Mapping the circumnuclear regions of the Circinus galaxy with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer-Reference-Cited by-同舟云学术

Mapping the circumnuclear regions of the Circinus galaxy with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer

Published:2022-11-09 Issue:1 Volume:519 Page:50-58
ISSN:0035-8711
Container-title:Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
language:en
Short-container-title:

Author:

Ursini F¹^ORCID,Marinucci A²^ORCID,Matt G¹,Bianchi S¹^ORCID,Marin F³^ORCID,Marshall H L⁴,Middei R²^ORCID,Poutanen J⁵⁶^ORCID,Rogantini D⁴,De Rosa A⁷^ORCID,Di Gesu L²,García J A⁸,Ingram A⁹¹⁰,Kim D E⁷¹¹¹²^ORCID,Krawczynski H¹³,Puccetti S²,Soffitta P⁷,Svoboda J¹⁴,Tombesi F¹²¹⁵¹⁶,Weisskopf M C¹⁷,Barnouin T³,Perri M¹⁸¹⁹,Podgorny J³¹⁴²⁰,Ratheesh A⁷,Zaino A¹,Agudo I²¹,Antonelli L A¹⁸¹⁹^ORCID,Bachetti M²²^ORCID,Baldini L²³²⁴,Baumgartner W H¹⁷,Bellazzini R²³,Bongiorno S D¹⁷,Bonino R²⁵²⁶^ORCID,Brez A²³,Bucciantini N²⁷²⁸²⁹,Capitanio F⁷,Castellano S²³,Cavazzuti E²,Ciprini S¹⁵¹⁹,Costa E⁷,Del Monte E⁷,Di Lalla N³⁰,Di Marco A⁷^ORCID,Donnarumma I²,Doroshenko V³¹^ORCID,Dovciak M¹⁴,Ehlert S R¹⁷^ORCID,Enoto T³²,Evangelista Y⁷,Fabiani S⁷,Ferrazzoli R⁷,Gunji S³³^ORCID,Heyl J³⁴,Iwakiri W³⁵^ORCID,Jorstad S G³⁶³⁷^ORCID,Karas V¹⁴,Kitaguchi T³²,Kolodziejczak J J¹⁷,La Monaca F⁷^ORCID,Latronico L²⁵,Liodakis I³⁸^ORCID,Maldera S²⁵,Manfreda A²³,Marscher A P³⁶,Mitsuishi I³⁹,Mizuno T⁴⁰,Muleri F⁷,Ng C Y⁴¹,O’Dell S L¹⁷,Omodei N³⁰,Oppedisano C²⁵,Papitto A¹⁸,Pavlov G G⁴²,Peirson A L³⁰,Pesce-Rollins M²³,Petrucci P-O⁴³,Pilia M²²,Possenti A²²,Ramsey B D¹⁷,Rankin J⁷,Romani R W³⁰,Sgrò C²³,Slane P⁴⁴,Spandre G²³,Tamagawa T³²,Tavecchio F⁴⁵,Taverna R⁴⁶,Tawara Y³⁹,Tennant A F¹⁷,Thomas N E¹⁷,Trois A²²^ORCID,Tsygankov S S⁵⁶,Turolla R⁴⁶⁴⁷,Vink J⁴⁸^ORCID,Wu K⁴⁷^ORCID,Xie F⁷⁴⁹,Zane S⁴⁷

Affiliation:

1. Dipartimento di Matematica e Fisica, Università degli Studi Roma Tre , via della Vasca Navale 84, I-00146 Roma, Italy

2. ASI - Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, Via del Politecnico snc , I-00133 Roma, Italy

3. Université de Strasbourg, CNRS, Observatoire Astronomique de Strasbourg , UMR 7550, F-67000 Strasbourg, France

4. Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology , 77 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139, USA

5. Department of Physics and Astronomy , FI-20014 University of Turku, Finland

6. Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences , Profsoyuznaya Str. 84/32, Moscow 117997, Russia

7. INAF Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali , Via del Fosso del Cavaliere 100, I-00133 Roma, Italy

8. Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology , Pasadena, CA 91125, USA

9. Department of Physics - Astrophysics, University of Oxford , Denys Wilkinson Building, Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3RH, UK

10. School of Mathematics, Statistics and Physics, Newcastle University , Herschel Building, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK

11. Dipartimento di Fisica, Universitá degli Studi di Roma ‘La Sapienza’ , Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, I-00185 Roma, Italy

12. Dipartimento di Fisica, Universitá degli Studi di Roma ‘Tor Vergata’ , Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, I-00133 Roma, Italy

13. Physics Department and McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis , St. Louis, MO 63130, USA

14. Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences , Boční II 1401/1, CZ-14100 Praha 4, Czech Republic

15. Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Roma ‘Tor Vergata’ , Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, I-00133 Roma, Italy

16. Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland , College Park, Maryland 20742, USA

17. NASA Marshall Space Flight Center , Huntsville, AL 35812, USA

18. INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma , Via Frascati 33, I-00078 Monte Porzio Catone (RM), Italy

19. Space Science Data Center, Agenzia Spaziale Italiana , Via del Politecnico snc, I-00133 Roma, Italy

20. Astronomical Institute, Charles University , V Holešovičkách 2, CZ-18000 Prague, Czech Republic

21. Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía-CSIC, Glorieta de la Astronomía s/n , E-18008 Granada, Spain

22. INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Cagliari , Via della Scienza 5, I-09047 Selargius (CA), Italy

23. Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare , Sezione di Pisa, Largo B. Pontecorvo 3, I-56127 Pisa, Italy

24. Dipartimento di Fisica, Universitá di Pisa , Largo B. Pontecorvo 3, I-56127 Pisa, Italy

25. Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare , Sezione di Torino, Via Pietro Giuria 1, I-10125 Torino, Italy

26. Dipartimento di Fisica, Universitá degli Studi di Torino , Via Pietro Giuria 1, I-10125 Torino, Italy

27. INAF Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri , Largo Enrico Fermi 5, I-50125 Firenze, Italy

28. Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Universitá degli Studi di Firenze , Via Sansone 1, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino (FI), Italy

29. Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare , Sezione di Firenze, Via Sansone 1, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino (FI), Italy

30. Department of Physics and Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology , Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA

31. Institut für Astronomie und Astrophysik, Universität Tübingen , Sand 1, D-72076 Tübingen, Germany

32. RIKEN Cluster for Pioneering Research , 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan

33. Yamagata University , 1-4-12 Kojirakawa-machi, Yamagata-shi 990-8560, Japan

34. University of British Columbia , Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada

35. Department of Physics, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Chuo University , 1-13-27 Kasuga, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 112-8551, Japan

36. Institute for Astrophysical Research, Boston University , 725 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215, USA

37. Department of Astrophysics, St. Petersburg State University , Universitetsky pr. 28, Petrodvoretz, 198504 St. Petersburg, Russia

38. Finnish Centre for Astronomy with ESO, 20014 University of Turku , Turku 20014, Finland

39. Graduate School of Science, Division of Particle and Astrophysical Science, Nagoya University , Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, Aichi 464-8602, Japan

40. Hiroshima Astrophysical Science Center, Hiroshima University , 1-3-1 Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima, Hiroshima 739-8526, Japan

41. Department of Physics, The University of Hong Kong , Pokfulam, Hong Kong

42. Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pennsylvania State University , University Park, PA 16802, USA

43. Université Grenoble Alpes , CNRS, IPAG, F-38000 Grenoble, France

44. Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian , 60 Garden St, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA

45. INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera , Via E. Bianchi 46, I-23807 Merate (LC), Italy

46. Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Universitá degli Studi di Padova , Via Marzolo 8, I-35131 Padova, Italy

47. Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London , Holmbury St Mary, Dorking, Surrey RH5 6NT, UK

48. Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy & GRAPPA, University of Amsterdam , Science Park 904, NL-1098 XH Amsterdam, the Netherlands

49. Guangxi Key Laboratory for Relativistic Astrophysics, School of Physical Science and Technology, Guangxi University , Nanning 530004, China

Abstract

ABSTRACT We report on the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) observation of the closest and X-ray brightest Compton-thick active galactic nucleus (AGN), the Circinus galaxy. We find the source to be significantly polarized in the 2–6 keV band. From previous studies, the X-ray spectrum is known to be dominated by reflection components, both neutral (torus) and ionized (ionization cones). Our analysis indicates that the polarization degree is 28 ± 7 per cent (at 68 per cent confidence level) for the neutral reflector, with a polarization angle of 18° ± 5°, roughly perpendicular to the radio jet. The polarization of the ionized reflection is unconstrained. A comparison with Monte Carlo simulations of the polarization expected from the torus shows that the neutral reflector is consistent with being an equatorial torus with a half-opening angle of 45°–55°. This is the first X-ray polarization detection in a Seyfert galaxy, demonstrating the power of X-ray polarimetry in probing the geometry of the circumnuclear regions of AGNs, and confirming the basic predictions of standard Unification Models.

Funder

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Marshall Space Flight Center

Italian Space Agency

Agenzia Spaziale Italiana

INAF

Goddard Space Flight Center

Academy of Finland

Royal Society

CNRS

CNES

Publisher