RoboPol: AGN optical linear polarization monitoring
Abstract
The RoboPol project is using a 4-channel optical polarimeter on the Skinakas 1.3m telescope to monitor the optical linear polarization and R-band magnitude of a large sample of AGN. The RoboPol sample is a gamma-ray selected set of Fermi AGN and is dominated by blazars. The principle goal of RoboPol is to characterize the optical polarization behavior of relativistic jets during high-energy flares, and thereby study the physics of these highly energetic phenomena. The instrument and robotic control system were commissioned in May 2013. We have spent the first year surveying the population of Fermi AGN and monitoring a smaller subset at high cadence. In the second and third years of the project we will monitor a set of ~100 AGN at high cadence. We present the population polarization properties of Fermi AGN and the initial results of our small subset monitoring.
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #223
- Pub Date:
- January 2014
- Bibcode:
- 2014AAS...22342106K