Ultraviolet Imaging Polarimetry of the Low-Redshift BALQSO Mrk 231

Details Ultraviolet Imaging Polarimetry of the Low-Redshift BALQSO Mrk 231 Ultraviolet Imaging Polarimetry of the Low-Redshift BALQSO Mrk 231

Jul 1996

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996hst..prop.6444s&link_type=abstract

HST Proposal ID #6444

Physics

Hst Proposal Id #6444 Galaxies &Amp, Clusters

Scientific paper

Markarian 231 is an extremely luminous galaxy with a peculiar Seyfert 1 nucleus that exhibits several absorption line systems, extremely powerful Fe II and infrared emission, and high optical and near-UV polarization. Scattering of nuclear light into our line of sight by dust distributed around the AGN produces the observed polarized flux. Several recent studies have established a strong link between Mrk 231 and broad absorption line quasars {BALQSOs}. Its low redshift offers an opportunity to investigate the nuclear structure of a BALQSO-like object in more detail than is possible for the far more distant members of this class of AGN, and thereby test current BALQSO/normal QSO ``unification'' models. Direct imaging of the nucleus would be extremely difficult to interpret given the large amount of circumnuclear scattering. Therefore, we propose to obtain full polarization images of Mrk 231 in ultraviolet light to map the scattering regions within 1 kpc of the nucleus. Individual scattering clouds can be expected to reach polarizations of > 50 This, combined with the excellent spatial resolution of the FOC { 25 pc at the distance of Mrk 231}, will allow for a detailed analysis of the inner regions of Mrk 231 and easily distinguish scattering clouds from unpolarized sources of nuclear ultraviolet flux. Our proposed observations have the potential to answer several fundamental questions concerning the nuclear structure of Mrk 231 {and by analogy, BALQSOs}.

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