Incidence of the host galaxy on the measurements of the optical linear polarization of blazars

ANDRUCHOW, I.; CELLONE, S. A.; ROMERO, GUSTAVO E

Congreso; Reunion Anual de la Asociacion Argentina de Astronomia; 2004

The incidence of the host galaxy upon the measurements of the optical linear polarization of blazars is studied by means of a numerical simulation. The main result presented is an evaluation of the significance of the spurious variations of the fractional optical linear polarization measurement introduced by fluctuations in the atmospheric seeing. The models for the simulation contain a large range of galaxy luminosities and morphologies, as well as configurations of the observing instrument (in this case, we used a CASPROF-type photopolarimeter). Polarimetric observations using different configurations of the CASPROF photopolarimeter were carried out for the object PKS 0521-365. These observations were compared with the results generated by the simulation using the parameters reported in the literature for this object. Following our results, it is possible to make some recommendations for future observations of PKS 0521-365 and other objects of the same class.