A Study of Radio Polarization in Protostellar Jets

TL;DR

This study uses axisymmetric simulations to analyze polarized synchrotron and thermal X-ray emissions in magnetized protostellar jets, revealing how magnetic field structure and jet variability influence observable features.

Contribution

First to compute synthetic polarized and thermal emission maps from magnetized protostellar jet simulations, linking magnetic field geometry and jet dynamics to observable polarization and emission features.

Findings

Variable, low-density jets produce internal knots with significant synchrotron emission.

Jets with toroidal magnetic fields show high polarization; helical fields show lower polarization.

Simulations match observed polarization degrees in protostellar jets.

Abstract

Synchrotron radiation is commonly observed in connection with shocks of different velocities, ranging from relativistic shocks associated with active galactic nuclei, gamma-ray bursts or microquasars to weakly- or non-relativistic flows as those observed in supernova remnants. Recent observations of synchrotron emission in protostellar jets are important not only because they extend the range over which the acceleration process works, but also because they allow to determine the jet and/or interstellar magnetic field structure, thus giving insights on the jet ejection and collimation mechanisms. In this paper, we compute for the first time polarized (synchrotron) and non polarized (thermal X-ray) synthetic emission maps from axisymmetrical simulations of magnetized protostellar jets. We consider models with different jet velocities and variability, as well as toroidal or helical magnetic field. Our simulations show that variable, low-density jets with velocities $\sim$ 1000 km s$^{-1}$ and $\sim$ 10 times lighter than the environment can produce internal knots with significant synchrotron emission, and thermal X-rays in the shocked region of the leading bow shock moving in a dense medium. While models with a purely toroidal magnetic field show a very large degree of polarization, models with helical magnetic field show lower values and a decrease of the degree of polarization, in agreement with observations of protostellar jets.