
arXiv: 1601.03392
handle: 11858/00-001M-0000-002E-1559-9
We present measurements of rotations of the optical polarization of blazars during the second year of operation of RoboPol, a monitoring programme of an unbiased sample of gamma-ray bright blazars specially designed for effective detection of such events, and we analyse the large set of rotation events discovered in two years of observation. We investigate patterns of variability in the polarization parameters and total flux density during the rotation events and compare them to the behaviour in a non-rotating state. We have searched for possible correlations between average parameters of the polarization-plane rotations and average parameters of polarization, with the following results: (1) there is no statistical association of the rotations with contemporaneous optical flares; (2) the average fractional polarization during the rotations tends to be lower than that in a non-rotating state; (3) the average fractional polarization during rotations is correlated with the rotation rate of the polarization plane in the jet rest frame; (4) it is likely that distributions of amplitudes and durations of the rotations have physical upper bounds, so arbitrarily long rotations are not realised in nature.
12 pages, 12 figures, accepted to MNRAS
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE), polarization galaxies: active galaxies: jets galaxies: nuclei, ta115, Galaxies: jets, Polarization, 500, FOS: Physical sciences, Galaxies: active, Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena, 520, Galaxies: nuclei
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE), polarization galaxies: active galaxies: jets galaxies: nuclei, ta115, Galaxies: jets, Polarization, 500, FOS: Physical sciences, Galaxies: active, Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena, 520, Galaxies: nuclei
| selected citations These citations are derived from selected sources. This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | 77 | |
| popularity This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network. | Top 10% | |
| influence This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | Top 10% | |
| impulse This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network. | Top 1% |
