Circular polarisation in AGN

Abstract

We discuss the constraints that recent observations place on circular polarisation in AGN. In many sources the circular polarisation is variable on short timescales, indicating that it originates in compact regions of the sources. The best prospects for gleaning further information about circular polarisation are high resolution VLBI and scintillation 'imaging' which probe source structure on milliarcsecond and microarcsecond scales respectively. © Astronomical Society of Australia 2002.