Coordinated Micro-Variability CIRCE Polarimetry and SARA JKT Multi-Frequency Photometry Observations of the Blazar S5 0716+71

Abstract

A critical observation for testing the KRM jet model, in development at FIU, is to observe high time resolution, high accuracy photometry and polarimetry over a wide range of frequencies in the optically thin portion of the synchrotron spectrum. The detection of micro-variability during these observations would be ideal so the background and flaring components could be separated. Target of opportunity H-band photometry and polarimetry observations on the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) 10.4-m with the Canarias InfraRed Camera Experiment (CIRCE) instrument were made in conjunction with the Southeastern Association for Research in Astronomy (SARA) JKT observing in the optical VRI bands in order to test the model. Here we present simultaneous micro-variability observations of Blazar S5 0716+71 made on 14 April 2017, with the CIRCE instrument on the GTC 10.4-m telescope and optical observations made with the 1.0-m SARA JKT in La Palma. The CIRCE observations consisted of high time resolution polarimetric observations in the H band over a period of 2.4 h on source, measuring both the H-band flux and the polarization degree and angle. Simultaneous observations with the SARA JKT 1.0-m yielded VRI light curves with about three minute time resolution over ∼4 h. 0716+71 showed only small amounts of variability during the observation. We present here the resulting data and a comparison to previous observations.

Keywords

• Blazars
• micro-variability
• optical astronomy
• KRM jet model
• relativistic turbulence