Radio Polarization in EGRET Blazars

摘要

We demonstrate a new way to search for blazars by correlating the positions of gamma-ray sources from the Second EGRET Catalog, and polarized radio sources from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory Very Large Array Sky Survey. Using this survey, we first investigated the radio polarization properties of Angel & Stockman blazars and concluded that blazars have a characteristic radio polariza- tion at 1.4 GHz,P_1.4 > 1/100. Using this information and the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database, we were successful in reconfirming 14 of 18 known EGRET blazars. In addition, 12 potential identifications, eight of which are unique to this paper, were made for unidentified or low-confidence identification EGRET objects. We suggest four new plausible associations for gamma-ray sources previously identified with AGNs in the Second EGRET Catalog. Finally, one low-confidence AGN suggested by Thompson and coworkers is found to be an unlikely identification.