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High optical linear polarization of the blazar S4 0954+65 observed from MIRO

ATel #15419; Namita Uppal(Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, India), Sunil Chandra(South African Astronomical Observatory, Cape Town, South Africa), Shashikiran Ganesh(Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, India), Raj Prince(Center for Theoretical Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland), Suvendu Rakshit(Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational SciencES, Nainital, India)
on 7 Jun 2022; 15:28 UT
Credential Certification: Sunil Chandra (sunil.chandra355@gmail.com)

Subjects: Optical, AGN, Blazar

Referred to by ATel #: 15517

Here we report the current status of the optical polarization of the blazar S4 0954+65 which is reported showing a fast fading phase. These observations are made using the EMPOL instrument (https://arxiv.org/pdf/2012.08768.pdf) onto 1.2m telescope Mt. Abu Infrared Observatory (MIRO; https://www.prl.res.in/~miro/) India. The monitoring was triggered following the report of high polarization (Fractional Polarization = 37 +/- 2 % and EVPA = 77 +/- 3 degree) despite fading of the brightness by ~2 magnitude in a few days [ATEL #15414]. Our analysis confirms that the blazar is still showing high optical polarization. Following are the details: Date-OBS: 2022-06-06 15:30 UTC Exposure: 1032s Fractional Polarization (%P) = 33.2 +/- 2.7 % EVPA = 72.4 +/- 2.4 degree These observations combined with the data in ATEL#15414 imply that the blazar's total optical flux is lowering significantly, however the ordering of the magnetic fields in the emission region is still very high. Therefore, this object seems going through an interesting variability phase. We highly encourage the multi-wavelength followup observations. This followup program is supported by the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, an autonomous institute of Department of Space, Govt. of India.