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Session 11 - QSOs and Radio Galaxies.
Display session, Monday, June 08
Atlas Ballroom,
\indent We present a post-CoStar HST polarization image of the reddenned broad line radio galaxy 3C109, at a redshift of 0.31. It was taken with the FOC and the F342W filter over two orbits. Most such objects have diffuse emission with high tangential polarization consistent with scattered light from a hidden active nucleus. This one shows \sim0.06-arcsec-scale (\sim220pc, h_0=0.7, q_0=0.5) spatially resolved emission with typical polarization values of \sim35%, at position angles which are RADIAL relative to the nucleus. \indent This result seems unphysical. We discuss some possible instrumental and intrinsic explanations. Among the former, we have fairly convincingly ruled out the effects of mild nonlinearity in the nuclear region, miscalibration of the position angle by the STScI, and image alignment error. Among the intrinsic explanations, synchrotron emission is inconsistent with lack of detection of diffuse emission on these scales in archival red total-flux images, and in radio images. The help of the audience is requested in solving this puzzle.
