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We describe the POLAMI (Polarimetric Monitoring of AGN at Millimetre Wavelengths) programme for the monitoring of all four Stokes parameters of a sample of bright radio-loud active galactic nuclei with the IRAM30-m telescope at 3.5 and 1.3 mm. The programme started in 2006 October and accumulated, until 2014 August, 2300 observations at 3.5 mm, achieving a median time sampling interval of 22 d for the sample of 37 sources. This first paper explains the source selection, mostly blazars, the observing strategy and data calibration and gives the details of the instrumental polarization corrections. The sensitivity (1σ) reached at 3.5mm is 0.5 per cent (linear polarization degree), 4.°7 (polarization angle), and 0.23 per cent (circular polarization), while the corresponding values at 1.3mm are 1.7 per cent, 9.°9 and 0.72 per cent, respectively. The data quality is demonstrated by the time sequences of our calibrators Mars and Uranus. For the quasar 3C 286, widely used as a linear polarization calibrator, we give improved estimates of its linear polarization, and show for the first time occasional detections of its weak circular polarization, which suggests a small level of variability of the source at millimeter wavelengths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyse the circular polarization data accumulated in the first 7 years of the Polarimetric Monitoring of Active Galactic Nuclei at MillimetreWavelengths (POLAMI) project introduced in an accompanying paper. In the 3-mm wavelength band, we acquired more than 2600 observations, and all but one of our 37 sample sources were detected, most of them several times. For most sources, the observed distribution of the degree of circular polarization is broader than that of unpolarized calibrators, indicating that weak (≲0.5 per cent) circular polarization is present most of the time. Our detection rate and the maximum degree of polarization found, 2.0 per cent, are comparable to previous surveys, all made at much longer wavelengths. We argue that the process generating circular polarization must not be strongly wavelength dependent, and we propose that the widespread presence of circular polarization in our short wavelength sample dominated by blazars is mostly due to Faraday conversion of the linearly polarized synchrotron radiation in the helical magnetic field of the jet. Circular polarization is variable, most notably on time-scales comparable to or shorter than our median sampling interval of ≲1 month. Longer time-scales of about 1 yr are occasionally detected, but severely limited by the weakness of the signal. At variance with some longer wavelength investigations we find that the sign of circular polarization changes in most sources, while only seven sources, including three already known, have a strong preference for one sign. The degrees of circular and linear polarization do not show any systematic correlation. We do find however one particular event where the two polarization degrees vary in synchronism during a time span of 0.9 yr. This paper also describes a novel method for calibrating the sign of circular polarization observations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on the first results of the POLAMI (Polarimetric Monitoring of AGNs with Millimetre Wavelengths) programme, a simultaneous 3.5 and 1.3mm full-Stokes-polarization monitoring of a sample of 36 of the brightest active galactic nuclei in the northern sky with the IRAM 30m telescope. Through a systematic statistical study of data taken from 2006 October (from 2009 December for the case of the 1.3mm observations) to 2014 August, we characterize the variability of the total flux density and linear polarization. We find that all sources in the sample are highly variable in total flux density at both 3.5 and 1.3 mm, as well as in spectral index, which (except in particularly prominent flares) is found to be optically thin between these two wavelengths. The total flux-density variability at 1.3mm is found, in general, to be faster, and to have larger fractional amplitude and flatter power-spectral-density slopes than at 3.5 mm. The polarization degree is on average larger at 1.3mm than at 3.5 mm, by a factor of 2.6. The variability of linear polarization degree is faster and has higher fractional amplitude than for total flux density, with the typical time-scales during prominent polarization peaks being significantly faster at 1.3mm than at 3.5 mm. The polarization angle at both 3.5 and 1.3mm is highly variable. Most of the sources show one or two excursions of >18° on time-scales from a few weeks to about a year during the course of our observations. The 3.5 and 1.3mm polarization angle evolution follows each other rather well, although the 1.3mm data show a clear preference to more prominent variability on the short time-scales, i.e. weeks. The data are compatible with multizone models of conical jets involving smaller emission regions for the shortest-wavelength emitting sites. Such smaller emitting regions should also be more efficient in energising particle populations, as implied by the coherent evolution of the spectral index and the total flux density during flaring activity of strong enough sources. The data also favour the integrated emission at 1.3mm to have better ordered magnetic fields than the one at 3.5 mm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]