Potential Probes of Blazar Jet Environs using GEMS X-ray Polarimetry
Abstract
Multiwavelength observations of blazars are now providing, for the first time, clean diagnostics on the shock acceleration environment in the jets/outflows in these extragalactic sources. This is enhanced by new spectroscopic information from the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope and Suzaku that constrains the power-law index of the radiating particle population. This paper explores complementary polarimetric consequences of such diagnostics that can be probed by NASA's new SMEX X-ray mission, GEMS. Polarization signals in shocked blazar jets couple directly to the magnetic field geometry and the inherent particle anisotropy in these relativistic discontinuities. These anisotropies and the photon spectral indices are interconnected, so that simultaneous X-ray/gamma-ray spectroscopic measurements and X-ray polarization determinations enable diagnostics on the field geometry. Here we highlight some representative polarization predictions for slab and helical field morphologies, to encapsulate the possibilities for the GEMs blazar science legacy.
- Publication:
-
AAS/High Energy Astrophysics Division #11
- Pub Date:
- March 2010
- Bibcode:
- 2010HEAD...11.4104B