The Astrophysical Journal (Jan 2023)

X-Ray Polarimetry Reveals the Magnetic-field Topology on Sub-parsec Scales in Tycho’s Supernova Remnant

  • Riccardo Ferrazzoli,
  • Patrick Slane,
  • Dmitry Prokhorov,
  • Ping Zhou,
  • Jacco Vink,
  • Niccolò Bucciantini,
  • Enrico Costa,
  • Niccolò Di Lalla,
  • Alessandro Di Marco,
  • Paolo Soffitta,
  • Martin C. Weisskopf,
  • Kazunori Asakura,
  • Luca Baldini,
  • Jeremy Heyl,
  • Philip E. Kaaret,
  • Frédéric Marin,
  • Tsunefumi Mizuno,
  • C.-Y. Ng,
  • Melissa Pesce-Rollins,
  • Stefano Silvestri,
  • Carmelo Sgrò,
  • Douglas A. Swartz,
  • Toru Tamagawa,
  • Yi-Jung Yang,
  • Iván Agudo,
  • Lucio A. Antonelli,
  • Matteo Bachetti,
  • Wayne H. Baumgartner,
  • Ronaldo Bellazzini,
  • Stefano Bianchi,
  • Stephen D. Bongiorno,
  • Raffaella Bonino,
  • Alessandro Brez,
  • Fiamma Capitanio,
  • Simone Castellano,
  • Elisabetta Cavazzuti,
  • Chien-Ting Chen,
  • Stefano Ciprini,
  • Alessandra De Rosa,
  • Ettore Del Monte,
  • Laura Di Gesu,
  • Immacolata Donnarumma,
  • Victor Doroshenko,
  • Michal Dovčiak,
  • Steven R. Ehlert,
  • Teruaki Enoto,
  • Yuri Evangelista,
  • Sergio Fabiani,
  • Javier A. Garcia,
  • Shuichi Gunji,
  • Kiyoshi Hayashida,
  • Wataru Iwakiri,
  • Svetlana G. Jorstad,
  • Fabian Kislat,
  • Vladimir Karas,
  • Takao Kitaguchi,
  • Jeffery J. Kolodziejczak,
  • Henric Krawczynski,
  • Fabio La Monaca,
  • Luca Latronico,
  • Ioannis Liodakis,
  • Simone Maldera,
  • Alberto Manfreda,
  • Andrea Marinucci,
  • Alan P. Marscher,
  • Herman L. Marshall,
  • Giorgio Matt,
  • Ikuyuki Mitsuishi,
  • Fabio Muleri,
  • Michela Negro,
  • Stephen L. O’Dell,
  • Nicola Omodei,
  • Chiara Oppedisano,
  • Alessandro Papitto,
  • George G. Pavlov,
  • Abel L. Peirson,
  • Matteo Perri,
  • Pierre-Olivier Petrucci,
  • Maura Pilia,
  • Andrea Possenti,
  • Juri Poutanen,
  • Simonetta Puccetti,
  • Brian D. Ramsey,
  • John Rankin,
  • Ajay Ratheesh,
  • Oliver Roberts,
  • Roger W. Romani,
  • Gloria Spandre,
  • Fabrizio Tavecchio,
  • Roberto Taverna,
  • Yuzuru Tawara,
  • Allyn F. Tennant,
  • Nicholas E. Thomas,
  • Francesco Tombesi,
  • Alessio Trois,
  • Sergey S. Tsygankov,
  • Roberto Turolla,
  • Kinwah Wu,
  • Fei Xie,
  • Silvia Zane

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/acb496
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 945, no. 1
p. 52

Abstract

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Supernova remnants are commonly considered to produce most of the Galactic cosmic rays via diffusive shock acceleration. However, many questions regarding the physical conditions at shock fronts, such as the magnetic-field morphology close to the particle acceleration sites, remain open. Here we report the detection of a localized polarization signal from some synchrotron X-ray emitting regions of Tycho’s supernova remnant made by the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer. The derived degree of polarization of the X-ray synchrotron emission is 9% ± 2% averaged over the whole remnant, and 12% ± 2% at the rim, higher than the value of polarization of 7%–8% observed in the radio band. In the west region, the degree of polarization is 23% ± 4%. The degree of X-ray polarization in Tycho is higher than for Cassiopeia A, suggesting a more ordered magnetic field or a larger maximum turbulence scale. The measured tangential direction of polarization corresponds to the radial magnetic field, and is consistent with that observed in the radio band. These results are compatible with the expectation of turbulence produced by an anisotropic cascade of a radial magnetic field near the shock, where we derive a magnetic-field amplification factor of 3.4 ± 0.3. The fact that this value is significantly smaller than those expected from acceleration models is indicative of highly anisotropic magnetic-field turbulence, or that the emitting electrons either favor regions of lower turbulence, or accumulate close to where the orientation of the magnetic field is preferentially radially oriented due to hydrodynamical instabilities.

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