3C 279: ALMA detection of polarization flare with an EVPA jump

ATel #14385; Seiji Kameno, Paulo Cortes, Edward Fomalont, Ruediger Kneissl, Antonio Hales, Celia Verdugo, Matias Radiszcz, Kurt Plarre, Cristian Lopez, Satoko Takahashi, Jose Fernandez, Jorge Garcia, Charles Hull, Pei-Ying Hsieh, Hugo Messias, David Rebolledo, Gabriel Marinello, Brenda Matthews, Enrique Macias, Juan Cortes, Sergio Martin, William Dent, Tsuyoshi Sawada, Akihiko Hirota, Stuartt Corder (Joint ALMA Observatory), Claudia Agliozzo, Marie-Lou Gendron-Marsolais, Alvaro Ribas, Alejandro Santamaria, Chentao Yang, Eric Villard (European Southern Observatory), Gerald Schieven (National Research Council Canada)
on 10 Feb 2021; 21:32 UT
Credential Certification: Seiji Kameno (seiji.kameno@alma.cl)

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The blazar J1256-0547 (3C 279) showed a flare in polarized flux together with a ~90º jump in the electric vector position angle (EVPA) of linear polarization at the frequencies of 97.5, 233.0, and 343.4 GHz between 2020 Mar 19 and 2021 Jan 21. This change in EVPA is the biggest event since ALMA started monitoring in 2012. Control sources (J1229+0203, J1337-1257, J1331+3030, and J1058+0133), observed together with 3C 279, have not shown such a jump in EVPA (see the text file). The array had been shutdown for 10 months due to COVID-19 pandemic and the jump was identified in the recovery process. The light curve with polarized flux density and EVPA is presented in the external link (http://www.alma.cl/~skameno/AMAPOLA/J1256-0547.flux.html). 97.5 GHz | Date | Freq. | I (err) | Q (err) | U (err) | P (err) | EVPA (err) | | | GHz | Jy | Jy | Jy | % | deg. | |:-----------+-------+--------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+---------------:| |2020-03-04 | 97.5 | 12.80 (0.05) | -0.05 (0.02) | 0.54 (0.03) | 4.24 (0.34) | 47.54 ( 1.15) | |2020-03-15 | 97.5 | 14.19 (0.13) | -0.09 (0.20) | 0.72 (0.06) | 5.13 (0.83) | 48.45 ( 7.88) | |2020-03-16 | 97.5 | 14.43 (0.07) | 0.07 (0.03) | 0.79 (0.03) | 5.50 (0.34) | 42.46 ( 1.14) | |2020-03-17 | 97.5 | 14.03 (0.07) | 0.03 (0.04) | 0.81 (0.09) | 5.36 (0.49) | 43.99 ( 1.48) | |2020-03-19 | 97.5 | 13.70 (0.12) | -0.03 (0.03) | 0.65 (0.04) | 4.73 (0.42) | 46.25 ( 1.53) | |2021-01-21 | 97.5 | 13.77 (0.15) | -0.55 (0.03) | -0.46 (0.12) | 5.23 (0.50) | -69.90 ( 3.88) | |2021-01-28 | 97.5 | 14.18 (0.07) | -0.61 (0.03) | -0.11 (0.02) | 4.34 (0.36) | -84.81 ( 1.07) | |2021-02-06 | 97.5 | 14.47 (0.02) | -0.79 (0.01) | -0.78 (0.01) | 7.88 (0.09) | -67.54 ( 0.05) | |2021-02-08 | 97.5 | 14.68 (0.08) | -0.81 (0.01) | -0.78 (0.01) | 7.64 (0.32) | -68.09 ( 0.29) | 233.0 GHz | Date | Freq. | I (err) | Q (err) | U (err) | P (err) | EVPA (err) | | | GHz | Jy | Jy | Jy | % | deg. | |:-----------+-------+--------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+---------------:| |2020-03-16 | 233.0 | 9.00 (0.10) | 0.07 (0.18) | 0.52 (0.05) | 5.83 (1.08) | 41.33 ( 9.51) | |2020-03-18 | 233.0 | 8.70 (0.03) | -0.11 (0.01) | 0.56 (0.01) | 6.47 (0.26) | 50.45 ( 0.68) | |2021-01-21 | 233.0 | 9.10 (0.05) | -0.83 (0.08) | -0.47 (0.01) | 10.55 (0.38) | -75.29 ( 1.19) | |2021-02-07 | 233.0 | 8.96 (0.03) | -0.78 (0.01) | -0.78 (0.01) | 11.95 (0.16) | -67.42 ( 0.08) | 343.4 GHz | Date | Freq. | I (err) | Q (err) | U (err) | P (err) | EVPA (err) | | | GHz | Jy | Jy | Jy | % | deg. | |:-----------+-------+--------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+---------------:| |2020-02-27 | 343.4 | 5.81 (0.06) | -0.16 (0.02) | 0.11 (0.01) | 3.22 (0.35) | 72.99 ( 1.64) | |2020-02-28 | 343.4 | 5.81 (0.09) | -0.13 (0.05) | 0.19 (0.01) | 3.93 (0.26) | 62.36 ( 4.83) | |2021-01-28 | 343.4 | 6.48 (0.05) | -0.47 (0.01) | -0.32 (0.01) | 8.83 (0.33) | -72.95 ( 0.38) | |2021-02-07 | 343.4 | 6.65 (0.04) | -0.64 (0.01) | -0.70 (0.01) | 13.95 (0.21) | -66.24 ( 0.17) | |2021-02-08 | 343.4 | 6.69 (0.05) | -0.57 (0.01) | -0.69 (0.01) | 13.40 (0.23) | -64.65 ( 0.12) |

the text file