WE PROPOSE TO CARRY OUT A DETAILED INVESTIGATION OF THE POLARIZATION PROPERTIES OF GAMMA-RAY LOUD BLAZARS BY CONDUCTING MULTI-FREQUENCY POLARIMETRY OBSERVATIONS FOR 25 STRONGLY POLARIZED SOURCES SELECTED FROM OUR RECENT VLBISURVEYS AT 5 GHZ. THESE OBSERVATIONS WILL ALLOW US TO IMAGE THE POLARIZED STRUCTURE AND SPECTRAL INDEX OF THE JETS AT HIGH ANGULAR RESOLUTION AND TO TEST IF REGIONS OF FLAT OR INVERTED SPECTRUM CORRESPOND WITH STRONG POLARIZATION DURINGTIMES WHEN GAMMA-RAY EMISSION IS HIGH. WE WILL ALSO MAKE FARADAY ROTATION MEASURE IMAGES TO EXPLORE THE PARSEC-SCALE ENVIRONMENT OF THESE INTERESTING BLAZARS YIELDING INFORMATION ABOUT MAGNETIC FIELD STRENGTHS AND DENSITIES. THIS RESEARCH WILL TAKE ADVANTAGE OF NEW OBSERVING CAPABILITIES OF THE VERY LONG BASELINE ARRAY.
$99,994FY2011National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA
University Of New Mexico, Albuquerque NM