Intra-night optical polarization monitoring of blazars

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Polychronakis, Aristeidis, Liodakis, Ioannis, Glykopoulou, Anastasia, Blinov, Dmitry, Agudo, Ivan, Jorstad, Svetlana G., Agis-Gonzalez, Beatriz, Capecchiacci, Sara, Floris, Alberto, Kielhmann, Sebastian, Kypriotakis, John A., Langis, Dimitrios A., Mandarakas, Nikos, Pal, Karan, Aceituno, Francisco J., Bonnoli, Giacomo, Casanova, Victor, Emery, Gabriel, Pedrosa, Juan Escudero, Otero-Santos, Jorge, Morcuende, Daniel, Sota, Alfredo, Piirola, Vilppu
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Polychronakis, Aristeidis
Liodakis, Ioannis
Glykopoulou, Anastasia
Blinov, Dmitry
Agudo, Ivan
Jorstad, Svetlana G.
Agis-Gonzalez, Beatriz
Capecchiacci, Sara
Floris, Alberto
Kielhmann, Sebastian
Kypriotakis, John A.
Langis, Dimitrios A.
Mandarakas, Nikos
Pal, Karan
Aceituno, Francisco J.
Bonnoli, Giacomo
Casanova, Victor
Emery, Gabriel
Pedrosa, Juan Escudero
Otero-Santos, Jorge
Morcuende, Daniel
Sota, Alfredo
Piirola, Vilppu
author_facet Polychronakis, Aristeidis
Liodakis, Ioannis
Glykopoulou, Anastasia
Blinov, Dmitry
Agudo, Ivan
Jorstad, Svetlana G.
Agis-Gonzalez, Beatriz
Capecchiacci, Sara
Floris, Alberto
Kielhmann, Sebastian
Kypriotakis, John A.
Langis, Dimitrios A.
Mandarakas, Nikos
Pal, Karan
Aceituno, Francisco J.
Bonnoli, Giacomo
Casanova, Victor
Emery, Gabriel
Pedrosa, Juan Escudero
Otero-Santos, Jorge
Morcuende, Daniel
Sota, Alfredo
Piirola, Vilppu
contents 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 true for polarization variability that allows us to probe particle acceleration and high-energy emission models in blazars. Here we present results from the first pilot study of intra-night optical polarization monitoring conducted using RoboPol at the Skinakas Observatory and supplemented by observations from the Calar Alto, Perkins, and Sierra Nevada observatories. Our results show that while variability patterns can widely vary between sources, variability on timescales as short as minutes is prevalent in blazar jets. The amplitude of variations are typically small, a few percent for the polarization degree and less than 20 degrees for the polarization angle, pointing to a significant contribution to the optical emission from a turbulent magnetic field component, while the overall stability of the polarization angle over time points to a preferred magnetic field orientation.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_10736
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Intra-night optical polarization monitoring of blazars
Polychronakis, Aristeidis
Liodakis, Ioannis
Glykopoulou, Anastasia
Blinov, Dmitry
Agudo, Ivan
Jorstad, Svetlana G.
Agis-Gonzalez, Beatriz
Capecchiacci, Sara
Floris, Alberto
Kielhmann, Sebastian
Kypriotakis, John A.
Langis, Dimitrios A.
Mandarakas, Nikos
Pal, Karan
Aceituno, Francisco J.
Bonnoli, Giacomo
Casanova, Victor
Emery, Gabriel
Pedrosa, Juan Escudero
Otero-Santos, Jorge
Morcuende, Daniel
Sota, Alfredo
Piirola, Vilppu
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
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 true for polarization variability that allows us to probe particle acceleration and high-energy emission models in blazars. Here we present results from the first pilot study of intra-night optical polarization monitoring conducted using RoboPol at the Skinakas Observatory and supplemented by observations from the Calar Alto, Perkins, and Sierra Nevada observatories. Our results show that while variability patterns can widely vary between sources, variability on timescales as short as minutes is prevalent in blazar jets. The amplitude of variations are typically small, a few percent for the polarization degree and less than 20 degrees for the polarization angle, pointing to a significant contribution to the optical emission from a turbulent magnetic field component, while the overall stability of the polarization angle over time points to a preferred magnetic field orientation.
title Intra-night optical polarization monitoring of blazars
topic High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.10736