The Method of Searching for Rotations of the Polarization Position Angle of Quasars

Abstract

Observations of quasars show that the polarization position angle of the emission coming from them varies greatly over time, including periods called rotations during which the angle changes in an orderly manner. The study proposes a method for identifying such events and assessing their statistical significance. The operation of the method is demonstrated using the example of long-term polarimetric observations of the blazars CTA 102, 3C 454.3, and OT 081. During the analysis of light curves, 51 rotations of the polarization position angle were found and it was shown that for CTA 102 and 3C 454.3 the rotations are predominantly oriented in one direction.