Determining the origin of the X-ray emission in blazars through multiwavelength polarization

Liodakis, I ORCID: 0000-0001-9200-4006, Zhang, H ORCID: 0000-0001-9826-1759, Boula, S ORCID: 0000-0001-7905-6928, Middei, R, Otero-Santos, J, Blinov, D ORCID: 0000-0003-0611-5784, Agudo, I ORCID: 0000-0002-3777-6182, Böttcher, M ORCID: 0000-0002-8434-5692, Chen, CT ORCID: 0000-0002-4945-5079, Ehlert, SR ORCID: 0000-0003-4420-2838, Jorstad, SG ORCID: 0000-0001-6158-1708, Kaaret, P ORCID: 0000-0002-3638-0637, Krawczynski, H ORCID: 0000-0002-1084-6507, Peirson, AL, Romani, RW, Tavecchio, F, Weisskopf, MC, Kouch, PM ORCID: 0000-0002-9328-2750, Lindfors, E, Nilsson, K et al (2025) Determining the origin of the X-ray emission in blazars through multiwavelength polarization. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 698. ISSN 0004-6361

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Abstract

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.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	5106 Nuclear and Plasma Physics; 5101 Astronomical Sciences; 51 Physical Sciences; 0201 Astronomical and Space Sciences; Astronomy & Astrophysics; 5101 Astronomical sciences; 5107 Particle and high energy physics; 5109 Space sciences
Subjects:	Q Science > QB Astronomy Q Science > QC Physics
Divisions:	Astrophysics Research Institute
Publisher:	EDP Sciences
Date of acceptance:	13 May 2025
Date of first compliant Open Access:	3 July 2025
Date Deposited:	03 Jul 2025 12:27
Last Modified:	03 Jul 2025 12:27
DOI or ID number:	10.1051/0004-6361/202554747
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/26704

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