Bibcode
Shahbaz, T.; Fender, R. P.; Watson, C. A.; O'Brien, K.
Bibliographical reference
Magnetic Fields in the Universe II: From Laboratory and Stars to the Primordial Universe - Supplementary CD (Eds. A. Esquivel, J. Franco, G. García-Segura, E. M. de Gouveia Dal Pino, A. Lazarian, S. Lizano, & A. Raga) Revista Mexicana de Astronomía y Astrofísica (Serie de Conferencias) Vol. 36, pp. CD355-CD357 (2009) (http://www.astroscu.unam.mx/~rmaa/)
Advertised on:
8
2009
Citations
0
Refereed citations
0
Description
We present near-infrared linear spectropolarimetry of a sample of
persistent X-ray binaries, Sco X-1, Cyg X-2 and GRS 1915+105. For Sco
X-1 and Cyg X-2, the polarization levels at 2.4 μm are 1.3+/-0.10%
and 5.4+/-0.7%, respectively, which is greater than the polarization
level at 1.65 μm. This cannot be explained by interstellar
polarization or electron scattering in the anisotropic environment of
the accretion flow. We propose that the most likely explanation is that
this is the polarimetric signature of synchrotron emission arising from
close to the base of the jet. For Sco X-1 the position angle of the
radio jet on the sky is approximately perpendicular to the near-infrared
position angle (electric vector), suggesting that the magnetic field is
aligned with the jet. These observations may be a first step towards
probing the ordering, alignment, and variability of the outflow magnetic
field, in a region closer to the central accreting object than is
observed in the radio band.