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Title: RoboPol: first season rotations of optical polarization plane in blazars

Abstract

Here, we present first results on polarization swings in optical emission of blazars obtained by RoboPol, a monitoring programme of an unbiased sample of gamma-ray bright blazars specially designed for effective detection of such events. A possible connection of polarization swing events with periods of high activity in gamma-rays is investigated using the data set obtained during the first season of operation. It was found that the brightest gamma-ray flares tend to be located closer in time to rotation events, which may be an indication of two separate mechanisms responsible for the rotations. Blazars with detected rotations during non-rotating periods have significantly larger amplitude and faster variations of polarization angle than blazars without rotations. Our simulations show that the full set of observed rotations is not a likely outcome (probability ≤1.5 × 10-2) of a random walk of the polarization vector simulated by a multicell model. Furthermore, it is highly unlikely (~5 × 10-5) that none of our rotations is physically connected with an increase in gamma-ray activity.

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [5];  [7];  [8];  [6];  [9];  [7];  [8];  [10];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [8] more »;  [8];  [2];  [5];  [7];  [7];  [10];  [5];  [2];  [6] « less
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Univ. of Crete, Heraklion (Greece). Inst. for Plasma Physics, Dept. of Physics; St. Petersburg State Univ., St. Petersburg (Russia). Astronomical Inst.
  2. Univ. of Crete, Heraklion (Greece). Inst. for Plasma Physics, Dept. of Physics; Foundation for Research and Technology (Forth), Heraklion (Greece). Inst. of Electronic Structure and Laser (IESL)
  3. Max Planck Inst. for Radio Astronomy, Bonn (Germany)
  4. Univ. of Crete, Heraklion (Greece). Inst. for Plasma Physics, Dept. of Physics
  5. California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States). Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics
  6. Max Planck Inst. for Radio Astronomy, Bonn (Germany)
  7. Inter-Univ. Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Ganeshkhind (India)
  8. Nicolaus Copernicus Univ., Torun (Poland). Centre for Astronomy
  9. Aalto Univ., Metsahovi, (Finland). Metsahovi Radio Observatory
  10. Foundation for Research and Technology (Forth), Heraklion (Greece). Inst. of Electronic Structure and Laser (IESL); Univ. of Crete, Heraklion (Greece). Inst. for Plasma Physics, Dept. of Physics
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE; National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); European Commission (EC); National Science Foundation (NSF); Polish National Science Centre (NCN)
OSTI Identifier:
1354926
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-76SF00515; NNX11A043G; AST-1109911; NNX14AQ07H; 2011/01/B/ST9/04618; PCIG-GA-2011-293531
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 453; Journal Issue: 2; Journal ID: ISSN 0035-8711
Publisher:
Royal Astronomical Society
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; polarization, galaxies: active, galaxies: jets, galaxies: nuclei

Citation Formats

Blinov, D., Pavlidou, V., Papadakis, I., Kiehlmann, S., Panopoulou, G., Liodakis, I., King, O. G., Angelakis, E., Baloković, M., Das, H., Feiler, R., Fuhrmann, L., Hovatta, T., Khodade, P., Kus, A., Kylafis, N., Mahabal, A., Myserlis, I., Modi, D., Pazderska, B., Pazderski, E., Papamastorakis, I., Pearson, T. J., Rajarshi, C., Ramaprakash, A., Reig, P., Readhead, A. C. S., Tassis, K., and Zensus, J. A. RoboPol: first season rotations of optical polarization plane in blazars. United States: N. p., 2015. Web. doi:10.1093/mnras/stv1723.
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Blinov, D., Pavlidou, V., Papadakis, I., Kiehlmann, S., Panopoulou, G., Liodakis, I., King, O. G., Angelakis, E., Baloković, M., Das, H., Feiler, R., Fuhrmann, L., Hovatta, T., Khodade, P., Kus, A., Kylafis, N., Mahabal, A., Myserlis, I., Modi, D., Pazderska, B., Pazderski, E., Papamastorakis, I., Pearson, T. J., Rajarshi, C., Ramaprakash, A., Reig, P., Readhead, A. C. S., Tassis, K., & Zensus, J. A. RoboPol: first season rotations of optical polarization plane in blazars. United States. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stv1723
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Blinov, D., Pavlidou, V., Papadakis, I., Kiehlmann, S., Panopoulou, G., Liodakis, I., King, O. G., Angelakis, E., Baloković, M., Das, H., Feiler, R., Fuhrmann, L., Hovatta, T., Khodade, P., Kus, A., Kylafis, N., Mahabal, A., Myserlis, I., Modi, D., Pazderska, B., Pazderski, E., Papamastorakis, I., Pearson, T. J., Rajarshi, C., Ramaprakash, A., Reig, P., Readhead, A. C. S., Tassis, K., and Zensus, J. A. Wed . "RoboPol: first season rotations of optical polarization plane in blazars". United States. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stv1723. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1354926.
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@article{osti_1354926,
title = {RoboPol: first season rotations of optical polarization plane in blazars},
author = {Blinov, D. and Pavlidou, V. and Papadakis, I. and Kiehlmann, S. and Panopoulou, G. and Liodakis, I. and King, O. G. and Angelakis, E. and Baloković, M. and Das, H. and Feiler, R. and Fuhrmann, L. and Hovatta, T. and Khodade, P. and Kus, A. and Kylafis, N. and Mahabal, A. and Myserlis, I. and Modi, D. and Pazderska, B. and Pazderski, E. and Papamastorakis, I. and Pearson, T. J. and Rajarshi, C. and Ramaprakash, A. and Reig, P. and Readhead, A. C. S. and Tassis, K. and Zensus, J. A.},
abstractNote = {Here, we present first results on polarization swings in optical emission of blazars obtained by RoboPol, a monitoring programme of an unbiased sample of gamma-ray bright blazars specially designed for effective detection of such events. A possible connection of polarization swing events with periods of high activity in gamma-rays is investigated using the data set obtained during the first season of operation. It was found that the brightest gamma-ray flares tend to be located closer in time to rotation events, which may be an indication of two separate mechanisms responsible for the rotations. Blazars with detected rotations during non-rotating periods have significantly larger amplitude and faster variations of polarization angle than blazars without rotations. Our simulations show that the full set of observed rotations is not a likely outcome (probability ≤1.5 × 10-2) of a random walk of the polarization vector simulated by a multicell model. Furthermore, it is highly unlikely (~5 × 10-5) that none of our rotations is physically connected with an increase in gamma-ray activity.},
doi = {10.1093/mnras/stv1723},
journal = {Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society},
number = 2,
volume = 453,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Aug 26 00:00:00 EDT 2015},
month = {Wed Aug 26 00:00:00 EDT 2015}
}
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https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stv1723
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    Works referencing / citing this record:

