Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2003-01-27
Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc. 347 (2004) 394
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
23 pages, 8 figures
Scientific paper
10.1111/j.1365-2966.2004.07169.x
We introduce several coordinate invariant statistical procedures in order to test for local alignment of polarizations. A large scale alignment of optical polarizations from distant QSOs has recently been observed by \huts and collaborators. The new statistical procedures are based on comparing polarizations at different angular coordinates by making a parallel transport. The results of these statistical procedures continue to support the existence of the large scale alignment effect in the QSO optical polarization data. The alignment is found to be much more pronounced in the data sample with low degrees of polarization $p\le 2$%. This suggests that the alignment may be attributed to some propagation effect. The distance scale over which the alignment effect is dominant is found to be of order 1 Gpc. We also find that a very large scale alignment is present in the large redshift, $z\ge 1$, data sample. Infact the data sample with $z\ge 1$ appears to be aligned over the entire celestial sphere. We discuss possible physical effects, such as extinction and pseudoscalar-photon mixing, which may be responsible for the observations.
Jain Pankaj
Narain Gaurav
Sarala S.
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