scholarly journals Polarization Variability of Some Compact Radio Sources

1982 ◽  
Vol 97 ◽  
pp. 331-333
Author(s):  
M. M. Komesaroff ◽  
D. K. Milne ◽  
P. T. Rayner ◽  
J. A. Roberts ◽  
D. J. Cooke

Figure 1 shows observations for four sample sources from the Parkes 5 GHz polarization monitoring programme. Interesting features illustrated include •Sudden changes of the position angle of the linear polarization by ≳ 70° in PKS 0537-441 and 1253-055 (3C279).•A linear increase in the position angle of the polarization of PKS 2134+004 through 70° over 3/12; years.•Distinct bursts of circular polarization in PKS 0430+052, 0537-441 and 1253-055. In PKS 0430+052 (3C120) such a burst coincides with the possible superluminal expansion (Walker et al., 1981). In PKS 1253-055 (3C279) a burst of circular polarization is currently occurring at a time of very low linear polarization.

1987 ◽  
Vol 93 ◽  
pp. 203-203
Author(s):  
V. Piirola ◽  
A. Reiz ◽  
G.V. Coyne

AbstractObservations of linear and circular polarization in five colour bands during a highly active state of VV Puppis in January 86 are reported. A strong linear polarization pulse with the maximum in the blue, PB ≈ 22%, is observed at the end of the bright phase when the active pole is at the limb and a weaker secondary pulse, PB ≈ 7%, is seen in the beginning of the bright phase, when the active pole reappears. Strong positive circular polarization is also observed in the blue and the ultraviolet, РU ≈ PB ≈ 18%, PV ≈ 10% during the bright phase. The circular polarization reverses the sign in the B and V bands during the faint phase and a negative polarization hump is seen when the active pole crosses the limb. The circular polarization in the V band reaches the value PV ≈ −10% at the hump, after which it remains near PV ≈ −5% during the faint phase. This is probably due to radiation coming from the second, less active pole and accretion thus takes place onto both poles. The wavelength dependences of the positive and negative parts of the circular polarization curve are different and no polarization reversal is seen in the U band. The position angle of the linear polarization is well determined during a large portion of the cycle, especially in the V band, thanks to the activity from both poles. A best fit to the position angle curve, taking into account also the duration of the positive circular polarization phase interval ΔΦ = 0.40 (in the V band), yields the values of orbital inclination i = 78° ± 2° and the colatitude of the active magnetic pole ß = 146° ± 2°. The relatively good fit to the position angle data indicates that the simple dipole model is nearly correct in the case of VV Puppis. Some wavelength dependence is, however, seen in the position angle curves, especially in the I band where the slope Δθ/ΔΦ at the main pulse is considerably smaller than in the other bands. The shape of the position angle curves changes also in the blue and the ultraviolet around the middle of the bright phase. This is probably due to optical thickness effects as the side of the accretion column which is toward the observer changes near this phase.


1982 ◽  
Vol 97 ◽  
pp. 59-60
Author(s):  
P. J. Duffett-Smith ◽  
A. Purvis

We have compared measurements of several hundred 3C and 4C radio sources at large redshifts to investigate how radio-source structure changes over a factor of 5–10 in luminosity. Our results show that for z ≳ 0.6: (i)most sources (both 3C and 4C) have hotspots about 3.5 kpc in size (Ho = 50 km s−1 Mpc−1, Ω = 1);(ii)lower-luminosity sources (bottom of 4C) have less-extended outer lobes.


1973 ◽  
Vol 52 ◽  
pp. 161-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. G. Martin

This paper shows that optical observations of circular polarization produced by aligned interstellar grains could yield valuable information about the grain material. The interstellar medium is known to be linearly dichroic from observations of interstellar linear polarization; many different grain models using a large variety of compositions can be found to reproduce these observations. Since the same aligned grains make the medium linearly birefringent, a small component of circular polarization can result from incident linearly polarized light if the position angle of the linear polarization does not coincide with either principal axis of the medium. Here calculations are presented to demonstrate that the wavelength of the circular polarization is sensitive to the imaginary part of the complex refractive index of the grain material. This provides an opportunity of investigating whether the grains are characteristically dielectric or metallic. Some possible observations are suggested.


