EPJ Web of Conferences (Dec 2013)

Analyzing polarization swings in 3C 279

  • Kiehlmann S.,
  • Savolainen T.,
  • Jorstad S. G.,
  • Sokolovsky K. V.,
  • Schinzel F. K.,
  • Agudo I.,
  • Arkharov A. A.,
  • Benítez E.,
  • Berdyugin A.,
  • Blinov D. A.,
  • Bochkarev N. G.,
  • Borman G. A.,
  • Burenkov A. N.,
  • Casadio C.,
  • Doroshenko V. T.,
  • Efimova N. V.,
  • Fukazawa Y.,
  • Gómez J. L.,
  • Hagen-Thorn V. A.,
  • Heidt J.,
  • Hiriart D.,
  • Itoh R.,
  • Joshi M.,
  • Kimeridze G. N.,
  • Konstantinova T. S.,
  • Kopatskaya E. N.,
  • Korobtsev I. V.,
  • Kovalev Y. Y.,
  • Krajci T.,
  • Kurtanidze O.,
  • Kurtanidze S. O.,
  • Larionov V. M.,
  • Larionova E. G.,
  • Larionova L. V.,
  • Lindfors E.,
  • López E.,
  • Marscher A. P.,
  • McHardy I. M.,
  • Molina S. N.,
  • Morozova D. A.,
  • Nazarov S.V.,
  • Nikolashvili M. G.,
  • Nilsson K.,
  • Pulatova N. G.,
  • Reinthal R.,
  • Sadun A.,
  • Sergeev S. G.,
  • Sigua L. A.,
  • Sorcia M.,
  • Spiridonova O. I.,
  • Takalo L. O.,
  • Taylor B.,
  • Troitsky I. S.,
  • Ugolkova L. S.,
  • Zensus J. A.,
  • Zhdanova V. E.

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/20136106003
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 61
p. 06003

Abstract

Read online

Quasar 3C 279 is known to exhibit episodes of optical polarization angle rotation. We present new, well-sampled optical polarization data for 3C 279 and introduce a method to distinguish between random and deterministic electric vector position angle (EVPA) variations. We observe EVPA rotations in both directions with different amplitudes and find that the EVPA variation shows characteristics of both random and deterministic cases. Our analysis indicates that the EVPA variation is likely dominated by a random process in the low brightness state of the jet and by a deterministic process in the flaring state.