CaltechAUTHORS
Published January 1, 2023 | Version Published
Journal Article Open

X-Ray Polarization Observations of BL Lacertae

Creators

  • 1. ROR icon Agenzia Spaziale Italiana
  • 2. ROR icon Astronomical Observatory of Rome
  • 3. ROR icon University of Turku
  • 4. ROR icon Marshall Space Flight Center
  • 5. ROR icon Stanford University
  • 6. ROR icon Boston University
  • 7. ROR icon Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • 8. ROR icon National Institute for Astrophysics
  • 9. ROR icon University of Maryland, Baltimore County
  • 10. ROR icon Goddard Space Flight Center
  • 11. ROR icon St Petersburg University
  • 12. ROR icon Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía
  • 13. ROR icon Brera Astronomical Observatory
  • 14. ROR icon University of Siena
  • 15. ROR icon Special Astrophysical Observatory
  • 16. ROR icon Pulkovo Observatory
  • 17. ROR icon FORTH Institute of Astrophysics
  • 18. ROR icon University of Crete
  • 19. ROR icon Atacama Large Millimeter Submillimeter Array
  • 20. ROR icon National Radio Astronomy Observatory
  • 21. ROR icon European Southern Observatory
  • 22. ROR icon National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
  • 23. ROR icon The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, SOKENDAI
  • 24. ROR icon Infrared Processing and Analysis Center
  • 25. ROR icon California Institute of Technology
  • 26. ROR icon University of California, Santa Barbara
  • 27. ROR icon University of California, Santa Cruz
  • 28. ROR icon Tohoku University
  • 29. ROR icon Hiroshima University
  • 30. ROR icon Chiba Institute of Technology
  • 31. ROR icon Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
  • 32. ROR icon University of Turin
  • 33. ROR icon Sapienza University of Rome
  • 34. ROR icon University of Rome Tor Vergata
  • 35. ROR icon Space Research Institute
  • 36. ROR icon Osservatorio Astronomico di Cagliari
  • 37. ROR icon INFN Sezione di Pisa
  • 38. ROR icon University of Pisa
  • 39. ROR icon Roma Tre University
  • 40. ROR icon INFN Sezione di Torino
  • 41. ROR icon Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory
  • 42. ROR icon University of Florence
  • 43. ROR icon National Institute for Nuclear Physics
  • 44. ROR icon INFN Sezione di Roma II
  • 45. ROR icon University of Tübingen
  • 46. ROR icon Astronomical Institute
  • 47. ROR icon RIKEN
  • 48. ROR icon Yamagata University
  • 49. ROR icon Osaka University
  • 50. ROR icon University of British Columbia
  • 51. ROR icon Chuo University
  • 52. ROR icon Washington University in St. Louis
  • 53. ROR icon Observatory of Strasbourg
  • 54. ROR icon Nagoya University
  • 55. ROR icon University of Hong Kong
  • 56. ROR icon Pennsylvania State University
  • 57. ROR icon Institut de Planétologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble
  • 58. ROR icon University of Padua
  • 59. ROR icon University of Maryland, College Park
  • 60. ROR icon University College London
  • 61. ROR icon University of Amsterdam
  • 62. ROR icon Guangxi University

Abstract

Blazars are a class of jet-dominated active galactic nuclei with a typical double-humped spectral energy distribution. It is of common consensus that the synchrotron emission is responsible for the low frequency peak, while the origin of the high frequency hump is still debated. The analysis of X-rays and their polarization can provide a valuable tool to understand the physical mechanisms responsible for the origin of high-energy emission of blazars. We report the first observations of BL Lacertae (BL Lac) performed with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer, from which an upper limit to the polarization degree Π_X < 12.6% was found in the 2–8 keV band. We contemporaneously measured the polarization in radio, infrared, and optical wavelengths. Our multiwavelength polarization analysis disfavors a significant contribution of proton-synchrotron radiation to the X-ray emission at these epochs. Instead, it supports a leptonic origin for the X-ray emission in BL Lac.

