Contribution of parsec-scale material on to the polarized X-ray spectrum of type 1 Seyfert galaxies

0496097 - ASÚ 2020 RIV GB eng J - Journal Article
Marin, F. - Dovčiak, Michal - Kammoun, E.S.
Contribution of parsec-scale material on to the polarized X-ray spectrum of type 1 Seyfert galaxies.
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Roč. 478, č. 1 (2018), s. 950-960. ISSN 0035-8711. E-ISSN 1365-2966
R&D Projects: GA MŠMT LTI17018
Institutional support: RVO:67985815
Keywords : active galaxies * polarization * radiative transfer
OECD category: Astronomy (including astrophysics,space science)
Impact factor: 5.231, year: 2018
Method of publishing: Limited access
https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/sty1062

In this paper, we examine the contribution of remote material on to the polarized X-ray spectrum of type 1 Seyfert galaxies (Seyfert-is) using radiative transfer Monte Carlo codes. We find that the observed X-ray polarization strongly depends on the initial polarization emerging from the disc-corona system. For unpolarized and parallelly polarized photons (parallel to the disc), the contribution is negligible below 3 keV and tends to increase the polarization degree by up to one percentage points at higher energies, smoothing out the energy-dependent variations of the polarization angle. For perpendicularly polarized corona photons, the addition of the circumnuclear scattered (parallel) component adds to the polarization above 10 keV, decreases polarization below 10 keV and shifts the expected 90 degrees rotation of the polarization angle to lower energies. In conclusion, we found that simulations of Seyfert-1s that do not account for reprocessing on the parsec-scale equatorial and polar material are under- or overestimating the X-ray polarization by 0.1-1 percentage points.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0288907