Synchrotron Polarization of Relativistic Thermal Electrons

Abstract

Relativistic electrons accelerated by both the first-order and the second-order Fermi accelerations in some synchrotron sources have a hybrid shape of thermal and nonthermal energy distribution. This particle acceleration result is supported by some recent numerical simulations. We calculate the synchrotron polarization by applying this electron energy distribution. The polarization degrees in the cases of active galactic nucleus (AGN) jets and gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are given as examples. The possible application for the polarization study of Sgr A* is also mentioned. We finally suggest high-energy polarization measurements for these synchrotron sources to test our results.