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Strongly Polarized Optical Afterglows of Gamma-Ray Bursts

Andrei Gruzinov

astro-pharXiv:astro-ph/9905276

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.

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