RoboPol: Do optical polarization rotations occur in all blazars?
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
2016-08-31 v1
Abstract
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 determining whether these events are inherent in all blazars. It is found that the frequency of the polarization plane rotations varies widely among blazars. This variation cannot be explained either by a difference in the relativistic boosting or by selection effects caused by a difference in the average fractional polarization. We conclude that the rotations are characteristic of a subset of blazars and that they occur as a consequence of their intrinsic properties.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1607.04292,
title = {RoboPol: Do optical polarization rotations occur in all blazars?},
author = {D. Blinov and V. Pavlidou and I. Papadakis and S. Kiehlmann and I. Liodakis and G. V. Panopoulou and T. J. Pearson and E. Angelakis and M. Baloković and T. Hovatta and V. Joshi and O. G. King and A. Kus and N. Kylafis and A. Mahabal and A. Marecki and I. Myserlis and E. Paleologou and I. Papamastorakis and E. Pazderski and S. Prabhudesai and A. Ramaprakash and A. C. S. Readhead and P. Reig and K. Tassis and J. A. Zensus},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1607.04292},
year = {2016}
}
Comments
12 pages, 8 figures, accepted by MNRAS