Polarization-sensitive Compton scattering by accelerated electrons

TL;DR

This paper presents enhancements to a numerical code for simulating polarized Compton scattering in relativistic plasma, enabling more accurate modeling of emissions from plasma jets near compact objects.

Contribution

The paper introduces a new scattering kernel capable of handling polarized and unpolarized photons on non-thermal electron populations, improving simulation realism.

Findings

Validated the upgraded code against known analytic solutions.

Predicted polarization signatures of scattered light in various electron regimes.

Enhanced the capability to simulate emissions from plasma jets near compact objects.

Abstract

We describe upgrades to a numerical code which computes synchrotron and inverse-Compton emission from relativistic plasma including full polarization. The introduced upgrades concern scattering kernel which is now capable of scattering the polarized and unpolarized photons on non-thermal population of electrons. We describe the scheme to approach this problem and we test the numerical code against known analytic solution. Finally, using the upgraded code, we predict polarization of light that is scattered off sub-relativistic thermal or relativistic thermal and non-thermal free electrons. The upgraded code enables more realistic simulations of emissions from plasma jets associated with accreting compact objects.