Simulations on Synchrotron Radiation Intensity and Rotation Measure of Relativistic Magnetized Jet PKS 1502+106

Abstract

Strong γ-ray outbursts have been observed to emanate from PKS 1502+106, followed by highly variable fluxes in radio, visual, ultraviolet and X-ray bands. Numerical simulations have been conducted to relate the observations to potential theoretical models. The plasma attributes, such as mass density, plasma flow velocity and energy density, cannot be directly observed. However, the Stokes parameters of synchrotron radiation from the plasma can be measured to deduce the plasma attributes. Many studies have been conducted on synchrotron radiation intensity, with only a few on the rotation measure (RM) related to Faraday rotation. In this work, overpressured relativistic magnetized axisymmetric jets are simulated to acquire the synchrotron radiation maps, incorporating Faraday rotation, of the widely discussed jet, PKS 1502+106. The intensity maps and RM maps of the PKS 1502+106 are simulated under practical constraints, and compared with the available observation data to explore specific features of the jet. The simulated intensity maps match well with the observation data in size and shape. The observed spine–sheath polarization structure, sign change in the RM slice and opposite RM gradients have been reproduced. The conjecture of helical magnetic field morphology in the literature has also been validated by comparing the simulation results under different magnetic field morphologies.