Testing particle acceleration in blazar jets with continuous high-cadence optical polarization observations
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Variability can be the pathway to understanding the physical processes in astrophysical jets. However, the high-cadence observations required to test particle acceleration models are still missing. Here we report on the first attempt to produce continuous, > 24 hour polarization light curves of blazars using telescopes distributed across the globe, following the rotation of the Earth, to avoid the rising Sun. Our campaign involved 16 telescopes in Asia, Europe, and North America. We observed BL Lacertae and CGRaBS J0211+1051 for a combined 685 telescope hours. We find large variations in the polarization degree and angle for both sources on sub-hour timescales as well as a ∼180° rotation of the polarization angle in CGRaBS J0211+1051 in less than two days. We compared our high-cadence observations to particle-in-cell magnetic reconnection and turbulent plasma simulations. We find that although the state-of-the-art simulation frameworks can produce a large fraction of the polarization properties, they do not account for the entirety of the observed polarization behavior in blazar jets.
Authors: Ioannis Liodakis, Sebastian Kiehlmann, Alan P. Marscher, Haocheng Zhang, Dmitry Blinov, Svetlana G. Jorstad, Iván Agudo, Erika Benítez, Andrei Berdyugin, Giacomo Bonnoli, Carolina Casadio, Chien-Ting Chen, Wen-Ping Chen, Steven R. Ehlert, Juan Escudero, Tatiana S. Grishina, David Hiriart, Angela Hsu, Ryo Imazawa, Helen E. Jermak, Jincen Jose, Philip Kaaret, Evgenia N. Kopatskaya, Bhavana Lalchand, Elena G. Larionova, Elina Lindfors, José M. López, Callum McCall, Daria A. Morozova, Efthymios Palaiologou, Shivangi Pandey, Juri Poutanen, Suvendu Rakshit, Pablo Reig, Mahito Sasada, Sergey S. Savchenko, Elena Shablovinskaya, Sharma Neha, Manisha Shrestha, Iain A. Steele, Ivan S. Troitskiy, Yulia V. Troitskaya, Makoto Uemura, Andrey A. Vasilyev, Zachary Weaver, Klaas Wiersema, Martin C. Weisskopf
Language: English
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funders: National Science Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Oak Ridge Associated Universities, California Institute of Technology, Aarhus Universitet, European Commission, Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology, India, Nuclear Safety and Security Commission, Liverpool John Moores University, University of Crete, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Universitetet i Oslo, Háskóli Íslands, Turun Yliopisto, Stockholms Universitet, Junta de Andalucía, Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo, Marshall Space Flight Center, Science and Technology Facilities Council, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Science and Engineering Research Board, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Dirección General de Asuntos del Personal Académico, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Agencia Estatal de Investigación, H2020 European Research Council, HORIZON EUROPE European Research Council
Awards: G1171257612, G1175115578, G1381791653, G166539506, G1855990336, G210041235, G2262748287, G2266367464, G2309174360, G2397945736, G2428672771, G2480013698, G2492639332, G2529780393, G2601397997, G278595929, G279363373, G300979063, G3178956404, Overcoming the Dominant Foreground of Inflationary B-modes: Tomography of Galactic Magnetic Dust via Measurements of Starlight Polarization, G3367548546, G3383458737, G3406277477, G34346518, G3480869486, G3681454997, G3690828678, G4042783231, G425668148, G430777504, G434337789, G463062595, G5080475149, G5241832549, WoU-MMA: Linear and Circular Polarization as a Probe of the Relativistic Jets of Blazars, G5337072912, G5421974903, G5834573078, G5894067328, G5934825213, Clarifying magnetic fields in AGN jets by radio and optical polarimetry together with VLBI images, 乳癌におけるエストロジン・レセプターの研究, G6328932428, G6839301732, G7004953092, G7518687652, 古代説話における諸寺縁起の研究, Black hOle Optical-polarization TimE-domain Survey, G8684520763, G8725002988, CENTRO DE ASTROFISICA Y TECNOLOGIAS AFINES (CATA), G8920660035, G99296377
OpenAlex ID: W6940618744
FWCI:
Cites:
Cited by:
Related to: