Are the γ-ray from the Vela pulsar polarized?
Abstract
The azimuthal distribution of planes containing e+/e- pairs from high-energy photon materialization is reminiscent, through a quadrupole anisotropy, of the degree and position angle of linear polarization of the incident photons. Data from the COS-B spark chamber are used in a search for such an effect in >~50 MeV photons from bright sources, such as Vela, Crab, Geminga and a reference galactic plane region in Cygnus. Only for the Vela pulsar a low-chance-probability effect is found apparently implying a high (~100%) degree of linear polarization for the Vela photons. This has important implications on the physics of the production mechanisms as well as of their geometry.
- Publication:
-
Nuclear Spectroscopy of Astrophysical Sources
- Pub Date:
- September 1988
- DOI:
- 10.1063/1.37233
- Bibcode:
- 1988AIPC..170..362C
- Keywords:
-
- 97.60.Gb;
- 95.85.Qx;
- Pulsars