English
Related papers

Related papers: Analyzing polarization swings in 3C 279

200 papers

Identifying the physical mechanism driving blazar flares remains a central challenge in high-energy astrophysics. We show that the energy dependence of the standard deviation of the polarization angle variability ($\sigma_\text{PA}$)…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2026-04-30 Haocheng Zhang , Benjamin de Jonge , Manel Errando , Xiaocan Li , Fan Guo

3C 273 is one of the nearest high-luminosity quasars. Although classified as a blazar, 3C 273 also has some features in Seyferts, whose X-ray may originate from the corona. Since both jet and corona produce power-law spectra in X-ray, the…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2023-12-11 Mingjun Liu , Wenda Zhang , Weimin Yuan

Mildly relativistic, oblique shocks are frequently invoked as possible sites of relativistic particle acceleration and production of strongly variable, polarized multi-wavelength emission from relativistic jet sources such as blazars, via…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2019-04-01 Markus Boettcher , Matthew G. Baring

A multiwavelength temporal and spectral analysis of flares of 3C 279 during November 2017--July 2018 are presented in this work. Three bright gamma-ray flares were observed simultaneously in X-ray and Optical/UV along with a prolonged…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2020-03-04 Raj Prince

The magnetic field morphology of relativistic jets can be studied with circular polarization (CP). Recent 3D relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (RMHD) simulations coupled with radiative transfer calculations make strong predictions about the…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-05-07 Joana A Kramer , Hendrik Müller , Jan Röder , Eduardo Ros

This study investigates polarimetric characteristics of the blazar 3C~454.3 at 22-129~GHz using decadal~(2011-2022) data sets. In addition, we also delve into the origin of the polarization flare observed in 2019. The data sets were…

The orientation of a polarization vector on the Poincare sphere is defined by its position angle (PA) and ellipticity angle (EA). The radio emission from pulsars, magnetars, and fast radio bursts can be elliptically polarized, and…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-09-05 M. M. McKinnon

Gamma-ray emitting blazars have been the targets of many recent or ongoing monitoring programmes. The resulting multi-wavelength data archives are ideal for studying the quiescent and variable behaviour of the blazar PKS 2155-304. Here,…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2017-02-15 Nikki Pekeur , Russ Taylor , Renée Kraan-Korteweg

We report a change in the trajectory of a well studied jet component of the quasar 3C279. The component changes in apparent projected speed and direction, and we find it to be moving with a Lorentz factor gamma >~ 15 at an initial angle of…

A single measurement of linear polarization of a nonthermal source provides direct information about the mean direction and level of ordering of the magnetic field. Monitoring of the polarization in blazars, combined with millimeter-wave…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2015-06-23 Alan P. Marscher

We report on a nine-month monitoring campaign of the blazar PG 1553+113, relying on three observations carried out in 2025 with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) and supported by multi-wavelength facilities. The source displayed…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2026-05-14 Riccardo Middei , Svetlana G. Jorstad , Alan P. Marscher , Ioannis Liodakis , Matteo Perri , Alessandro Maselli , Stefano Ciprini , Emanuele Nardini , Simonetta Puccetti , Laura Di Gesu , Iván Agudo , Dawoon E. Kim , Ioannis Myserlis , A. Trindade Falcão , D. Ł. Król , Lucio A. Antonelli , Tommaso Aniello , Pouya M. Kouch , Kari Nilsson , Elina Lindfors , Tapio Pursimo , Francisco José Aceituno , Víctor Casanova , Gabriel Emery , Juan Escudero Pedrosa , Jorge Otero-Santos , Alfredo Sota , Vilppu Piirola , George A. Borman , Tatiana S. Grishina , Vladimir A. Hagen-Thorn , Evgenia N. Kopatskaya , Elena G. Larionova , Daria A. Morozova , Sergey S. Savchenko , Ekaterina V. Shishkina , Ivan S. Troitskiy , Yulia V. Troitskaya , Andrey A. Vasilyev , Alexey V. Zhovtan , Petra Benke , Lena Debbrecht , Julia Eich , Florian Eppel , Andrea Gokus , Steven Hämmerich , Jonas Heßdörfer , Matthias Kadler , Dana Kirchner , Georgios F. Paraschos , Florian Rösch , Wladislaw Schulga , Mark Gurwell , Garrett Keating , Ramprasad Rao , Emmanouil Angelakis , Alexander Kraus , Beatriz Agís-González , Dmitry Blinov , Anastasia Glykopoulou , Sara Capecchiacci , Alberto Floris , Panagiotis Fotis , Alkmini Koukoutsi , John A. Kypriotakis , Dimitrios A. Langis , Dimitrios Rompogiannakis , Aristeidis Polychronakis , Vasiliki Tsioupli , Stavros Vogiatzis , Orestis Zoumpoulakis , Sumie Tochihara , Ryo Imazawa , Mahito Sasada , Yasushi Fukazawa , Koji S. Kawabata , Makoto Uemura , Tsunefumi Mizuno , Tatsuya Nakaoka , Hiroshi Akitaya , Takahiro Akai

Recent polarimetric observations of blazars indicate the development of current-driven (CD) kink instability after passing the recollimation shocks in the relativistic jets and association with quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs). To…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-11-06 Xu-Fan Hu , Hong-Xuan Jiang , Yosuke Mizuno , Christian M. Fromm , Bhargav Vaidya

We have observed 3C~279 in a gamma-ray flaring state in November 2008. We construct quasi-simultaneous spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of the source for the flaring period of 2008 and during a quiescent period in May 2010. Data have…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2012-06-28 Manasvita Joshi , Svetlana Jorstad , Alan Marscher , Markus Böttcher , Ivan Agudo , Valeri Larionov , Margo Aller , Mark Gurwell , Anne Lähteenmäki

This paper presents a simple model of polarisation rotation in optically thin relativistic jets of blazars. The model is based on the development of helical (kink) mode of current-driven instability. A possible explanation is suggested for…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2017-11-06 Krzysztof Nalewajko

We present five epochs of 15 GHz VLBA observations of 13 AGN. These observations were specially calibrated to detect parsec scale circular polarization and our calibration techniques are discussed and analyzed in detail. We obtained…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-10-31 D. C. Homan , J. F. C. Wardle

Polarization observations of radio pulsars show that abrupt transitions in the polarization vector's position angle can be accompanied by large excursions in the vector's ellipticity angle, suggesting the vector passes near the right or…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2024-08-20 M. M. McKinnon

We investigate the optical polarization properties of high-energy BL Lac objects using data from the RoboPol blazar monitoring program and the Nordic Optical Telescope. We wish to understand if there are differences in the BL Lac objects…

We report on optical-near-infrared photopolarimetric observations of a blazar 3C 454.3 over 200 d. The object experienced an optical outburst in July 2007. This outburst was followed by a short state fainter than $V=15.2$ mag lasting $\sim…

A recent study on the dynamics of the quasi-stationary component (QSC) in the jet of BL~ Lacertae highlighted its significance in evaluating the physical properties of relativistic transverse waves in the parsec-scale jet. Motivated by this…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2026-01-14 T. G. Arshakian , L. A. Hambardzumyan , A. B. Pushkarev , D. C. Homan , E. L. Karapetyan

We present measurements of rotations of the optical polarization of blazars during the second year of operation of RoboPol, a monitoring programme of an unbiased sample of gamma-ray bright blazars specially designed for effective detection…