New optical polarization measurements of quasi-stellar objects. The data

Abstract

New linear polarization measurements (mainly in the V band) are presented for 203 quasi-stellar objects (QSOs). The sample is made up of 94 QSOs located in the North Galactic Pole (NGP) region and of 109 QSOs in the South Galactic Pole (SGP) region. First time measurements have been obtained for 184 QSOs. Among them, 109 known radio-emitters, 42 known Broad Absorption Line (BAL) QSOs, and 1 gravitationally lensed quasi-stellar object. We found high polarization levels ($p > 3$%) for 12 QSOs, including the BAL QSO <ns0:ext-link ext-link-type="aoi">SDSS J1409+0048</ns0:ext-link>. For 10 objects, measurements obtained at different epochs do exist. Two of them show evidence for variability: the highly polarized BL Lac candidate <ns0:ext-link ext-link-type="aoi">PKS 1216-010</ns0:ext-link> and the radio source <ns0:ext-link ext-link-type="aoi">PKS 1222+037</ns0:ext-link>.