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.
X-Ray Polarization of the Eastern Lobe of SS 433
- Creators
- Kaaret, Philip
- Ferrazzoli, Riccardo
- Silvestri, Stefano
- Negro, Michela
- Manfreda, Alberto
- Wu, Kinwah
- Costa, Enrico
- Soffitta, Paolo
- Safi-Harb, Samar
- Poutanen, Juri
- Veledina, Alexandra
- Di Marco, Alessandro
- Slane, Patrick
- Bianchi, Stefano
- Ingram, Adam
- Romani, Roger W.
- Cibrario, Nicolò
- Mac Intyre, Brydyn
- Mikus̆incová, Romana
- Ratheesh, Ajay
- Steiner, James F.
- Svoboda, Jiri
- Tugliani, Stefano
- Agudo, Iván
- Antonelli, Lucio A.
- Bachetti, Matteo
- Baldini, Luca
- Baumgartner, Wayne H.
- Bellazzini, Ronaldo
- Bongiorno, Stephen D.
- Bonino, Raffaella
- Brez, Alessandro
- Bucciantini, Niccolò
- 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
- Doroshenko, Victor
- Dovčiak, Michal
- Ehlert, Steven R.
- Enoto, Teruaki
- Evangelista, Yuri
- Fabiani, Sergio
- García, Javier A.1
- Gunji, Shuichi
- Hayashida, Kiyoshi
- 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
- Marin, Frédéric
- Marinucci, Andrea
- Marscher, Alan P.
- Marshall, Herman L.
- Massaro, Francesco
- Matt, Giorgio
- Mitsuishi, Ikuyuki
- Mizuno, Tsunefumi
- Muleri, Fabio
- 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.
- Rankin, John
- Roberts, Oliver J.
- Sgrò, Carmelo
- 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
- Zane, Silvia
Abstract
Copyright and License
© 2024. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
Acknowledgement
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. A.V. acknowledges support from the Academy of Finland grant 355672.
Facilities
IXPE - , XMM-Newton - , NuSTAR - The NuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array) mission
Software References
ixpeobssim (Baldini et al. 2022), xspec (Arnaud1996), ds9 (Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory 2000), astropy (Astropy Collaboration et al. 2013)
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Additional details
- ISSN
- 2041-8213
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- NNM15AA18C
- Agenzia Spaziale Italiana
- ASI-OHBI-2017-12-I.0
- Agenzia Spaziale Italiana
- ASI-INAF-2017-12-H0
- Agenzia Spaziale Italiana
- ASI-INFN-2017.13-H0
- National Institute for Astrophysics
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare
- Research Council of Finland
- 355672
- Caltech groups
- Space Radiation Laboratory