Incidence of the host galaxy on the measured optical linear polarization of blazars

Abstract

We study the incidence of the underlying host galaxy light on the measured optical linear polarization of blazars. Our methodology consists of the implementation of simulated observations obtained under different atmospheric conditions, which are characterised by the Gaussian $\sigma$ of the seeing function. The simulated host plus active nucleus systems span broad ranges in luminosity, structural properties, redshift, and polarization; this allows us to test the response of the results against each of these parameters. Our simulations show that, as expected, the measured polarization is always lower than the intrinsic value, due to the contamination by non-polarized star light from the host. This effect is more significant when the host is brighter than the active nucleus, and/or a large photometric aperture is used. On the other hand, if seeing changes along the observing time under certain particular conditions, spurious microvariability could be obtained, especially when using a small photometric aperture. We thus give some recommendations in order to minimise both unwanted effects, as well as basic guidelines to estimate a lower limit of the true (nuclear) polarization. As an example, we apply the results of our simulations to real polarimetric observations, with high temporal resolution, of the blazar PKS 0521-365.

arXiv comment9 pages, 9 figures, 4 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

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• Polarization and photometric observations of the gamma-ray blazar PG 1553+113
• Impact of seeing and host galaxy into the analysis of photo-polarimetric microvariability in blazars - Case study of the nearby blazars 1ES 1959+650 and HB89 2201+044
• Optical polarimetry of the blazar CGRaBS~ J0211+1051 from MIRO
• Polarimetry of the potential binary supermassive black hole system in J1430+2303
• Insights into the Long-term behavior of the optical polarization from the blazar 1ES 1959+650
• Revisiting the unification of tidal disruption events with polarimetry