Determining the origin of the X-ray emission in blazars through multiwavelength polarization
The origin of the high-energy emission in astrophysical jets from black holes is a highly debated issue. This is particularly true for jets from supermassive black holes, which are among the most powerful particle accelerators in the Universe. So far, the addition of new observations and new messengers have only managed to create more questions than answers. However, the newly available X-ray polarization observations promise to finally distinguish between emission models. We use extensive multiwavelength and polarization campaigns as well as state-of-the-art polarized spectral energy distribution models to attack this problem by focusing on two X-ray polarization observations of blazar BL Lacertae in flaring and quiescent γ -ray states. We find that, regardless of the jet composition and underlying emission model, inverse-Compton scattering from relativistic electrons dominates at X-ray energies.
Authors
- H. C. Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9826-1759)
- Markus Boettcher (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8434-5692)
- A. A. Vasilyev (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8293-0214)
- Daniel Morcuende (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9400-0922)
- Chien‐Ting Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4945-5079)
- A. Sota (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9404-6952)
- A. Kraus (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4184-9372)
- Stella Boula (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7905-6928)
- Ioannis Liodakis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9200-4006)
- Pouya M. Kouch (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9328-2750)
- Garrett K. Keating (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3490-146X)
- F. Tavecchio (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0256-0995)
- E. Angelakis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7327-5441)
- Sincheol Kang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0112-4836)
- Svetlana G. Jorstad
- D. Blinov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0611-5784)
- Jorge Otero-Santos (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4241-5875)
- Martin C. Weisskopf (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5270-4240)
- Beatriz Agı́s-González (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7702-8931)
- Е. Г. Ларионова (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2471-6500)
- Yu. V. Troitskaya (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9907-9876)
- С. С. Савченко (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4147-3851)
- I. Myserlis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3025-9497)
- T. S. Grishina (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3953-6676)
- Roger W. Romani (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6711-3286)
- I. Agudo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3777-6182)
- Ramprasad Rao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1407-7944)
- D. A. Morozova (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9407-7804)
- Steven R. Ehlert (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4420-2838)
- Hyeon‐Woo Jeong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-7629-8450)
- F. J. Aceituno (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8074-4760)
- E. N. Kopatskaya (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9518-337X)
- I. S. Troitskiy (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4218-0148)
- Sang-Sung Lee (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6269-594X)
- G. Bonnoli (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2464-9077)
- E. Lindfors (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9155-6199)
- V. Casanova (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2036-8999)
- K. Nilsson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1445-8683)
- Callum McCall (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3375-3397)
- Helen Jermak (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1197-8501)
- H. Krawczynski (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1084-6507)
- Whee Yeon Cheong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-1871-5824)
- I. A. Steele (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8397-5759)
- R. Middei (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9815-9092)
- Mark Gurwell (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0685-3621)
- Abel L. Peirson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6292-1911)
- P. Kaaret (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3638-0637)
- R. Bachev (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0766-864X)
- Sang-Hyun Kim (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7556-8504)
- Juan Escudero (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4131-655X)
- Ekaterina V. Shishkina (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-2440-2947)
Institutions
- Boston University (US)
- Marshall Space Flight Center (US)
- Goddard Space Flight Center (US)
- Universities Space Research Association (US)
- University of Crete (GR)
- University of Turku (FI)
- St Petersburg University (RU)
- Turku Centre for Computer Science (FI)
- National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (GR)
- Washington University in St. Louis (US)
- North-West University (ZA)
- Astronomical Observatory of Rome (IT)
- Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (IT)
- Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KR)
- Pulkovo Observatory (RU)
- Brera Astronomical Observatory (IT)
- Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (US)
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Padova (IT)
- Institute of Astronomy and National Astronomical Observatory (BG)
- Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian (US)
- Instituto de Radioastronomía Milimétrica (ES)
- Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (DE)
- Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (ES)
- Liverpool John Moores University (GB)
- University of Maryland, Baltimore County (US)
- Korea University of Science and Technology (KR)
- Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas (GR)
- Stanford University (US)
- Aalto University (FI)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Published
- 2025-05-22
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202554747
- Citations
- 5
- Primary Topic
- Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 9.35
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- National Research Foundation
- Nuclear Safety and Security Commission
- National Research Foundation of Korea
- Turun Yliopisto
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare
- European Research Council