Optical circular polarization of blazar S4 0954+65 during high linear polarized states

Optical circular polarization observations can directly test the particle composition in black holes jets. Here we report on the first observations of the BL Lac type object S4 0954+65 in high linear polarized states. While no circular polarization was detected, we were able to place upper limits of...

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Published inarXiv.org
Main Authors Liodakis, I, Shablovinskaya, E, Blinov, D, Savchenko, S S, Malygin, E, Kotov, S, Kiehlmann, S, Readhead, A C S, Potter, S B, Rieger, F M, Grishina, T S, Hagen-Thorn, V A, Kopatskaya, E N, Larionova, E G, Morozova, D A, Troitskiy, I S, Troitskaya, Y V, Vasilyev, A A, Zhovtan, A V, Borman, G A
Format Paper
LanguageEnglish
Published Ithaca Cornell University Library, arXiv.org 06.11.2023
Subjects
Blazars
Circular polarization
Composition
Electron-positron pairs
Field strength
Magnetic fields
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Summary:Optical circular polarization observations can directly test the particle composition in black holes jets. Here we report on the first observations of the BL Lac type object S4 0954+65 in high linear polarized states. While no circular polarization was detected, we were able to place upper limits of <0.5% at the 99.7% confidence. Using a simple model and our novel optical circular polarization observations we can constrain the allowed parameter space for the magnetic field strength and composition of the emitting particles. Our results favor models that require magnetic field strengths of only a few Gauss and models where the jet composition is dominated by electron-positron pairs. We discuss our findings in the context of typical magnetic field strength requirements for blazar emission models.
ISSN:2331-8422