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Polarization variability of blazars in the optical emission

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Abstract

Polarization studies in blazars are effective tools for analyzing the emission composition and the relativistic jet. In this work, we collected photometric and polarization data from the Steward Observatory Blazar Monitoring Program and performed the following studies. (1) Among the 10 target sources, 8 sources exhibit correlations between the polarization variability (\(P\)) and \(V\)-lightcurves (\(F_{V}\)). (2) When we use the multiorder power law function to fit \(P\) and \(F_{V}\), we obtain several parameters, including the brightening timescale (\(\Delta T_{b}\)) and the dimming timescale (\(\Delta T_{d}\)). In the brightening stage, \(\Delta T_{P|b}\) and \(\Delta T_{F|b}\) were correlated, with a correlation coefficient of \(r=0.45\), and a chance probability of \(p=0.30\%\). In the dimming stage, \(\Delta T_{P|d}\) and \(\Delta T_{F|d}\) exhibited weak correlations. (3) To analyze the origin of the polarization, we study the dependence of polarization on spectral index.

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Acknowledgements

This work was partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC U1831119, NSFC U2031201 and NSFC 11733001). We acknowledge the science research grants from the China Manned Space Project with No. CMS-CSST-2021-A06. Data from the Steward Observatory spectropolarimetric monitoring project were used. This program is supported by Fermi Guest Investigator grants NNX08AW56G, NNX09AU10G, NNX12AO93G, and NNX15AU81G.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Astrophysics, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510006, P.R. China

    Yu-Hai Yuan, Guan-Zhu Ding & Feng-Jie Wu

  2. Astronomy Science and Technology Research Laboratory of Department of Education of Guangdong Province, Guangzhou, 510006, China

    Yu-Hai Yuan, Guan-Zhu Ding & Feng-Jie Wu

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  1. Yu-Hai Yuan
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  2. Guan-Zhu Ding
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Yu-Hai Yuan and Feng-Jie Wu wrote the whole manuscript text. Guan-Zhu Ding made many work about the revision.

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Correspondence to Yu-Hai Yuan.

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Yuan, YH., Ding, GZ. & Wu, FJ. Polarization variability of blazars in the optical emission. Astrophys Space Sci 369, 32 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10509-024-04293-8

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