Searching for Jet Emission in LMXBs: A Polarimetric View

Abstract

We present results taken from a study aiming at detecting the emission from relativistic particles jets in neutron star-low mass X-ray binaries using optical polarimetric observations. First, we focus on a polarimetric study performed on the persistent LMXB 4U 0614+091. Once corrected for interstellar effects, we measured an intrinsic linear polarization in the r-band of ~3% at a 3σ confidence level. This is in-line with the observation of an infrared excess in the spectral energy distribution (SED) of the source, reported in a previous work, which the authors linked to the optically thin synchrotron emission of a jet. We then present a study performed on the transitional millisecond pulsar PSR J1023+0038 during quiescence. We measured a linear polarization of 1.09 ± 0.27% and 0.90 ± 0.17% in the V and R bands, respectively. The phase-resolved polarimetric curve of the source in the R-band reveals a hint of a sinusoidal modulation at the source orbital period. The NIR -optical SED of the system did not suggest the presence of a jet. We conclude that the optical linear polarization observed for PSR J1023+0038 is possibly due to Thomson scattering with electrons in the disc, as also suggested by the hint of the modulation of the R-band linear polarization at the system orbital period.