We investigate the previously proposed possibility that multi-epoch broadband polarimetry could act as a complement or limited proxy for VLBI observations of blazars, in that the number of polarised emission components in the jet, and some of their properties and those of the foreground environment, might be inferred from the object's time-varying 1D Faraday depth spectrum (FDS) alone. We report on a pilot-scale experiment designed to establish the basic plausibility and utility of this idea. We analyse temporal changes in the complex polarisation spectra of nine spatially unresolved (at arcsecond scales) blazars in two epochs separated by $\sim$5 years, using data taken with the Australia Telescope Compact Array. The data allow for precise modelling, and we demonstrate that all objects in our sample show changes in their polarisation spectrum that cannot be accounted for by uncertainties in calibration or observational effects. By associating polarised emission components across epochs, we infer changes in their number, intrinsic fractional polarisation, intrinsic polarisation angle, rotation measure, and depolarisation characteristics. We attribute these changes to evolution in the structure of the blazar jets, most likely located at distances of up to tens of parsecs from the central active galactic nuclei. Our results suggest that continued work in this area is warranted; in particular, it will be important to determine the frequency ranges and temporal cadence most useful for scientifically exploiting the effects.
The University of Michigan 26-m paraboloid was dedicated to obtaining linear polarization and total flux density observations of blazars from the mid-1960s until June 2012 providing an unprecedented record tracking centimeter-band variability over decades at 14.5, 8.0, and 4.8 GHz for both targeted objects and members of flux-limited samples. In the mid-1970s through the mid-1980s, and during the last decade of the program, observations were additionally obtained of circular polarization for a small sample of radio-bright (S>5Jy), active sources. Key program results include evidence supporting…
We present observations and analysis of the polarized radio emission from the nearby radio galaxy Fornax A over 1.28--3.1 GHz, using data from the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA). In this, the first of two associated papers, we use modern broadband polarimetric techniques to examine the nature and origin of conspicuous low-polarization (low-$p$) patches in the lobes. We resolve the low-$p$ patches, and find that their low fractional polarization is associated with complicated frequency-dependent interference in the polarized signal generated by Faraday effects along the line of sight.…
We use the distributions of spectral indices of a large homogenous sample of Fermi-detected blazars to re-investigate the relationship between flat spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) and subclasses of BL Lac objects (BL Lacs). We compute the broadband synchrotron and Compton spectral indices from radio-to-X-ray and X-ray to gamma-ray bands, respectively. Analyses of our data show continuity in the distributions of the spectral indices from FSRQs to HSP through LSP and ISP subclasses of BL Lacs. We find from gamma-ray luminosity distribution that the jetted radio galaxies form the low-luminosity ta…
We present a broadband spectropolarimetric survey of 563 discrete, mostly unresolved radio sources between 1.3 \& 2.0 GHz using data taken with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA). We have used rotation measure synthesis to identify Faraday complex polarized sources --- i.e. objects whose frequency-dependent polarization behaviour indicates the presence of material possessing complicated magnetoionic structure along the line of sight (LOS). For sources classified as Faraday complex, we have analyzed a number of their radio and multiwavelength properties to determine whether they diffe…
Faraday rotation of polarised background sources is a unique probe of astrophysical magnetic fields in a diverse range of foreground objects. However, to understand the properties of the polarised sources themselves and of depolarising phenomena along the line of sight, we need to complement Faraday rotation data with polarisation observations over very broad bandwidths. Just as it is impossible to properly image a complex source with limited u-v coverage, we can only meaningfully understand the magneto-ionic properties of polarised sources if we have excellent coverage in $λ^2$-space. We here…
Flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) whose brightness is dominated by a relativistically beamed core, are frequently found in 'blazar state' commonly inferred from a high optical polarization ( > 3%), and/or a large continuum variability. Here we use these two prime optical markers to investigate continuance of an FSRQ in blazar (or non-blazar) state over an exceptionally long time baseline spanning 4 decades. Our basic sample is a well-defined, unbiased set of 80 FSRQs whose blazar state stood confirmed during 1980s from optical polarimetry. Four decades later, blazar state of each FSRQ is asc…
