Related papers: The RoboPol Program: Optical Polarimetric Monitori…
The RoboPol instrument and the relevant program was developed in order to conduct a systematic study of the optical polarisation variability of blazars. Driven by the discovery that long smooth rotations of the optical polarisation plane…
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…
The RoboPol program has been monitoring the $R$-band linear polarisation parameters of an unbiased sample of 60 gamma-ray-loud blazars and a "control" sample of 15 gamma-ray-quite ones. The prime drive for the program has been the…
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…
We use results of our 3 year polarimetric monitoring program to investigate the previously suggested connection between rotations of the polarization plane in the optical emission of blazars and their gamma-ray flares in the GeV band. The…
We present a new set of optical polarization plane rotations in blazars, observed during the third year of operation of RoboPol. The entire set of rotation events discovered during three years of observations is analysed with the aim of…
We identify rotations of the polarization angle in a sample of blazars observed for three seasons with the RoboPol instrument. A simplistic stochastic variability model is tested against this sample of rotation events. The model is capable…
Blazars are known for their extreme variability across the electromagnetic spectrum. Variability at very short timescales can push the boundaries between competing models offering us much needed discriminating power. This is particularly…
We present average R-band optopolarimetric data, as well as variability parameters, from the first and second RoboPol observing season. We investigate whether gamma- ray--loud and gamma-ray--quiet blazars exhibit systematic differences in…
Blazars are highly variable active galactic nuclei which emit radiation at all wavelengths from radio to gamma-rays. Polarized radiation from blazars is one key piece of evidence for synchrotron radiation at low energies and it also varies…
We describe a geometric model for synchrotron radiation from blazar jets, involving multiple emission zones with turbulent magnetic fields and a transient core with a helical B field. Including the effects of jet divergence, particle…
Both leptonic and hadronic emission processes may contribute to blazar jet emission; which dominates in blazars's high energy emission component remains an open question. Some intermediate synchrotron peaked blazars transition from their…
We describe the data reduction pipeline and control system for the RoboPol project. The RoboPol project is monitoring the optical $R$-band magnitude and linear polarization of a large sample of active galactic nuclei that is dominated by…
We present first results from RoboPol, a novel-design optical polarimeter operating at the Skinakas Observatory in Crete. The data, taken during the May - June 2013 commissioning of the instrument, constitute a single-epoch linear…
Time-variable polarization is an extremely valuable observational tool to probe the dynamical physical conditions of blazar jets. Since 2008, we have been monitoring the flux and linear polarization of a sample of gamma-ray bright blazars…
Active galactic nuclei come in many varieties. A minority of them are radio-loud, and exhibit two opposite prominent plasma jets extending from the proximity of the supermassive black hole up to megaparsec distances. When one of the…
Polarimetric properties of blazars allow us to put constraints on the acceleration mechanisms that fuel their powerful jets. By studying the multiwavelength polarimetric behaviour of high synchrotron peaked (HSP) and low synchrotron peaked…
Blazars are astrophysical sources whose emission is dominated by non-thermal processes, typically interpreted as synchrotron and inverse Compton emission. Although the general picture is rather robust and consistent with observations, many…
At optical/ultraviolet energies, blazars display an underlying thermal (unpolarized) contribution from the accretion disc, torus and line emitting regions, diluting the polarized emission from the jet-component. Optical polarimetry can be…
A high degree of linear polarization measured in the optical emission is an important observational feature of blazars. It provides strong evidence of the presence of relativistic particles and magnetic field ordering in the non-thermal…