超大质量黑洞喷流中分钟级偏振角旋转的发现
Discovery of minute-scale polarization angle rotation in a supermassive black hole jet
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中文总结 AI 辅助
本研究通过光学偏振与射电干涉测量，发现耀变体喷流中约80分钟内136°的极快偏振角旋转，并归因于相对论效应及驻波与移动激波的相互作用。
中文摘要 AI 辅助
来自超大质量黑洞的相对论性喷流，当其朝向我们的视线方向时被称为耀变体，几十年来一直困扰着天文学界。它们的高速喷流和优先对齐产生了一层相对论效应的迷雾，掩盖了其真实性质。光学偏振测量——追踪喷流中磁场的均匀性、方向和演化——揭示了耀变体独有的现象：磁场的相干变化表现为偏振角（$\Psi$）的旋转。这些旋转的起源已被争论了几十年，并提出了多种模型来解释它们。我们探测到偏振角在约80分钟内发生了约136°的极快——分钟级时间尺度——旋转，使其成为已知最快的旋转，速度几乎快了一个数量级。我们的光学偏振观测与射电甚长基线干涉测量相结合，使我们能够排除不同的粒子加速模型，并强烈指向相对论效应以及驻波和移动激波的相互作用作为喷流中极端偏振变化的起源。
英文摘要
Relativistic jets from supermassive black holes oriented towards our line of sight called blazars have puzzled the astronomical community for decades. Their fast jets and preferential alignment creates a fog of relativistic effects that obscures their true properties. Optical polarimetry - tracing the uniformity, direction, and evolution of the magnetic field in the jets, has revealed a unique phenomenon to blazars; coherent changes of the magnetic field manifesting as rotations of the polarization angle ($Ψ$). The origin of those rotations has been debated for decades with several proposed models to explain them. We detected an extremely fast - minute time-scale - rotation in the polarization angle of $\sim136^\circ$ over the span of about 80 minutes, making it the fastest known rotation by almost an order of magnitude. Our optical polarization observations combined with radio very long baseline interferometry allow us to reject different models of particle acceleration and strongly point to relativistic effects and the interaction of standing and moving shock waves as the origin of the extreme polarization variations in jets.
发表机构
- University of Crete（克里特大学）
- Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas（希腊研究与技术基金会）
- The Pennsylvania State University（宾夕法尼亚州立大学）
- Institute of Astrobiology, University of Crete（克里特大学天体生物学研究所）
- Chalmers University of Technology（查尔姆斯理工大学）
- Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg（埃尔朗根-纽伦堡弗里德里希·亚历山大大学）
机构由 AI 辅助整理，请以论文原文为准。
