X-ray polarization detection of Cassiopeia A with IXPE

J Vink, D Prokhorov, R Ferrazzoli, P Slane… - The Astrophysical …, 2022 - iopscience.iop.org
J Vink, D Prokhorov, R Ferrazzoli, P Slane, P Zhou, K Asakura, L Baldini, N Bucciantini
The Astrophysical Journal, 2022iopscience.iop.org
We report on a∼ 5σ detection of polarized 3–6 keV X-ray emission from the supernova
remnant Cassiopeia A (Cas A) with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE). The
overall polarization degree of 1.8%±0.3% is detected by summing over a large region,
assuming circular symmetry for the polarization vectors. The measurements imply an
average polarization degree for the synchrotron component of∼ 2.5%, and close to 5% for
the X-ray synchrotron-dominated forward shock region. These numbers are based on an …
Abstract
We report on a∼ 5σ detection of polarized 3–6 keV X-ray emission from the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A (Cas A) with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE). The overall polarization degree of 1.8%±0.3% is detected by summing over a large region, assuming circular symmetry for the polarization vectors. The measurements imply an average polarization degree for the synchrotron component of∼ 2.5%, and close to 5% for the X-ray synchrotron-dominated forward shock region. These numbers are based on an assessment of the thermal and nonthermal radiation contributions, for which we used a detailed spatial-spectral model based on Chandra X-ray data. A pixel-by-pixel search for polarization provides a few tentative detections from discrete regions at the∼ 3σ confidence level. Given the number of pixels, the significance is insufficient to claim a detection for individual pixels, but implies considerable turbulence on scales smaller than the angular resolution. Cas A's X-ray continuum emission is dominated by synchrotron radiation from regions within≲ 10 17 cm of the forward and reverse shocks. We find that (i) the measured polarization angle corresponds to a radially oriented magnetic field, similar to what has been inferred from radio observations;(ii) the X-ray polarization degree is lower than in the radio band (∼ 5%). Since shock compression should impose a tangential magnetic-field structure, the IXPE results imply that magnetic fields are reoriented within∼ 10 17 cm of the shock. If the magnetic-field alignment is due to locally enhanced acceleration near quasi-parallel shocks, the preferred X-ray polarization angle suggests a size of 3× 10 16 cm for cells with radial magnetic fields.
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