Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
May 2002
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002aas...200.4503z&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, 200th AAS Meeting, #45.03; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 34, p.714
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
A broad frequency range and low instrumental polarization makes the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) an ideal instrument for studying polarimetry at sub-milliarcsecond resolution. To take advantage of these unique capabilities we have conducted a multi-frequency polarization survey of 40 radio-loud AGN (Quasars, BL Lacs, and radio galaxies). Our aim is to use Faraday Rotation Measures (RMs) as a probe of the central 1-50 parsecs of these objects. The RM is produced by the line of sight magnetic field weighted by the electron density. Using the electron density established through spectral line diagnostics a magnetic field strength and topology can be estimated within a few parsecs of the central engines of these AGN. The observations for the survey are complete, and we present the first results for 8 quasars, 5 BL Lacs, and 4 radio galaxies. The magnitudes for the RMs range from several thousand rad m-2 in the quasars and radio galaxies to a few hundred rad m-2 in the BL Lac objects. These values are in agreement with the basic ideas of the unified model for AGN. We also observe variations in the RM on small spatial (< ~ 1 pc) in radio galaxies and quasars; and short time scales ( ~ 6 months) in the quasars 3C 273 and 3C 279. R.T.Z. gratefully acknowledges support from a pre-doctoral research appointment at NRAO and from the New Mexico Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professiorate through NSF grant HRD-0086701.
Taylor Greg B.
Zavala Robert T.
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