RoboPol: first season rotations of optical polarization plane in blazars
| Autor: | Konstantinos Tassis, Talvikki Hovatta, Anthony C. S. Readhead, R. Feiler, Anamparambu N. Ramaprakash, E. Pazderski, P. Khodade, I. E. Papadakis, Emmanouil Angelakis, A. Mahabal, Nikolaos D. Kylafis, I. Myserlis, D. Modi, Ioannis Liodakis, A. J. Kus, J. A. Zensus, T. J. Pearson, Pablo Reig, C. Rajarshi, H.K. Das, Lars Fuhrmann, Mislav Baloković, B. Pazderska, Georgia Panopoulou, O. G. King, Vasiliki Pavlidou, Sebastian Kiehlmann, Dmitry A. Blinov, I. Papamastorakis |
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| Přispěvatelé: | Aalto-yliopisto, Aalto University |
| Rok vydání: | 2015 |
| Předmět: |
Astrophysics::High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
galaxies: active jets [galaxies] nuclei [galaxies] FOS: Physical sciences Astrophysics symbols.namesake Blazar High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE) Physics polarization ta115 Brewster's angle ta213 Astronomy and Astrophysics Optical polarization galaxies: jets Random walk Polarization (waves) Amplitude Space and Planetary Science active [galaxies] symbols Likely outcome Optical emission spectroscopy galaxies: nuclei Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena |
| Zdroj: | Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 453:1669-1683 |
| ISSN: | 1365-2966 0035-8711 |
| DOI: | 10.1093/mnras/stv1723 |
| Popis: | We present first results on polarization swings in optical emission of blazars obtained by RoboPol, a monitoring program of an unbiased sample of gamma-ray bright blazars specially designed for effective detection of such events. A possible connection of polarization swing events with periods of high activity in gamma rays is investigated using the dataset obtained during the first season of operation. It was found that the brightest gamma-ray flares tend to be located closer in time to rotation events, which may be an indication of two separate mechanisms responsible for the rotations. Blazars with detected rotations have significantly larger amplitude and faster variations of polarization angle in optical than blazars without rotations. Our simulations show that the full set of observed rotations is not a likely outcome (probability $\le 1.5 \times 10^{-2}$) of a random walk of the polarization vector simulated by a multicell model. Furthermore, it is highly unlikely ($\sim 5 \times 10^{-5}$) that none of our rotations is physically connected with an increase in gamma-ray activity. 16 pages, 9 figures |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
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