No Clear Correlation between X-ray Spectral Properties and Polarization for High Synchrotron Peaked Blazars

Abstract

IXPE has enabled the X-ray polarizations of many blazars to be measured. We analyze X-ray spectropolarimetric data for all high synchrotron peaked blazars observations published by the IXPE team. We find that there are no statistically significant correlations between the X-ray polarimetric properties of the blazars and their X-ray spectral properties. This implies that there is no connection between the energy distribution of the X-ray emitting electrons and the uniformity of the magnetic field in the X-ray emitting regions of these blazars. We also find that the X-ray polarizations vary significantly between blazars and observations of the same blazar, implying the level of uniformity of the magnetic field in the X-ray emitting region is highly variable. This result will inform future theoretical work and potentially help narrow down the acceleration process of the synchrotron electrons.