# GRB 990510: linearly polarized radiation from a fireballBased on ESO VLT-Antu (UT1) observations (63.H-0233). Raw data are available upon request.

## 1 Introduction

GRB 990510 was detected by BATSE on-board the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory and by the BeppoSAX Gamma Ray Burst Monitor and Wide Field Camera on 1999 May 10.36743 UT (Kippen (1999); Amati et al. (1999), Dadina et al. 1999). Its fluence (2.5$`\times 10^5`$ erg cm<sup>-2</sup> above 20 keV) was relatively high (Kippen (1999)). Follow up optical observations started $`3.5`$ hr later and revealed an $`R17.5`$ (Axelrod et al. (1999)) optical transient, OT (Vreeswijk et al. 1999a), at the coordinates (J2000) $`\alpha =13^\mathrm{h}38^\mathrm{m}07.11^\mathrm{s}`$, $`\delta =80^{}29^{}48.2\mathrm{"}`$ (Hjorth et al. 1999b ) (galactic coordinates $`\mathrm{}^{II}=304.942`$, $`b^{II}=17.8035`$). Fig. 1 shows the Digital Sky Survey II image of the field of GRB 990510, together with the European Southern Observatory (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) image we obtained (see below): the OT is clearly visible in the latter.

The OT showed initially a fairly slow flux decay $`F_\nu t^{0.85}`$ (Galama et al. 1999), which gradually steepened, $`F_\nu t^{1.3}`$ after $`1`$ d (Stanek et al. 1999a ), $`F_\nu t^{1.8}`$ after $`4`$ d (Pietrzynski & Udalski (1999), Bloom et al 1999), $`F_\nu t^{2.5}`$ after $`5`$ d (Marconi et al. 1999a , 1999b)). Vreeswijk et al. (1999b) detected Fe II and Mg II absorption lines in the optical spectrum of the afterglow. This provides a lower limit of $`z=1.619\pm 0.002`$ to the redshift, and a $`\gamma `$–ray energy of $`>10^{53}`$ erg, in the case of isotropic emission.

Polarization is one of the clearest signatures of synchrotron radiation, if this is produced by electrons gyrating in a magnetic field that is at least in part ordered. Polarization measurements can provide a crucial test of the synchrotron shock model (Mészáros & Rees (1997)). An earlier attempt to measure the linear polarization of the optical afterglow of GRB 990123 yielded only an upper limit (Hjorth et al. 1999a ) of $`2.3`$%.

## 2 Observations

Our observations of GRB 990510 were obtained at ESO’s VLT–Antu (UT1), equipped with the Focal Reducer/low dispersion Spectrometer (FORS) and Bessel filter $`R`$. The OT associated with GRB 990510 was observed $`18.5`$ hr after the burst, when the $`R`$-band magnitude was $`19.1`$. Observations were performed in standard resolution mode with a scale of $`0.2\mathrm{}`$/pixel; the seeing was $`1.2\mathrm{}`$. The observation log is reported in Table 1.

Imaging polarimetry is achieved by the use of a Wollaston prism splitting the image of each object in the field into the two orthogonal polarization components which appear in adjacent areas of the CCD image. For each position angle $`\varphi /2`$ of the half–wave plate rotator, we obtain two simultaneous images of cross–polarization, at angles $`\varphi `$ and $`\varphi +90^{}`$.

Relative photometry with respect to all the stars in the field was performed and each couple of simultaneous measurements at orthogonal angles was used to compute the points in Fig. 2 (see Eq. 1). This technique removes any difference between the two optical paths (ordinary and extraordinary ray) and the polarization component introduced by galactic interstellar grains along the line of sight. Moreover, being based on relative photometry in simultaneous images, our measurements are insensitive to intrinsic variations in the optical transient flux ($`0.03`$ magnitudes during the time span of our observations). With the same procedure, we observed also two polarimetric standard stars, BD–135073 and BD–125133, in order to fix the offset between the polarization and the instrumental angles.

The data reduction was carried out with the ESO–MIDAS (version 97NOV) system. After bias subtraction, non–uniformities were corrected using flat–fields obtained with the Wollaston prism. The flux of each point source in the field of view was derived by means of both aperture and profile fitting photometry by the DAOPHOT II package (Stetson (1987)), as implemented in MIDAS. For relatively isolated stars the two techniques differ only by a few parts in a thousand.

