Optical circular polarization in quasars

Details Optical circular polarization in quasars Optical circular polarization in quasars

2010-09-21

arxiv.org/abs/1009.4049v1

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics

Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics Letters

Scientific paper

We present new optical circular polarization measurements with typical uncertainties < 0.1% for a sample of 21 quasars. All but two objects have null circular polarization. We use this result to constrain the polarization due to photon-pseudoscalar mixing along the line of sight. We detect significant (> 3 sigma) circular polarization in two blazars with high linear polarization and discuss the implications of this result for quasar physics. In particular, the recorded polarization degrees may be indicative of magnetic fields as strong as 1 kG or a significant contribution of inverse Compton scattering to the optical continuum.

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