1977 ◽  
Vol 74 ◽  
pp. 247-257
Author(s):  
G. Burbidge

The topic that I have to introduce today is concerned with the question as to whether or not we can obtain any cosmological information from radio astronomy. Alternatively, we may ask “Where does radio astronomy have an impact on cosmology?” There are several areas that must be discussed. They are: 1)The discovery and interpretation of the microwave background radiation.2)The identification of powerful radio sources and the discovery that many of them have large redshifts. If we can prove that the large redshifts mean that the objects are at great distances, then we can use these radio sources as follows:(a)We can attempt to obtain a Hubble relation for the optical objects which are identified with radio galaxies;(b)We can look for a relation between the angular diameters of the radio sources and the redshifts of the optically identified objects and we can also look at relations between the angular diameter and the radio flux;(c)We can construct log N - log S curves and we can carry out luminosity volume tests.


1992 ◽  
Vol 128 ◽  
pp. 384-386
Author(s):  
D. M. GOULD

Polarimetric observations of over 300 pulsars have been carried out between 21 December 1988 and 22 January 1990 at 606, 610, 925, and 1408 MHz using the Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank. Many of these pulsars have no previously published polarization profiles and will be published shortly (Gould and Lyne 1990). This large data set along with previously published data from various sources, has been used to test the correlation found by Radhakrishnan and Rankin (1990) between sense reversing circular polarization signatures and the accompanying sense of rotation of the linear polarization position angle.


1989 ◽  
Vol 134 ◽  
pp. 406-407
Author(s):  
J. P. Vader ◽  
J. A. Frogel ◽  
F. C. Gillett ◽  
M. H. K. de Grijp

The IRAS Point Source Catalog contains only 61 sources identified as galaxies whose energy distribution peaks at 60 mμ. The scarcity of such galaxies has prompted a search for possible common properties. This sample of ‘60 mμ peakers’, 21 of which are previously identified galaxies, partially overlaps with that of warm IRAS galaxies studied by de Grijp et al. (1987) and contains similar percentages of Seyfert (65%) and starburst galaxies on the one hand, and of strong and weak radio sources on the other hand. A remarkable characteristic is, however, that about half of the 60 mμ peakers seem to be early-type galaxies. The fact that such galaxies are rarely IRAS sources and, if so, have FIR energy distributions peaking at 100 mμ similar to those of spirals, implies that we are sampling active or nuclear starburst early-type galaxies with a very large success rate. The observational data accumulated so far further show that: (i)objects with smaller FIR to near-IR flux ratios have redder J-K colors and warmer 60 to 25 mμ colors, i.e., an infared spectrum dominated by warmer dust and/or a nonthermal source (Figs. 1a,b);(ii)out of 32 objects with radio data, the 5 compact radio sources with luminosities intermediate between those af radio-quiet and radio-loud AGN have among the warmest 60 to 25 mμ colors (Fig. 2). Such warm FIR colors are not a common characteristic of radio galaxies and quasars (Golombek et al. 1987, Neugebauer et al. 1986).(iii)the 60 mμ luminosities range from 109 to 1012 L0, and are largest for Mkn 231, 2306+0505 (Hill et al. 1987) and 2046+1925 (Frogel et al. 1988). The latter 2 objects, along with 0052-7054 (Frogel and Elias 1987) which also belongs to our sample, are Seyfert 2 galaxies with evidence for the presence of a dust-obsured broad line region.


