Constraints on magnetic field and particle content in blazar jets through optical circular polarization

Abstract

Polarization offers a unique view in the physical processes of astrophysical jets. We report on optical circular polarization observations of two famous blazars, namely 3C 279 and PKS 1510-089, at high linearly polarized states. This is the first time PKS 1510-089 is observed in optical circular polarization. While only upper limits can be extracted from our observing campaign, the non-detection of optical circular polarization allows us to provide meaningful constraints on their magnetic field strength and jet composition. We find that high-energy emission models requiring high magnetic field strength and a low positron fraction can be excluded.

arXiv comment5 pages, 1 Table, 1 figure, accepted for publication in MNRAS letters

References in corpus (42)

• Multi-messenger observations of a flaring blazar coincident with high-energy neutrino IceCube-170922A
• Relativistic Jets in Active Galactic Nuclei
• Leptonic and Hadronic Modeling of Fermi-Detected Blazars
• First M87 Event Horizon Telescope Results. VII. Polarization of the Ring
• Probing the Inner Jet of the Quasar PKS 1510-089 with Multi-waveband Monitoring during Strong Gamma-ray Activity
• Constraining Emission Models of Luminous Blazar Sources
• Kinematics of Parsec-Scale Jets of Gamma-Ray Blazars at 43~GHz within the VLBA-BU-BLAZAR Program
• A change in the optical polarization associated with a gamma-ray flare in the blazar 3C 279
• Minute-Timescale >100 MeV gamma-ray variability during the giant outburst of quasar 3C 279 observed by Fermi-LAT in 2015 June
• Modelling the coincident observation of a high-energy neutrino and a bright blazar flare
• Blazar spectral variability as explained by a twisting inhomogeneous jet
• Photohadronic origin of $\gamma$-ray BL Lac emission: implications for IceCube neutrinos
• Observational evidence for the origin of high-energy neutrinos in parsec-scale nuclei of radio-bright active galaxies
• Constraining the limiting brightness temperature and Doppler factors for the largest sample of radio bright blazars
• Polarimetric properties of Event Horizon Telescope targets from ALMA
• RoboPol: Connection between optical polarization plane rotations and gamma-ray flares in blazars
• F-GAMMA: Variability Doppler factors of blazars from multiwavelength monitoring
• Mrk 421 as a case study for TeV and X-ray variability in leptohadronic models
• Parsec-Scale Circular Polarization Observations of 40 Blazars
• Leptonic and Hadronic Radiative Processes in Supermassive-Black-Hole Jets
• Association of IceCube neutrinos with radio sources observed at Owens Valley and Metsähovi Radio Observatories
• RoboPol: AGN polarimetric monitoring data
• Time Dependent Hadronic Modeling of Flat Spectrum Radio Quasars
• POLAMI: Polarimetric Monitoring of Active Galactic Nuclei at Millimetre Wavelengths. II. Widespread circular polarisation
• Polarized QPOs from the INTEGRAL polar IGRJ14536-5522 (=Swift J1453.4-5524)
• Leptonic and Hadronic Modeling of Fermi-LAT Hard Spectrum Quasars and Predictions for High-Energy Polarization
• Two Flares with One Shock: the Interesting Case of 3C 454.3
• Full-Stokes polarimetry with circularly polarized feeds - Sources with stable linear and circular polarization in the GHz regime
• The nature of optical and near-infrared variability of BL Lacertae
• Magnetic field at a jet base: extreme Faraday rotation in 3C 273 revealed by ALMA
• Proton Synchrotron $\gamma$-rays and the Energy Crisis in Blazars
• Optical circular polarization in quasars
• Prospects for Detecting X-ray Polarization in Blazar Jets
• Synchrotron emission from the blazar PG 1553+113. An analysis of its flux and polarization variability
• 3C 279 in Outburst in June 2015: A Broadband-SED Study Based on the INTEGRAL Detection
• Optical polarization properties of AGN with significant VLBI-Gaia offsets
• Faraday Conversion in Turbulent Blazar Jets
• Probing the innermost regions of AGN jets and their magnetic fields with RadioAstron. III. Blazar S5 0716+71 at microarcsecond resolution
• The Time-Dependent Distribution of Optical Polarization Angle Changes in Blazars
• Optical polarization variations in the blazar PKS 1749+096
• Repeated pattern of gamma-ray flares in the lightcurve of the blazar 3C 279
• On the Detection Potential of Blazar Flares for Current Neutrino Telescopes