroscopic features in addition to the known primary spectral components that are already modeled in high precision. Methods. For each observation, we modeled the data using a global fit including an intrinsic spectral energy distribution of the AGNs and the known distant X-ray absorbers and emitters. We utilized as much knowledge from previous studies as possible. The fit residuals were stacked and scanned for possible secondary features. Results. We detect a weak unidentified excess emission feature at ~18.4 Å (18.1 Å in the restframe). The feature is seen at > 5s statistical significance taking the look-elsewhere effect into account. No known instrumental issues, atomic transitions, or astrophysical effects can explain this excess. The observed intensity of the possible feature seems to anticorrelate in time with the hardness ratio of the source. However, even though the variability might not be intrinsic, it might be caused by the time-variable obscuration by the outflows. An intriguing possibility is the line emission from charge exchange between a partially ionized outflow and a neutral layer in the same outflow, or in the close environment. Other possibilities, such as emission from a highly ionized component with high outflowing speed, cannot be fully ruled out.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Detection of an Unidentified Soft X-ray Emission Feature in NGC 5548

NGC~5548 is an X-ray bright Seyfert 1 active galaxy. It exhibits a variety of spectroscopic features in the soft X-ray band, including in particular the absorption by the AGN outflows of a broad range of ionization states, with column densities up to 1E27 /m^2, and having speeds up to several thousand kilometers per second. The known emission features are in broad agreement with photoionized X-ray narrow and broad emission line models. We report on an X-ray spectroscopic study using 1.1 Ms XMM-Newton and 0.9 Ms Chandra grating observations of NGC 5548 spanning two decades. The aim is to search and characterize any potential spectroscopic features in addition to the known primary spectral components that are already modeled in high precision. We detect a weak unidentified excess emission feature at 18.4 Angstrom (18.1 Angstrom in the restframe). The feature is seen at >5 sigma statistical significance taking into account the look elsewhere effect. No known instrumental issues, atomic transitions, and astrophysical effects can explain this excess. The observed intensity of the possible feature seems to anti-correlate in time with the hardness ratio of the source. However, the variability might not be intrinsic, it might be caused by the time-variable obscuration by the outflows. An intriguing possibility is the line emission from charge exchange between a partially ionized outflow and a neutral layer in the same outflow, or in the close environment. Other possibilities, such as emission from a highly-ionized component with high outflowing speed, cannot be fully ruled out.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic

Transient obscuration event captured in NGC~3227 II. Warm absorbers and obscuration events in archival XMM-Newton and NuSTAR observations

© The European Southern Observatory (ESO). This is the accepted manuscript version of an article which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202141599The relationship between warm absorber (WA) outflows of active galactic nuclei and nuclear obscuration activities caused by optically thick clouds (obscurers) crossing the line of sight is still unclear. NGC 3227 is a suitable target for studying the properties of both WAs and obscurers because it matches the following selection criteria: WAs in both ultraviolet (UV) and X-rays, suitably variable, bright in UV and X-rays, and adequate archival spectra for making comparisons with the obscured spectra. In the aim of investigating WAs and obscurers of NGC 3227 in detail, we used a broadband spectral-energy-distribution model that is built in findings of the first paper in our series together with the photoionization code of SPEX software to fit the archival observational data taken by XMM-Newton and NuSTAR in 2006 and 2016. Using unobscured observations, we find four WA components with different ionization states (loga ζ [erg cm s -1] ∼-1.0, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0). The highest-ionization WA component has a much higher hydrogen column density (∼10 22 cm -2) than the other three components (∼10 21 cm -2). The outflow velocities of these WAs range from 100 to 1300 km s -1, and show a positive correlation with the ionization parameter. These WA components are estimated to be distributed from the outer region of the broad line region (BLR) to the narrow line region. It is worth noting that we find an X-ray obscuration event in the beginning of the 2006 observation, which was missed by previous studies. We find that it can be explained by a single obscurer component. We also study the previously published obscuration event captured in one observation in 2016, which needs two obscurer components to fit the spectrum. A high-ionization obscurer component (loga ζa ∼a 2.80; covering factor C f a ∼a 30%) only appears in the 2016 observation, which has a high column density (∼10 23 cm -2). A low-ionization obscurer component (loga ζa ∼a 1.0a -a 1.9; C f a ∼a 20%-50%) exists in both 2006 and 2016 observations, which has a lower column density (∼10 22 cm -2). These obscurer components are estimated to reside within the BLR by their crossing time of transverse motions. The obscurers of NGC 3227 are closer to the center and have larger number densities than the WAs, which indicate that the WAs and obscurers might have different origins.Peer reviewe

Observations of 4U 1626-67 with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer

We present measurements of the polarization of X-rays in the 2-8 keV band from the pulsar in the ultracompact low mass X-ray binary 4U1626-67 using data from the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE). The 7.66 s pulsations were clearly detected throughout the IXPE observations as well as in the NICER soft X-ray observations, which we use as the basis for our timing analysis and to constrain the spectral shape over 0.4-10 keV energy band. Chandra HETGS high-resolution X-ray spectra were also obtained near the times of the IXPE observations for firm spectral modeling. We find an upper limit on the pulse-averaged linear polarization of <4% (at 95% confidence). Similarly, there was no significant detection of polarized flux in pulse phase intervals when subdividing the bandpass by energy. However, spectropolarimetric modeling over the full bandpass in pulse phase intervals provide a marginal detection of polarization of the power-law spectral component at the 4.8 +/- 2.3% level (90% confidence). We discuss the implications concerning the accretion geometry onto the pulsar, favoring two-component models of the pulsed emission.Comment: 19 pages, 7 figures, 7 tables; accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

