5 GHZ Evn Polarization of 3C286

Abstract

3C286 (1328+307) is a powerful radio source identified with a quasar at z=0.849. There is a foreground galaxy responsible for an H I absorption line system at z=0.6922 (Brown & Roberts 1973), centered approximately 2.″5 to the southeast of 3C286. The radio source has a steep spectrum (α= −0.61, S_ν ∝ ν^α between 1.4 and 15 GHz) which turns over at about 100 MHz. Subarcsecond resolution radio images show a misaligned triple structure, dominated by the central component (Spencer et al. 1989) which accounts for at least 95% of the total flux density at all frequencies. 3C286 is one of the strongest extragalactic sources in polarized emission (0.84 Jy at 5 GHz and 1.41 Jy at 1.4 GHz) and with a rotation measure close to 0 rad m⁻² (Rudnick and Jones 1983). Hence the observed orientation of the electric field vector is essentially independent of frequency.