Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope

Study for relation between direction of relativistic jet and optical polarization angle with multi-wavelenght observation

Ryosuke Itoh
Yasushi FUkazawa, Yasuyuki T. Tanaka, Makoto Uemura, Koji S. Kawabata, Hiroshi Akitaya, Kenji Kawaguchi, Yuka Kanda, Kanata team and OISTER team

Abstract:

Blazars are thought to possess a relativistic jet that is pointing toward the direction of the Earth and the elect of relativistic beaming enhances its apparent brightness. They radiate in all wavebands from the radio to the gamma-ray bands via the synchrotron and the inverse Compton scattering process. Numerous observations are performed but the mechanism of variability, creation and composition of jets are still controversial. We performed multi-wavelength monitoring with optical polarization for 3C 66A, Mrk 421, CTA 102 and PMN J0948+0022 to investigate the mechanisms of variability and research the emission region in the relativistic jets. Consequently, an emergence of new emission component in flaring state is suggested in each object. The most significant aspect of these results is its wide range of sizes of emission regions from 10^{14}-10^{16} cm, which implies the model with a number of independent emission regions with variety sizes and randomly orientation. The "shock-in-jet" scenario can explain high PD and direction of PA in each objects. It might reflect the common mechanism of flares in the relativistic jets.