The Variable Optical Polarization and FERMI Observations of PMN J0948+0022

Abstract

We report on observations of the γ-ray and optical photopolarimetric behavior of the radio-loud, narrow line type-1 Seyfert galaxy PMN J0948+0022 over a twenty seven month period. As this object has recently been suggested to represent a prototype of an emerging class of blazar-like objects, the observed properties are compared to those of blazars. We extract doubling timescales of roughly 4 hours for the optical and γ-ray bands. The rapid microvariability in the optical/NIR, significant and variable optical polarization, and strong yet rapidly-variable γ-ray emission we observe for PMN J0948+0022 are all classical observational characteristics associated with blazars. However, since these observations do not show a clear correlation between the γ-ray and optical behavior, they do not offer conclusive proof that the emissive behavior of PMN J0948+0022 is due to a relativistic jet oriented close to our line of sight.

19 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables, Submitted to the Astrophysical Journal, Jan. 02, 2013

References in corpus (6)

• Radio-loud Narrow-Line Type 1 Quasars
• A change in the optical polarization associated with a gamma-ray flare in the blazar 3C 279
• Fermi-LAT Observations of Two Gamma-Ray Emission Components from the Quiescent Sun
• Radio to gamma-ray variability study of blazar S5 0716+714
• Radio-to-gamma-ray Monitoring of the Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 Galaxy PMN J0948+0022 from 2008 to 2011
• The Extreme Optical Variability of J0948+0022

Cited by in corpus (11)

• The most powerful flaring activity from the NLSy1 PMN J0948+0022
• Minute-Scale Rapid Variability of Optical Polarization in Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 Galaxy: PMN J0948+0022
• Multiwavelength observations of the gamma-ray emitting narrow-line Seyfert 1 PMN J0948+0022 in 2011
• Intra-Night Optical monitoring of three γ-ray detected Narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies
• The RoboPol Program: Optical Polarimetric Monitoring of Blazars
• Discovery of Dramatic Optical Variability in SDSS J1100+4421: A Peculiar Radio-Loud Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 Galaxy?
• Radio jet structures at ~100 parsec and larger scales of the $\gamma$-ray-emitting narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy PMN J0948+0022
• Optical polarisation variability of radio loud narrow line Seyfert 1 galaxies. Search for long rotations of the polarisation plane
• Multiwavelength variability of gamma-ray emitting narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies
• Short time-scale variability of $\gamma$-ray-emitting narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies in optical and UV bands
• Intra-night optical variability study of a non-jetted narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy: SDSS J163401.94+480940.1