Polarization evolution accompanying the very early sharp decline of GRB X-ray afterglows

Details Polarization evolution accompanying the very early sharp decline of GRB X-ray afterglows Polarization evolution accompanying the very early sharp decline of GRB X-ray afterglows

2008-01-10

arxiv.org/abs/0801.1517v2

Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc. 387 (2008) 92-96

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

9 pages including 4 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS, typos corrected

Scientific paper

10.1111/j.1365-2966.2008.12886.x

In the synchrotron radiation model, the polarization property depends on both the configuration of the magnetic field and the geometry of the visible emitting region. Some peculiar behaviors in the X-ray afterglows of {\it Swift} gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), such as energetic flares and the plateau followed by a sharp drop, might by highly linearly-polarized because the outflows powering these behaviors may be Poynting-flux dominated. Furthermore, the broken-down of the symmetry of the visible emitting region may be hiding in current X-ray data and will give rise to interesting polarization signatures. In this work we focus on the polarization accompanying the very early sharp decline of GRB X-ray afterglows. We show that strong polarization evolution is possible in both the high latitude emission model and the dying central engine model which are used to interpret this sharp X-ray decline. It is thus not easy to efficiently probe the physical origin of the very early X-ray sharp decline with future polarimetry. Strong polarization evolution is also possible in the decline phase of X-ray flares and in the shallow decline phase of X-ray light curves characterized by chromatic X-ray VS. Optical breaks. An {\it XRT}-like detector but with polarization capability on board a {\em Swift}-like satellite would be suitable to test our predictions.

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