2008/09/26 by B. Borguet, D. Hutsemékers, Damien Hutsemékers +9
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.0809.4539
2 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the Astronomical Polarimetry 2008 conference
arxiv created 2008/09/26 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
We investigate correlations between the direction of the optical linear polarization and the orientation of the host galaxy/extended emission for type1 and type2 radio-loud and radio-quiet quasars. We have used high resolution Hubble Space Telescope data and a deconvolution process to obtain a good determination of the host galaxy/extended emission (EE) position angle. With these new measurements and a compilation of data from the literature, we find a significant correlation, different for type1 and type2 objects, between the linear polarization position angle and the orientation of the EE, suggesting scattering by an extended UV/blue region in both types of objects. Our observations support the extension of the Unification Model to the higher luminosity AGNs like the quasars, assuming a two component scattering model.