1988 ◽  
Vol 129 ◽  
pp. 81-82
Author(s):  
Philip A. Hughes ◽  
Hugh D. Aller ◽  
Margo F. Aller

Following the success of a simple shock model for outbursts in BL Lacertae and 3C 279 (see Aller, Aller & Hughes, this meeting) we have constructed computer codes to study in detail the radiation from shocked, relativistic jets. These codes compute the transfer of synchrotron radiation, accounting for polarized emission and absorption, rotation, and mode conversion for a turbulent collimated flow with one or more shocks propagating parallel to the jet axis. We present results for a flow that evolves adiabatically, with the turbulence represented by a random component to the magnetic field within each computational cell, and with the shocks prescribed analytically following Königl (Phys. Fluids, 23, 1083, 1980). From the evolution of the total and polarized fluxes as a function of frequency, and from the corresponding projection of the source structure on the plane of the sky, we see that this type of model a.is capable o f explaining the variability of compact radio sources - see Aller, Aller & Hughes, this meeting,b.highlights the care needed when interpreting VLBI maps, in that i)the component separations are frequency dependent (see Fig. 1)ii)the ‘core’ is not always the brightest component (see Fig. 1)iii)the Doppler boosting factor of the shocked flow is not directly related to the Lorentz factor derived from the apparent superluminal motion of a componentiv)a multiplicity of components can give rise to both apparent contractions and accelerations,c.clearly shows the link between time variability of compact sources and evolving VLBI structure, and suggests that both may be understood in terms of weak shocks that tap a small fraction of a jet's flow energy,d.enables us to probe the physical conditions of the flow and the ambient material.


1982 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 365-370 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle C. Allen ◽  
D.B. Melrose

The most obvious feature of the polarization of the radio emission from most pulsars is the rotation of the plane of linear polarization across pulses. The original interpretation of this in terms of the magnetic pole model (Radhakrishnan 1969, Radhakrishnan et al. 1969, Radhakrishnan and Cooke 1969) accounts for the variation of position angle extremely well for some pulsars (e.g. Manchester and Taylor 1977, Manchester 1978). Conversely, this provides strong support for the magnetic pole model for pulsar emission. It also suggests that the emission is basically linearly polarized as implied by virtually all proposed emission mechanisms, e.g. the reviews by Ginzburg and Zheleznyakov (1975) and Arons (1979). However, there are two features of the polarization which require a separate explanation. First, some pulsars have a moderately high degree of circular polarization, even in the integrated pulse profile (Manchester 1971, Lyne, Smith and Graham 1971). In some pulsars the average degree of circular polarization can exceed the average degree of linear polarization, e.g. in PSR 0835-41 and 0959-54 (McCulloch et al. 1978). Second, some pulsars exhibit the phenomenon of transitions between orthogonal elliptical polarizations (Manchester, Taylor and Huguenin 1975, Backer, Rankin and Campbell 1976, Cordes and Hankins 1977, Cordes, Rankin and Backer 1978). In many pulsars the orthogonal polarizations have substantial circular components, e.g. in PSR 1133 + 16 (Manchester et al. 1975) and PSR 2020 + 28 (Cordes et al. 1978).


1996 ◽  
Vol 173 ◽  
pp. 349-350 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.W. Porcas ◽  
A.R. Patnaik ◽  
T.W.B. Muxlow ◽  
M.A. Garrett ◽  
D. Walsh

We present new arcsecond-scale radio images of the gravitational lens system 0957+561 A, B. Observations at 1.6GHz were made in 1991 October with the VLA in A/B configuration with a resolution of 1.5 arcsec (Fig. 1, left). The lowest contour is 0.37 mJy/beam. In addition to the compact A and B image components, and the familiar NE/SW radio double-lobe structure surrounding image A, this map shows two interesting new features: (a)a long, thin feature extending south and west from the NE lobe, some 10 arcsec in extent, confirming the detection by Avruch et al. (1994). It is reminiscent of the ‘arc’ features seen in optical images of lensing clusters, and hopefully can be used to constrain models of the cluster mass distribution. (For the superstitious, one can note that the position angle of the arc, 17°, is identical to that of the VLBI jet in image B, a few arcseconds to the west.)(b)a low-level extension of the B image in the NW direction. We are not aware that this has been seen before. A possible interpretation of this feature is a continuation of the jet emission seen in VLBI images of B, whose counterpart in A is seen in higher resolution maps. The change of position angle between the VLBI and arcsec-scale jets would indeed have opposite parities in the A and B images.


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