Related papers: Testing particle acceleration in blazar jets with …
In an effort to locate the sites of emission at different frequencies and physical processes causing variability in blazar jets, we have obtained high time-resolution observations of BL Lacertae over a wide wavelength range: with the…
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…
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…
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…
With their jet pointing towards us, blazars are ideal tools to study the physics and structure of extragalactic jets. Their powerful jets are cosmic particle accelerators and are alleged to be one of the production sites of the high-energy…
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…
We investigate the previously proposed possibility that multi-epoch broadband polarimetry could act as a complement or limited proxy for VLBI observations of blazars, in that the number of polarised emission components in the jet, and some…
In 2021 BL Lacertae underwent an extraordinary activity phase, which was intensively followed by the Whole Earth Blazar Telescope (WEBT) Collaboration. We present the WEBT optical data in the BVRI bands acquired at 36 observatories around…
We report the detection of high polarization in the first detailed optical linear polarization measurements on the BL Lac object CGRaBS J0211+1051, which flared in $\gamma$-rays on 2011 January 23 as reported by Fermi. The observations were…
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…
Blazars are jetted active galactic nuclei, with the jet aligned along the observer's line of sight. Their spectral energy distributions are dominated by non-thermal emission, with an underlying thermal component at optical/ultraviolet…
Among active galactic nuclei, blazars show extreme variability properties. We here investigate the case of the BL Lac object S4 0954+65 with data acquired in 2019-2020 by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and by the Whole…
Most of the light from blazars, active galactic nuclei with jets of magnetized plasma that point nearly along the line of sight, is produced by high-energy particles, up to $\sim 1$ TeV. Although the jets are known to be ultimately powered…
In this work, we report the presence of rapid intra-night optical variations in both -- flux and polarization of the blazar BL Lacertae during its unprecedented 2020--2021 high state of brightness. The object showed significant flux…
To determine if the recently launched Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) can follow the polarization variations induced by different particle acceleration mechanisms in blazars jets we simulate observations of a high synchrotron peak…
X-ray polarization is a unique new probe of the particle acceleration in astrophysical jets made possible through the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer. Here we report on the first dense X-ray polarization monitoring campaign on the blazar…
BL Lacertae is not only archetypical of an entire class of jet-dominated active galactic nuclei, blazars, but also one of the most active and rapidly changing objects in this class. In the fall of 2024 (September--November), BL Lacertae…
We present a first systematic time series study of a sample of blazars observed by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite $\textit{TESS}$ spacecraft. By cross matching the positions of the sources in the TESS observations with those from…
We report the main results of our six year long intensive optical monitoring on blazars ON 231 (W Com), BL Lac, and 3C 273. Intensive optical monitoring is an indispensable tool to obtain well sampled light curves and thus to understand the…
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…