The University of Michigan Centimeter-Band All Stokes Blazar Monitoring Program: Single-Dish Polarimetry as a Probe of Parsec-Scale Magnetic Fields

Abstract

The University of Michigan 26-m paraboloid was dedicated to obtaining linear polarization and total flux density observations of blazars from the mid-1960s until June 2012 providing an unprecedented record tracking centimeter-band variability over decades at 14.5, 8.0, and 4.8 GHz for both targeted objects and members of flux-limited samples. In the mid-1970s through the mid-1980s, and during the last decade of the program, observations were additionally obtained of circular polarization for a small sample of radio-bright (S>5Jy), active sources. Key program results include evidence supporting class-dependent differences in the magnetic field geometry of BL Lac and QSO jets, identification of linear polarization changes temporally associated with flux outbursts supporting a shock-in-jet scenario, and determination of the spectral evolution of the Stokes V amplitude and polarity for testing proposed models. Recent radiative transfer modeling during large flares supports a jet scenario with a kinetically-dominated, relativistic flow at parsec scales with embedded turbulent magnetic fields and dynamically-weak ordered components which may be helical; the circular polarization observations are consistent with linear-to-circular mode conversion within this turbulent jet environment.

8 pages, 4 figures, Proceedings of the conference "Polarised Emission from Astrophysical Jets", June 12-16, 2017, Ierapetra, Greece, eds. E. Angelakis, M. Boettcher, and J.-L. Gomez

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Cited by in corpus (6)

• Compact steep-spectrum and peaked-spectrum radio sources
• Blazar jet evolution revealed by multi-epoch broadband radio polarimetry
• The variability of blazars throughout the electromagnetic spectrum
• MOJAVE XXI. Decade-long linear polarization variability in AGN jets at parsec scales
• Feedback in the merging galaxy group NGC6338
• Millimeter-wave Monitoring of Active Galactic Nuclei with the Africa Millimetre Telescope