Early polarization observations of the optical emission of gamma-ray bursts: GRB 150301B and GRB 150413A
Abstract
We report early optical linear polarization observations of two gamma-ray bursts made with the MASTER robotic telescope network. We found the minimum polarization for GRB 150301B to be 8 per cent at the beginning of the initial stage, whereas we detected no polarization for GRB 150413A either at the rising branch or after the burst reached the power-law afterglow stage. This is the earliest measurement of the polarization (in cosmological rest frame) of gamma-ray bursts. The primary intent of the paper is to discover optical emission and publish extremely rare (unique) high-quality light curves of the prompt optical emission of gamma-ray bursts during the non-monotonic stage of their evolution. We report that our team has discovered the optical counterpart of one of the bursts, GRB 150413A.
- Publication:
-
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Pub Date:
- January 2016
- DOI:
- 10.1093/mnras/stv2515
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1511.02641
- Bibcode:
- 2016MNRAS.455.3312G
- Keywords:
-
- telescopes;
- gamma-ray burst: general;
- gamma-ray burst: individual: GRB 150301B;
- gamma-ray burst: individual: GRB 150413A;
- Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
- E-Print:
- accepted, MNRAS, 2015