Blazars radiate from radio through gamma-ray frequencies thereby being ideal targets for multifrequency studies. Such studies allow constraining the properties of the emitting jet. 3C 279 is among the most notable blazars and therefore subject to extensive multifrequency campaigns. We report the results of a campaign ranging from near-IR to gamma-ray energies of an outburst of 3C 279 in June 2015. The overall spectral energy distribution from near-IR to gamma rays can be well represented by either a leptonic or a lepto-hadronic radiation transfer model. Even though the data are equally well re…
We present {\it AstroSat} soft X-ray, near-UV (NUV), and far-UV (FUV) observations of a blazar, OJ~287, carried out in 2017, 2018, and 2020. The simultaneous observations with NuSTAR in 2017 provide a broad-band look encompassing NUV, FUV, soft and hard X-rays. Captured in three different broadband spectral states in three observations, the X-ray spectrum is found to be the hardest during 2018, while the high-energy-end of the simultaneous optical-FUV spectrum shows a steepening that is modeled with a broken power-law spectrum. The spectral energy distribution (SED) in 2017 shows a relatively …
Narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies (NLS1s) is one of the few classes of active galactic nuclei (AGN) harboring powerful relativistic jets and detected in $γ$ rays. NLS1s are well-known X-ray sources. While in non-jetted sources the origin of this X-ray emission may be a hot corona surrounding the accretion disk, in jetted objects, especially beamed ones, the contribution of corona and relativistic jet is difficult to disentangle without a proper sampling of the hard X-ray emission. For this reason, we observed with \textit{NuSTAR} the first four NLS1s detected at high energy $γ$ rays. These data, …
We report the re-emergence of a new broadband emission through a detailed and systematic study of the multi-wavelength spectral and temporal behavior of OJ 287 after its first-ever reported VHE activity in 2017 to date, which includes the second-highest X-ray flux of the source. The source shows high optical to X-ray flux variations, accompanied mainly by strong spectral changes. The optical to X-ray flux variations are correlated and simultaneous except for two durations when they are anti-correlated. The flux variations, however, are anti-correlated with the X-ray spectral state while correl…
Our understanding of the unification of jetted AGNs has advanced greatly as the size of extragalactic sources increased. In the present paper, based on the large sample of radio sources, we compiled 680 blazars (279 FSRQs and 401 BL Lacs) from the 3FGL sample and 64 Seyfert galaxies (3 Narrow-line, 34 and 27 regular Seyfert 1 and Seyfert 2 respectively) from the INTEGRAL survey to statistically test the relationship between Seyfert galaxies and the blazar samples of FSRQs and BL Lacs. We compute the synchrotron (SS), Compton (CS) and inverse Compton (IC) continuous spectra from the low energy …
Extreme high-energy peaked BL Lac objects (EHBLs) are blazars whose synchrotron emission peaks at exceptionally high energies, above few keV, in the hard X-ray regime. So far, only a handful of those objects has been detected at very high energy (VHE, E > 100 GeV) gamma rays by Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes. Very remarkably, VHE observations of some of these blazars (like 1ES 0229+200) have provided evidence of a VHE gamma-ray emission extending to several TeV, which is difficult to explain with standard, one-zone synchrotron self-Compton models usually applied to BL Lac objects. Th…
GB 1508+5714 is a high-redshift blazar ($z$ = 4.3) and a spectrally soft $γ$-ray source has been detected in its direction. By analyzing 11.4-yr {\it Fermi}-LAT data, significant long-term variability of the $γ$-ray source is confirmed. More importantly, a $γ$-ray emission flare appeared in an epoch of several tens of days in year 2018, when the flux is about four times of the value from the global fit. Meanwhile, optical flares displayed in both $r$- and $i$-bands from the {\it Zwicky} Transient Facility light curves. Detections of the simultaneous $γ$-ray and optical brightening provide a de…
We present polarimetric maser observations with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) of excited-state hydroxyl (OH) masers. We observed 30 fields of OH masers in full Stokes polarization with the Compact Array Broadband Backend (CABB) at both the 6030 and 6035 MHz excited-state OH transitions, and the 6668-MHz methanol maser transition, detecting 70 sites of maser emission. Amongst the OH we found 112 Zeeman pairs, of which 18 exhibited candidate π components. This is the largest single full polarimetric study of multiple sites of star formation for these frequencies, and the rate of 1…
We consider implications of high-energy neutrino emission from blazar flares, including the recent event IceCube-170922A and the 2014-2015 neutrino flare that could originate from TXS 0506+056. First, we discuss their contribution to the diffuse neutrino intensity taking into account various observational constraints. Blazars are likely to be subdominant in the diffuse neutrino intensity at sub-PeV energies, and we show that blazar flares like those of TXS 0506+056 could make <1-10 percent of the total neutrino intensity. We also argue that the neutrino output of blazars can be dominated by th…
