Previous
abstract 
Next
abstract
Session 5 - High Luminosity AGN.
Display session, Monday, June 10
Tripp Commons,
We present optical and near-infrared imaging polarimetry of a sample of high redshift (z=2-3) radio galaxies as part of an ongoing program to probe of the nature of the alignment effect. These observations utilized the University of Hawaii's 2.2m telescope and the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. With multi-color polarimetry we can efficiently differentiate between several polarization mechanisms and determine whether the alignment effect is due to scattered radiation from the central engine and of what type are the scattering bodies (i.e. electron vs. dust scattering) Polarizations in the range of 10%--20% appear to be typical in the optical observers frame, implying that a significant fraction of the light from the aligned components in these objects originates in the central engine. Based upon the wavelength dependence of the polarization, dust scattering appears to be the dominant scattering mechanism, but is not ubiquitous in our sample. We also compare the polarimetric characters of these objects to those of their spectra and morphologies.
