Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Time-variable polarization is an extremely valuable observational tool to probe the dynamical physical conditions of blazar jets. Since 2008, we have been monitoring the flux and linear polarization of a sample of gamma-ray bright blazars at optical frequencies. Some of the observations were performed on nightly or intra-night time-scales in four optical bands, providing information on the frequency and time dependence of the polarization. The observed behavior is similar to that found in simulations of turbulent plasma in a relativistic jet that contains a standing shock and/or a helical background magnetic field. Similar simulations predict the characteristics of X-ray syn-chrotron polarization of blazars that will be measured in the future by the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE).
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 27 |
| Number of pages | 17 |
| Journal | Galaxies |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jun 2021 |
ID: 86508392