Modeling the Spectral Energy Distributions and Multi-Wavelength Polarization of Blazars

For most blazars the radio through UV/X-ray spectrum is dominated by synchrotron radiation of relativistic electrons in the jet. However, there is also a contribution from the thermal radiation from the dust torus (IR), broad line region, accretion disk (optical through X-ray) and host galaxy (optical). In some blazars the accretion disk is not directly visible as it is outshone by the synchrotron continuum radiation from the jet. The X-ray and gamma-ray emissions of blazars may be described by leptonic or hadronic models. In leptonic models, synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) polarization is diluted by unpolarized external Compton emission, while hadronic models predict highly polarized high-energy emission. This motivates a Southern African Large Telescope ToO Large Science Program providing spectropolarimetry with co-ordinated multi-wavelength observations from the Las Cumbres Observatory, Swift-XRT and Fermi-LAT. Spectropolarimetry observations indicate a decrease in the observed polarization degree due to unpolarized emission from thermal emission components diluting the degree of synchrotron polarization. We present a model that simultaneously fits the spectral energy distribution and the optical polarization degree, enabling constraints on the supermassive black hole (SMBH) mass and the degree of ordering of the magnetic field in the emission region, and, thereby, enabling predictions for the future Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer and the All-sky Medium Energy Gamma-ray Observatory. The model is applied to the flat spectrum radio quasar 4C+01.02 (z = 2.1), constraining the mass of its SMBH to $\sim 4 \times 10^8 \textrm{ } \rm M_{\odot}$. Preliminary results of the SSC components are discussed.