Does Circular Polarisation Reveal the Rotation of Quasar Engines?
Torsten A. Enßlin1 1 Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 1, Postfach 1317, 85741 Garching, Germany Many radio sources like quasars, blazars, radio galaxies, and micro-quasars exhibit circular polarisation (CP) with surprising temporal persistent handedness. As a possible explanation we propose that the CP is due to Faraday conversion (FC) of linear polarisation (LP) synchrotron light which propagates along a line-of-sight through twisted magnetic fields. The rotational nature of accretion flows onto black holes naturally generates the required magnetic twist in the emission region, independent of whether it is a jet or an ADAF. The expected twist in both types of flows is of the order of what is required for optimal CP generation. This scenario requires that Faraday rotation (FR) is insignificant in the emission region. Although this is an assumption, it relaxes constraints on the plasma parameters, that were given in scenarios which rely on FR, since there
