The 2015-2017 Large EVPA Rotation in OJ 287: Dominant Propagating Component in a Helical Magnetic Field with Time-Dependent Viewing Geometry

Abstract

We present high-cadence, multi-frequency monitoring of the blazar OJ 287 using KVN (22--129 GHz), ALMA (91.5--343.5 GHz), and Metsähovi (37 GHz), covering 2012--2023, together with published optical polarimetry. Within this decade-long dataset, an exceptionally large and smooth EVPA rotation is observed only during 2015--2017. The millimeter-band EVPA rotates by more than $\sim$300 deg over $\sim$1.5 yr, with a comparably large and more rapidly evolving rotation observed at optical wavelengths, while remaining comparatively stable at other epochs. The rotation coincides with a sequence of strong radio flares from 37 to 343 GHz whose peak amplitudes increase toward 2017 March, when the rotation ends. Modeling the ALMA 91.5 GHz light curve yields variability Doppler factors of $δ_{\rm var} \sim 8$--$11$ during the EVPA-rotation interval, with no systematic increase across the flare sequence. The absence of a monotonic change in $δ_{\rm var}$ indicates that progressively enhanced relativistic beaming is unlikely to be the primary driver of the rising flare envelope. The confinement of the large EVPA rotation to this interval, together with the nearly constant $δ_{\rm var}$, indicates that the 2015--2017 event occurred when a single newly ejected disturbance temporarily dominated the polarized emission while propagating through structured inner-jet regions threaded by a helical magnetic field under modest jet-direction changes. Large EVPA rotations therefore arise intermittently as the jet orientation evolves, and are realized only when emission dominance and viewing geometry align favorably.