The incidence of the host galaxy light in the polarized emission of the blazars 1959+650 and 2201+044

M. S. SOSA; S. A. CELLONE; I. ANDRUCHOW; C. VON ESSEN

CABA

Congreso; Second Argentinian-Brazilian Meeting on Gravitation, Astrophysics, and Cosmology; 2014

We present a study carried out to determine variations in scales ranging from hours to days, both in the total flux and optical linear polarization in two blazars: 1959+650 and 2201+044. Both blazars arerelatively nearby active galactic nuclei, so their host galaxiesare well resolved, having accurately measured photometricparameters. This allowed us to apply models that take into accountthe depolarizing effect introduced by the (un-polarized) light of thegalaxy, and, at the same time, to evaluate any spurious variation inpolarization time-curves due to variable seeing conditions, thataffect differently the (point-like) core and the (extended) hostgalaxy. Our results provide information on the optical behaviour ofhigh energy blazars, taking advantage of a scarcely explored techniqueas optical polarimetry with high-temporal resolution.