    Insights into the emission of the blazar 1ES 1011+496 through unprecedented broadband observations during 2011 and 2012
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    Polarization angle swings in blazars: The case of 3C 279
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    Detection of the blazar S4 0954+65 at very-high-energy with the MAGIC telescopes during an exceptionally high optical state
    journal, September 2018

    F-GAMMA: Multi-frequency radio monitoring of Fermi blazars : The 2.64 to 43 GHz Effelsberg light curves from 2007–2015⋆
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    The magnetic field structure in CTA 102 from high-resolution mm-VLBI observations during the flaring state in 2016–2017
    journal, February 2019

    Multiwavelength photometric and spectropolarimetric analysis of the FSRQ 3C 279
    journal, June 2018

    • Patiño-Álvarez, V. M.; Fernandes, S.; Chavushyan, V.
    • Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 479, Issue 2
    • DOI: 10.1093/mnras/sty1497

    Probing the unidentified Fermi blazar-like population using optical polarization and machine learning
    journal, April 2019

    • Liodakis, I.; Blinov, D.
    • Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 486, Issue 3
    • DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stz1008

    RoboPol: a four-channel optical imaging polarimeter
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    • Ramaprakash, A. N.; Rajarshi, C. V.; Das, H. K.
    • Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 485, Issue 2
    • DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stz557

    Multiwavelength Picture of the Blazar S5 0716+714 during Its Brightest Outburst
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    Blazar Optical Polarimetry: Current Progress in Observations and Theories
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    Systematic Study of Gamma-Ray-Bright Blazars with Optical Polarization and Gamma-Ray Variability
    journal, December 2016

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    Reversals in the Direction of Polarization Rotation in OJ 287
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    journal, September 2018

    The Polarization Behavior of Relativistic Synchrotron Self-Compton Jets
    journal, November 2019

    Multiwavelength picture of the blazar S5 0716+714 during its brightest outburst
    text, January 2016

    • Manganaro, Marina; Pedaletti, Giovanna; Doert, Marlene
    • Technische Universität Dortmund
    • DOI: 10.17877/de290r-20321

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    text, January 2016

    Insights into the emission of the blazar 1ES 1011+496 through unprecedented broadband observations during 2011 and 2012
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    Multiwavelength Picture of the Blazar S5 0716+714 during Its Brightest Outburst
    text, January 2016

    • Manganaro, Marina; Pedaletti, Giovanna; Doert, Marlene
    • Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, DESY, Hamburg
    • DOI: 10.3204/pubdb-2017-08797

    Detection of the blazar S4 0954+65 at very-high-energy with the MAGIC telescopes during an exceptionally high optical state
    text, January 2018

    • Ahnen, M. L.; Ansoldi, S.; Antonelli, L. A.
    • Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, DESY, Hamburg
    • DOI: 10.3204/pubdb-2018-03717

    Polarization angle swings in blazars: The case of 3C 279
    text, January 2016

    Optical polarization of high-energy BL Lac objects
    text, January 2016

    Systematic Study of Gamma-ray bright Blazars with Optical Polarization and Gamma-ray Variability
    text, January 2016

    Multiwavelength picture of the blazar S5 0716+714 during its brightest outburst
    text, January 2017

    Multiwavelength Photometric and Spectropolarimetric Analysis of the FSRQ 3C 279
    text, January 2018

    RoboPol: A four-channel optical imaging polarimeter
    text, January 2019

    The Polarization Behavior of Relativistic Synchrotron Self-Compton Jets
    text, January 2019

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