Active Galactic Nuclei in polarized light

Abstract

Due to the compactness active galactic nuclei (AGNs) are still unresolved with optical observations. However, structure and physical conditions of the matter in their central parts are especially important to study the processes of the matter accretion to supermassive black holes and eventually these investigations are essential to understand the galaxy evolution. Polarization contains information about the interaction of electromagnetic waves with the environment and provides information about the physical processes in the central regions of the AGNs that could not be found with the help of other optical observations. In this paper, the importance of applying polarimetry methods to the study of geometry, kinematics, and physical processes in active galactic nuclei (AGN) in polarized light is discussed. An overview of the mechanisms of polarization formation, their connection with different structures and scales are provided. Also, we overview the polarimetric investigations based on different assumptions that are done using the observations conducted in Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

arXiv commentProceeding to the XII SCSLSA; published in Open Astronomy

References in corpus (5)

• Exploring the inner region of Type 1 AGNs with the Keck interferometer
• Magnetic Fields of Agns and Standard Accretion Disk Model: Testing by Optical Polarimetry
• AGN Black hole mass estimates using polarization in broad emission Lines
• The intraday variations of polarization vector direction in radio source S5 0716+714
• Line shape variability in a sample of AGN with broad lines

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Optical Spectropolarimetric Variability Properties in Blazars PKS 0637-75 and PKS 1510-089
• Probing AGN with spectropolarimetry: accretion disk and SMBH parameters