{
  "abstract": "Intranight optical variability (INOV) of blazars whose emission arises predominantly from a relativistic jet, has been widely linked to a combination of two key observational diagnostics: the fractional optical polarization ($P_{opt}$) and the Doppler boost arising from relativistic beaming of the jet's emission. To discern which of these two factors plays the dominant role, we investigate INOV of a well-defined representative sample of 8 flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs, which are `low-synchrotron-peaked' blazars) whose jets exhibit a low degree of polarization ($P_{opt}$ < 3$\\%$) but a large superluminal motion with c$β_{app}$ = 5c $-$ 31c (median = 10c). We report sensitive optical monitoring of these 8 `low-polarization superluminal quasars' (LPSQs) using a 1.3-metre telescope, in 20 sessions of minimum 3-hour duration. These data were supplemented with similarly high-quality monitoring data/results available in the literature for this sample, thus adding another 19 sessions. Duty cycle (DC) of strong INOV (amplitude $ψ> 5\\%$) is found to be zero, applying the normally used $F_η$ test, and $\\sim 7\\%$ using the more powerful `enhanced $F$-test'. The small DC, despite the strong Doppler boost expected from the observed high superluminality, shows that strong INOV is much rarer among LPSQs, compared to high-polarization quasars, for which DC $(ψ> 5\\%$) is found to be around 30%, even using the $F_η$ test. This provides the first compelling evidence that optical polarization is the primary diagnostic of INOV, while relativistic beaming plays a supportive role. Possible implications for the proposed mechanisms for INOV are pointed out.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2611.00207",
  "author_total": 6,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Krishan Chand"
    },
    {
      "name": "Gopal-Krishna"
    },
    {
      "name": "Ashutosh Tomar"
    },
    {
      "name": "Vibhore Negi"
    },
    {
      "name": "Hum Chand"
    },
    {
      "name": "Suvendu Rakshit"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/fhkejtfzwhqzt.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2611.00207",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "fhkejtfzwhqzt",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.00207",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "LicenseRef-arXiv-nonexclusive-1.0",
  "licence_label": "arXiv licence",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "astro-ph.GA"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "astro-ph.HE"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": null,
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2611.00207",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-11-01",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/fhkejtfzwhqzt.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-03T12:20:59Z",
      "native_id": "2611.00207",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.00207"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "astronomy",
      "origin": "arxiv:astro-ph.GA",
      "subfield": "galaxies"
    },
    {
      "field": "astronomy",
      "origin": "arxiv:astro-ph.HE",
      "subfield": "high-energy-astrophysics"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Intranight optical monitoring of eight quasars with superluminal jets and low optical polarization: Probing the mechanism of rapid flux variability",
  "title_text": "Intranight optical monitoring of eight quasars with superluminal jets and low optical polarization: Probing the mechanism of rapid flux variability",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-05T15:20:18Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/fhkejtfzwhqzt",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}