Optical linear polarization measurements of quasars obtained with the 3.6m telescope at the La Silla Observatory

TL;DR

This paper presents 192 new optical linear polarization measurements of quasars, providing valuable data on their polarization degrees, which can inform understanding of quasar emission mechanisms and magnetic fields.

Contribution

It reports a large set of previously unpublished polarization data for quasars, obtained with the 3.6m La Silla telescope, expanding the available observational dataset.

Findings

89 quasars have polarization degree ≥ 0.6%

18 quasars have polarization degree ≥ 2%

2 quasars have polarization degree ≥ 10%

Abstract

We report 192 previously unpublished optical linear polarization measurements of quasars obtained in April 2003, April 2007, and October 2007 with the European Southern Observatory Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera (EFOSC2) instrument attached to the 3.6m telescope at the La Silla Observatory. Each quasar was observed once. Among the 192 quasars, 89 have a polarization degree $p \geq 0.6\%$, 18 have $p \geq 2\%$, and two have $p \geq 10\%$.