Additional Information

© 2022. 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. We thank the anonymous referee for their bright comments. 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). We acknowledge financial support from ASI-INAF agreement n. 2022-14-HH.0. The research at Boston University was supported in part by National Science Foundation grant AST-2108622 and NASA Swift Guest Investigator grant 80NSSC22K0537. This research has made use of data from the RoboPol program, 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. The IAA-CSIC coauthors acknowledge financial support from the Spanish "Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion" (MCINN) through the "Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa" award for the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía-CSIC (SEV-2017-0709). Acquisition and reduction of the POLAMI, TOP-MAPCAR, and OSN data was supported in part by MICINN through grants AYA2016-80889-P and 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). This Letter makes use of the following ALMA director's discretionary time data under proposal ESO#2021.A.00016.T. ALMA is a partnership of ESO (representing its member states), NSF (USA), and NINS (Japan), together with NRC (Canada), MOST, and ASIAA (Taiwan), and KASI (Republic of Korea), in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. The Joint ALMA Observatory is operated by ESO, AUI/NRAO, and NAOJ. Some of the data reported here are based on observations obtained at the Hale Telescope, Palomar Observatory as part of a continuing collaboration between the California Institute of Technology, NASA/JPL, Yale University, and the National Astronomical Observatories of China. This research made use of Photutils, an Astropy package for detection and photometry of astronomical sources (Bradley et al. 2019). G.V.P. acknowledges support by NASA through the NASA Hubble Fellowship grant #HST-HF2-51444.001-A awarded by the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS5-26555. The data in this study include observations made with the Nordic Optical Telescope, owned in collaboration by 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. The data presented here were obtained in part with ALFOSC, which is provided by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA) under a joint agreement with the University of Copenhagen and NOT. E.L. was supported by Academy of Finland projects 317636 and 320045. Part of the French contribution is supported by the Scientific Research National Center (CNRS) and the French Spatial Agency (CNES). Some of the data are based on observations collected at the Observatorio de Sierra Nevada, owned and operated by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA-CSIC). Further data are based on observations collected at the Centro Astronómico Hispano-Alemán (CAHA), operated jointly by Junta de Andalucía and Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (IAA-CSIC). 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 program under grant agreement No. 771282. C.C. acknowledges support by the European Research Council (ERC) under the HORIZON ERC Grants 2021 program under grant agreement No. 101040021. The Dipol-2 polarimeter was built in cooperation by the University of Turku, Finland, and the Leibniz Institut für Sonnenphysik, Germany, with support from the Leibniz Association grant SAW-2011-KIS-7. We are grateful to the Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, for the allocated observing time. A.H. acknowledges The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. This work was supported by JST, the establishment of university fellowships toward the creation of science technology innovation; grant No. JPMJFS2129. This work was supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI grant Nos. JP21H01137. This work was also partially supported by 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 Kanata Telescope. The Submillimeter 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. Maunakea, 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. Facilities: ALMA - Atacama Large Millimeter Array, CAO:2.2m - Calar Alto Observatory's 2.2 meter Telescope, CrAO:0.7m - , Hale - Palomar Observatory's 5.1m Hale Telescope, IRAM:30m - Institute de Radioastronomie Millimetrique 30 meter telescope, IXPE - , Kanata - , LX-200 - , NOT - Nordic Optical Telescope, NuSTAR - The NuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array) mission, OSN:0.9m - IAA-CSIC Observatorio de Sierra Nevada's 0.9m Telescope, OSN:1.5m - IAA-CSIC Observatorio de Sierra Nevada's 1.5m Telescope, Perkins - Lowell Observatory's 72in Perkins Telescope, Skinakas:1.3m - Skinakas Observatory 1.3 meter Telescope, SMA - SubMillimeter Array, Swift - Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission, TU:0.6m - , XMM-Newton. -

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Additional details

Identifiers

Eprint ID
120046
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20230314-846094500.79

Funding

NASA
NNM15AA18C
Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI)
ASI-OHBI-2017-12-I.0
Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI)
ASI-INAF-2017-12-H0
Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI)
ASI-INFN-2017.13-H0
Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF)
Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN)
Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI)
ASI-INAF-2022-14-HH.0
NSF
AST-2108622
NASA
80NSSC22K0537
Severo Ochoa
SEV-2017-0709
Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (MINECO)
AYA2016-80889-P
Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (MINECO)
PID2019-107847RB-C44
Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU)
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
Max Planck Society
Instituto Geográfico Nacional (IGN)
NASA Hubble Fellowship
HST-HF2-51444.001-A
NASA
NAS5-26555
Academy of Finland
317636
Academy of Finland
320045
Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES)
European Research Council (ERC)
771282
European Research Council (ERC)
101040021
Leibniz Association
SAW-2011-KIS-7
Japan Science and Technology Agency
JPMJFS2129
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)
JP21H01137
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT)
Smithsonian Institution
Academia Sinica

Dates

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2023-05-25
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Updated
2023-05-25
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Caltech groups
Astronomy Department, Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC), Space Radiation Laboratory