Polarization-sensitive Compton Scattering by Accelerated Electrons

Abstract

Abstract We describe upgrades to a numerical code that computes synchrotron and inverse-Compton emission from relativistic plasma including full polarization. The introduced upgrades concern a scattering kernel that is now capable of scattering the polarized and unpolarized photons on a nonthermal population of electrons. We describe the scheme to approach this problem and we test the numerical code against a known analytic solution. Finally, using the upgraded code, we predict the polarization of light that is scattered off subrelativistic thermal or relativistic thermal and nonthermal free electrons. The upgraded code enables more realistic simulations of emissions from plasma jets associated with accreting compact objects.