X-ray polarimetry reveals the magnetic field topology on sub-parsec scales in Tycho's supernova remnant

Supernova remnants are commonly considered to produce most of the Galactic cosmic rays via diffusive shock acceleration. However, many questions about the physical conditions at shock fronts, such as the magnetic-field morphology close to the particle acceleration sites, remain open. Here we report the detection of a localized polarization signal from some synchrotron X-ray emitting regions of Tycho's supernova remnant made by the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer. The derived polarization degree of the X-ray synchrotron emission is 9+/-2% averaged over the whole remnant, and 12+/-2% at the rim, higher than the 7-8% polarization value observed in the radio band. In the west region the polarization degree is 23+/-4%. The X-ray polarization degree in Tycho is higher than for Cassiopeia A, suggesting a more ordered magnetic-field or a larger maximum turbulence scale. The measured tangential polarization direction corresponds to a radial magnetic field, and is consistent with that observed in the radio band. These results are compatible with the expectation of turbulence produced by an anisotropic cascade of a radial magnetic-field near the shock, where we derive a magnetic-field amplification factor of 3.4+/-0.3. The fact that this value is significantly smaller than those expected from acceleration models is indicative of highly anisotropic magnetic-field turbulence, or that the emitting electrons either favor regions of lower turbulence, or accumulate close to where the magnetic-field orientation is preferentially radially oriented due to hydrodynamical instabilities.Comment: 31 pages, 7 figures, 3 tables. Accepted for publication in ApJ. Revised versio

IXPE and XMM-Newton observations of the Soft Gamma Repeater SGR 1806-20

Recent observations with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) of two anomalous X-ray pulsars provided evidence that X-ray emission from magnetar sources is strongly polarized. Here we report on the joint IXPE and XMM-Newton observations of the soft {\gamma}-repeater SGR 1806-20. The spectral and timing properties of SGR 1806-20 derived from XMM-Newton data are in broad agreement with previous measurements; however, we found the source at an all-time-low persistent flux level. No significant polarization was measured apart from the 4-5 keV energy range, where a probable detection with PD=31.6\pm 10.5% and PA=-17.6\pm 15 deg was obtained. The resulting polarization signal, together with the upper limits we derive at lower and higher energies 2-4 and 5-8 keV, respectively) is compatible with a picture in which thermal radiation from the condensed star surface is reprocessed by resonant Compton scattering in the magnetosphere, similar to what proposed for the bright magnetar 4U 0142+61.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Magnetic structures and turbulence in SN 1006 revealed with imaging X-ray polarimetry

Young supernova remnants (SNRs) strongly modify surrounding magnetic fields, which in turn play an essential role in accelerating cosmic rays (CRs). X-ray polarization measurements probe magnetic field morphology and turbulence at the immediate acceleration site. We report the X-ray polarization distribution in the northeastern shell of SN1006 from a 1 Ms observation with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE). We found an average polarization degree of $22.4\pm 3.5\%$ and an average polarization angle of $-45.4\pm 4.5^\circ$ (measured on the plane of the sky from north to east). The X-ray polarization angle distribution reveals that the magnetic fields immediately behind the shock in the northeastern shell of SN 1006 are nearly parallel to the shock normal or radially distributed, similar to that in the radio observations, and consistent with the quasi-parallel CR acceleration scenario. The X-ray emission is marginally more polarized than that in the radio band. The X-ray polarization degree of SN 1006 is much larger than that in Cas A and Tycho, together with the relatively tenuous and smooth ambient medium of the remnant, favoring that CR-induced instabilities set the turbulence in SN 1006 and CR acceleration is environment-dependent.Comment: 15 pages, 4 Figures, 2 Tables; accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa

X-ray pulsar GRO J1008−-57 as an orthogonal rotator

X-ray polarimetry is a unique way to probe geometrical configuration of highly-magnetized accreting neutron stars (X-ray pulsars). GRO J1008$-$57 is the first transient X-ray pulsar observed at two different flux levels by the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) during its outburst in November 2022. The polarization properties were found to be independent of the source luminosity, with the polarization degree varying between non-detection to about 15% over the pulse phase. Fitting the phase-resolved spectro-polarimetric data with the rotating vector model allowed us to estimate the pulsar inclination (130 deg, which is in good agreement with the orbital inclination), the position angle (75 deg) of the pulsar spin axis, and the magnetic obliquity (74 deg). This makes GRO J1008$-$57 the first confidently identified X-ray pulsar as a nearly orthogonal rotator. The results are discussed in the context of the neutron star atmosphere models and theories of pulsars' axis alignment.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, submitted to A&A. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2209.0244

First detection of X-ray polarization from the accreting neutron star 4U 1820-303

This paper reports the first detection of polarization in the X-rays for atoll-source 4U 1820-303, obtained with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) at 99.999% confidence level (CL). Simultaneous polarimetric measurements were also performed in the radio with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA). The IXPE observations of 4U 1820-303 were coordinated with Swift-XRT, NICER, and NuSTAR aiming to obtain an accurate X-ray spectral model covering a broad energy interval. The source shows a significant polarization above 4 keV, with a polarization degree of 2.0(0.5)% and a polarization angle of -55(7) deg in the 4-7 keV energy range, and a polarization degree of 10(2)% and a polarization angle of -67(7) deg in the 7-8 keV energy bin. This polarization also shows a clear energy trend with polarization degree increasing with energy and a hint for a position-angle change of about 90 deg at 96% CL around 4 keV. The spectro-polarimetric fit indicates that the accretion disk is polarized orthogonally to the hard spectral component, which is presumably produced in the boundary/spreading layer. We do not detect linear polarization from the radio counterpart, with a 99.97% upper limit of 50% at 7.25 GHz