Gamma-ray astronomy

Abstract:

We determine the effect of intergalactic magnetic fields on the distribution of high-energy gamma rays by performing three-dimensional Monte Carlo simulations of the development of gamma-ray-induced electromagnetic cascades in the magnetized intergalactic medium. We employ the so-called “Large Sphere Observer” method to efficiently simulate blazar gamma ray halos. We study magnetic fields with a Batchelor spectrum and with maximal left- and right-handed helicities. We also consider the case of sources whose jets are tilted with respect to the line of sight. We verify the formation of extended gamma ray halos around the source direction, and observe spiral-like patterns if the magnetic field is helical. We apply the Q-statistics to the simulated halos to extract their spiral nature and also propose an alternative method, the S-statistics. Both methods provide a quantitative way to infer the helicity of the intervening magnetic fields from the morphology of individual blazar halos for magnetic field strengths B≳10−15  G and magnetic coherence lengths Lc≳100  Mpc. We show that the S-statistics has a better performance than the Q-statistics when assessing magnetic helicity from the simulated halos.

Abstract:

We present optical and near-IR linear polarimetry of V404 Cyg during its 2015 outburst and in quiescence. We obtained time-resolved r^΄-band polarimetry when the source was in outburst, near-IR polarimetry when the source was near quiescence and multiple waveband optical polarimetry later in quiescence. The optical-to-near-IR linear polarization spectrum can be described by interstellar dust and an intrinsic variable component. The intrinsic optical polarization, detected during the rise of one of the brightest flares of the outburst, is variable, peaking at 4.5 per cent and decaying to 3.5 per cent. We present several arguments that favour a synchrotron jet origin to this variable polarization, with the optical emission originating close to the jet base. The polarization flare occurs during the initial rise of a major radio flare event that peaks later, and is consistent with a classically evolving synchrotron flare from an ejection event. We conclude that the optical polarization flare represents a jet launching event, the birth of a major ejection. For this event, we measure a rather stable polarization position angle of −9° E of N, implying that the magnetic field near the base of the jet is approximately perpendicular to the jet axis. This may be due to the compression of magnetic field lines in shocks in the accelerated plasma, resulting in a partially ordered transverse field that have now been seen during the 2015 outburst. We also find that this ejection occurred at a similar stage in the repetitive cycles of flares.