A first-principle model for polarization swings during reconnection-powered flares
We show that magnetic reconnection in a magnetically dominated fast-cooling plasma can naturally produce bright flares accompanied by rotations in the synchrotron polarization vector. With particle-in-cell simulations of reconnection, we find that flares are powered by efficient particle acceleratio...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2020
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| _version_ | 1797052763602944000 |
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| author | Hosking, DN Sironi, L |
| author_facet | Hosking, DN Sironi, L |
| author_sort | Hosking, DN |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | We show that magnetic reconnection in a magnetically dominated fast-cooling plasma can naturally produce bright flares accompanied by rotations in the synchrotron polarization vector. With particle-in-cell simulations of reconnection, we find that flares are powered by efficient particle acceleration at the interface of merging magnetic flux ropes, or "plasmoids." The accelerated particles stream through the post-merger plasmoid toward the observer, thus progressively illuminating regions with varying plane-of-sky field direction, and so leading to a rotation in the observed polarization vector. Our results provide evidence for magnetic reconnection as the physical cause of high-energy flares from the relativistic jets of blazars (which recent observations have shown to be frequently associated with polarization rotations), and provide a first-principle physical mechanism for such flares.
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| first_indexed | 2024-03-06T18:35:13Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:0afc54aa-3fa0-4cd2-ba5a-002b4f06ea5a |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-06T18:35:13Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:0afc54aa-3fa0-4cd2-ba5a-002b4f06ea5a2022-03-26T09:27:03ZA first-principle model for polarization swings during reconnection-powered flaresJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:0afc54aa-3fa0-4cd2-ba5a-002b4f06ea5aEnglishSymplectic ElementsIOP Publishing2020Hosking, DNSironi, LWe show that magnetic reconnection in a magnetically dominated fast-cooling plasma can naturally produce bright flares accompanied by rotations in the synchrotron polarization vector. With particle-in-cell simulations of reconnection, we find that flares are powered by efficient particle acceleration at the interface of merging magnetic flux ropes, or "plasmoids." The accelerated particles stream through the post-merger plasmoid toward the observer, thus progressively illuminating regions with varying plane-of-sky field direction, and so leading to a rotation in the observed polarization vector. Our results provide evidence for magnetic reconnection as the physical cause of high-energy flares from the relativistic jets of blazars (which recent observations have shown to be frequently associated with polarization rotations), and provide a first-principle physical mechanism for such flares. |
| spellingShingle | Hosking, DN Sironi, L A first-principle model for polarization swings during reconnection-powered flares |
| title | A first-principle model for polarization swings during reconnection-powered flares |
| title_full | A first-principle model for polarization swings during reconnection-powered flares |
| title_fullStr | A first-principle model for polarization swings during reconnection-powered flares |
| title_full_unstemmed | A first-principle model for polarization swings during reconnection-powered flares |
| title_short | A first-principle model for polarization swings during reconnection-powered flares |
| title_sort | first principle model for polarization swings during reconnection powered flares |
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