We describe recent results for Sgr A*, M81* and other low luminosity active galactic nuclei. We have conducted linear and circular polarimetry over a frequency range of 1.4 to 230 GHz and detected a variety of phenomena. The polarization properties of the studied sources are substantially different from higher powered AGN. In the case of Sgr A*, we are able to eliminate ADAFs and Bondi-Hoyle flows as possible models based on mm λ polarimetry. Our success with Sgr A* demonstrates that we can learn about the nature of accretion and outflow in these sources with unprecedented detail. We may also develop probes of general relativity in the strong-field limit.
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0302228,
title = {Linear and Circular Polarization from Sagittarius A* and M81*},
author = {Geoffrey C. Bower},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0302228},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
to appear in Circular Polarization Workshop Proceedings, Fender & Macquardt, eds., 10 pages, 5 figures