Abstract
The major distinguishing features of BL Lacertae Objects are weak or absent line emission and strong and variable optical, infrared, and radio polarization (Angel and Stockman 1980; Kollgaard 1994). The radio emission and much of the optical emission is believed to be synchrotron radiation. There are now some 20 BL Lacertae objects for which VLBI polarization (VLBP) images have been made at λ = 6 cm (Gabuzda et al. 1994 and references therein). In nearly every BL Lacertae object in which polarization structure has been detected, the polarization position angles in knots in the jets are nearly parallel to the VLBI structural axis. Assuming the jet components to be optically thin, the magnetic fields inferred by this orientation are nearly perpendicular to the direction of the jet; perhaps the most natural interpretation of this is that the knots are associated with shocks that compress an initially tangled magnetic field as they propagate down the VLBI jet, enhancing the magnetic field transverse to the compression (Laing 1980; Hughes, Aller, & Aller 1989).
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