Active Galactic Nuclei XVI: A Sea of Discoveries

(Highlight) The IXPE revolution in AGN: from the hot corona to the torus

19 Jun 2026, 15:20

20m

Sala Conferenze presso Autorità di Sistema Portuale (Brindisi)

Talk S9 - Current and Future Facilities for AGN Science: Discussing the implementation and scientific exploitation of major current and future space-based and ground-based facilities with Italian involvement, focusing on maximizing their impact on AGN studies

Speaker

Dr Vittoria Elvezia Gianolli (Clemson University)

Description

The Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) has opened a new observational window on Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), adding X-ray polarimetry to spectroscopy and timing as a fundamental diagnostic of their central engines. By directly probing geometry, IXPE is providing the first constraints on the structure of both the hot corona and the obscuring torus in radio-quiet AGN.
In Seyfert 1 galaxies, joint observations with XMM-Newton, NuSTAR, and Chandra have revealed significant X-ray polarization and polarization angles aligned with the radio jet axis, favoring radially extended coronal geometries. In Compton-thick Seyfert 2 AGN, high polarization degrees (15–20%) provide direct evidence that the primary scatterer is a geometrically thick equatorial torus, as predicted by AGN unification models.
These results demonstrate that X-ray polarimetry has become a powerful and direct probe of AGN structure, from the compact corona to the parsec-scale obscuring material surrounding supermassive black holes.