Strongly Polarized Optical Afterglows of Gamma-Ray Bursts
Astrophysics
2009-10-31 v1
Abstract
The optical afterglows of the gamma ray bursts can be strongly polarized, in principle up to tens of percents, if: (i) the afterglow is synchrotron radiation from an ultra-relativistic blast, (ii) the blast is beamed during the afterglow phase, i.e. the shock propagates within a narrow jet, (iii) we observe at the right time from the right viewing angle, (iv) magnetic fields parallel and perpendicular to the jet have different proper strengths.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/9905276,
title = {Strongly Polarized Optical Afterglows of Gamma-Ray Bursts},
author = {Andrei Gruzinov},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/9905276},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
5 pages, submitted to ApJ