2020/04/14 by Tanmoy Laskar, Charles L. H. Hull, Paulo Cortes
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Afterglow #Astronomical Observations and Instrumentation #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Context (archaeology) #Gamma-ray burst #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Linear polarization #Magnetic field #Polarization (electrochemistry) #astro-ph.HE #astro-ph.IM
paper · pdf · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ab88cc
10 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ
arxiv created 2020/04/14 · openalex created_date 2020/04/24 · openalex publication_date 2020/05/01 · arxiv updated 2020/06/03 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Abstract Polarization measurements of gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows are a promising means of probing the structure, geometry, and magnetic composition of relativistic GRB jets. However, a precise treatment of instrumental calibration is vital for a robust physical interpretation of polarization data, requiring tests of and validations against potential instrumental systematics. We illustrate this with Atacama Large Millimeter/Sub-millimeter Array (ALMA) Band 3 (97.5 GHz) observations of GRB 171205A taken ≈5.19 days after the burst, where a detection of linear polarization was recently claimed. We describe a series of tests for evaluating the stability of polarization measurements with ALMA. Using these tests to reanalyze and evaluate the archival ALMA data, we uncover systematics in the polarization calibration at the ≈0.09% level. We derive a 3 σ upper limit on the linearly polarized intensity of P < 97.2 μ Jy, corresponding to an upper limit on the linear fractional polarization of Π L < 0.30%, in contrast to the previously claimed detection. Our upper limit improves upon existing constraints on the intrinsic polarization of GRB radio afterglows by a factor of 3. We discuss this measurement in the context of constraints on the jet magnetic field geometry. We present a compilation of polarization observations of GRB radio afterglows, and demonstrate that a significant improvement in sensitivity is desirable for eventually detecting signals polarized at the ≈0.1% level from typical radio afterglows.