X-ray Polarization Signatures from Comptonization by Magnetic Reconnection Plasmoids
Abstract
Emission from X-ray binaries in the hard spectral state is dominated by high-energy radiation attributed to the Compton scattering of seed photons. The prevalent model of the Comptonization by hot electrons or pairs faces the problem of rapid radiative cooling of the emitting particles. A proposed alternative mechanism is the Comptonization by scattering off fast plasmoids formed during magnetic reconnection. In this work, we simulate a simplified model of the plasmoid chain with Monte Carlo radiation transport and report on spectropolarimetric properties. We find that the Comptonization off trans-relativistic bulk plasmoids is not only able to reproduce the 100 keV spectral cutoff, but furthermore produces X-rays that are above 1 keV strongly polarized perpendicular to the reconnection layer. The polarization is stronger than that from the Comptonization by an isotropic hot plasma owing to the confinement of the motion of the scattering plasmoids in the plane of the reconnection layer. The dependence of polarization on azimuthal viewing angle is discussed, along with possible locations for the plasmoid chain in an equatorial current sheet or the sheath of the black hole's relativistic jet.
Versions
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BibTeX
@misc{groger2026xray,
title = {{X-ray Polarization Signatures from Comptonization by Magnetic Reconnection Plasmoids}},
author = {John Groger and Kun Hu and Henric Krawczynski},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2605.26065},
eprint = {2605.26065},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.26065},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - X-ray Polarization Signatures from Comptonization by Magnetic Reconnection Plasmoids
AU - John Groger
AU - Kun Hu
AU - Henric Krawczynski
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/12
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2605.26065
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.26065
AB - Emission from X-ray binaries in the hard spectral state is dominated by high-energy radiation attributed to the Compton scattering of seed photons. The prevalent model of the Comptonization by hot electrons or pairs faces the problem of rapid radiative cooling of the emitting particles. A proposed alternative mechanism is the Comptonization by scattering off fast plasmoids formed during magnetic reconnection. In this work, we simulate a simplified model of the plasmoid chain with Monte Carlo radiation transport and report on spectropolarimetric properties. We find that the Comptonization off trans-relativistic bulk plasmoids is not only able to reproduce the 100 keV spectral cutoff, but furthermore produces X-rays that are above 1 keV strongly polarized perpendicular to the reconnection layer. The polarization is stronger than that from the Comptonization by an isotropic hot plasma owing to the confinement of the motion of the scattering plasmoids in the plane of the reconnection layer. The dependence of polarization on azimuthal viewing angle is discussed, along with possible locations for the plasmoid chain in an equatorial current sheet or the sheath of the black hole's relativistic jet.
ER -