Speaker
Description
The Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) is providing key measurements of the polarization of Radio-Quiet, unobscured AGN. In these sources the IXPE band (2–8 keV) is typically dominated by Comptonized emission from the corona, a cloud of relativistic electrons, whose shape and origin are debated, that up-scatters optical/UV photons from the accretion disk into X-rays. Because spectral data alone cannot uniquely distinguish between competing coronal geometries, polarimetry offers crucial additional constraints.
In this talk, after a brief review of leading corona models, I focus on the 'Wedge' corona: its geometry, plausible physical origins, and the spectral advantages it offers relative to alternative configurations. I then present results from extensive Monte Carlo relativistic simulations with the code MONK, examining how polarization signatures depend on key physical (e.g., black hole spin, coronal temperature, optical depth) and geometric parameters. Finally, I compare these simulated polarization predictions with IXPE observations of radio-quiet, unobscured AGN, showing that the wedge corona can successfully reproduce the measured properties.
| Collaborators (if any) | Stefano Bianchi, Vittoria Gianolli, Andrea Gnarino, Andrea Marinucci, Giorgio Matt, Francesco Ursini, Wenda Zhang |
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