In order to evaluate the parameters describing the linear polarization of the objects, we compute, for each instrumental position angle $`\varphi `$, the quantity:

$$S(\varphi )=\frac{\frac{I(\varphi )/I(\varphi +90^{})}{I_\mathrm{u}(\varphi )/I_\mathrm{u}(\varphi +90^{})}1}{\frac{I(\varphi )/I(\varphi +90^{})}{I_\mathrm{u}(\varphi )/I_\mathrm{u}(\varphi +90^{})}+1}$$
(1)   
where $`I(\varphi )`$ and $`I(\varphi +90^{})`$ are the intensities of the object measured in the two beams produced by the Wollaston prism, and $`I_\mathrm{u}(\varphi )/I_\mathrm{u}(\varphi +90^{})`$ are the average ratios of the intensities of the stars in the field. This corrects directly for the small instrumental polarization (and, at least in part, for the possible interstellar polarization). These field stars (see Fig. 3) have been selected over a range in magnitude ($`18R22`$) to check for possible non–linearities. Since the interstellar polarization of any star in the field may be related to the patchy dust structure and/or to the star distance, we have verified that the result does not depend on which stars are chosen for the analysis. The parameter $`S(\varphi )`$ is related to the degree of linear polarization $`P`$ and to the position angle of the electric field vector $`\vartheta `$ by:

$$S(\varphi )=P\mathrm{cos}2(\vartheta \varphi ).$$
(2)   
$`P`$ and $`\vartheta `$ are evaluated by fitting a cosine curve to the observed values of $`S(\varphi )`$. The derived linear polarization of the OT of GRB 990510 is $`P=(1.7\pm 0.2)`$% (1$`\sigma `$ error), at a position angle of $`\vartheta =101^{}\pm 3^{}`$<sup>1</sup><sup>1</sup>1Please, note that the position angle reported in IAUC 7172 is incorrect by $`90^{}`$. The errors for the polarization level and position angle are computed propagating the photon noise of the observations and the contribution of the normalization to the stars in the field and of the calibration of the position angle. The latter quantities, however, amounts to only a minor fraction of the quoted 1$`\sigma `$ uncertainties. Fig. 2 shows the data points and the best fit $`\mathrm{cos}\varphi `$ curve. The statistical significance of this measurement is very high. A potential problem is represented by a “spurious” polarization introduced by dust grains interposed along the line of sight, which may be preferentially aligned in one direction. Stanek et al. (1999b), using dust infrared emission maps (Schlegel et al. (1998)), reported a substantial Galactic absorption ($`E_{BV}0.20`$) in the direction of GRB 990510. The maps by Dickey & Lockman (1990) and by Burstein & Heiles (1982) give instead a somewhat lower value, $`E_{BV}0.17`$ and $`0.11`$, respectively. Applying an empirical relation (Hiltner (1956); Serkowski et al. (1975)) this polarization can amount to $`P_{\mathrm{max}}9.0E_{\mathrm{B}\mathrm{V}}`$, i.e. $`12`$%. These are only statistical estimates and large variations on the main trend may be expected.

Then a fraction, or even all the polarization of the OT could be caused by the passage of its light through the galactic ISM. However the normalization of the OT measurements to the stars in the field already corrects for the average interstellar polarization of these stars, even if this does not necessarily account for all the effects of the galactic ISM along the line of sight to the OT (e.g. the ISM could be more distant than the stars, not inducing any polarization of their light). To check this possibility, we plot in Fig. 3 the degree of polarization vs. the instrumental position angle for each star and for the OT. All points in this figure have been derived avoiding to normalize with respect to other objects. It is apparent that, while the position angle of all stars are consistent with being the same (within 10 degrees), the OT clearly stands out. The polarization position angle of stars close to the OT differs by $`45^{}`$ from the position angle of the OT (see Fig. 3). This is contrary to what one would expect if the polarization of the OT were due to the galactic ISM. Indeed, the higher polarization level measured for the OT when normalized to the stars in the same field implies that the ISM actually somewhat de-polarizes the OT. We therefore conclude that the OT, even if contaminated by interstellar polarization, must be intrinsically polarized to give the observed orientation.

We can place tight limits on the amount of absorption, and hence the associated polarization, that could be produced by interstellar material in the host galaxy of GRB 990510. Assuming that the intrinsic spectrum is a power law $`(F_\nu \nu ^\alpha )`$, we require that the fluxes measured simultaneously in the $`B`$, $`V`$, $`R`$ and $`I`$ band (Pietrzynski & Udalski 1999; Kaluzny et al. 1999; Hjorth et al. 1999b) lie on a power law curve. This strongly limits the amount of the local extinction, affecting the flux at rest–frame frequencies of $`\nu ^{}=(1+z)\nu _{obs}`$, i.e. in the UV, where extinction is more severe. We find a maximum allowed value $`E_{BV}^{host}0.02`$, corresponding to a maximum induced polarization level of $`0.2\%`$. Incidentally, the best fit power law is obtained for $`\alpha 0.7`$, a galactic $`E_{BV}=0.16`$ and $`E_{BV}^{host}0`$. This value of $`\alpha `$ matches the predictions of the standard model for the decaying afterglow flux (Mészáros & Rees (1997)), which gives $`F_\nu (t)t^{3\alpha /2}`$. For $`\alpha =0.7`$, the expected flux decay is in agreement with that measured at the time of the observations.

## 3 Discussion

Relativistic fireball models do explain the main properties of GRBs and their afterglows (Rees & Mészáros (1992); Vietri (1997); Waxman (1997); Sari et al. (1998)). Polarized optical synchrotron emission may be observable if: (i) the coherence length of the magnetic field in the fireball grows at a sizeable fraction of the speed of light (Gruzinov & Waxman 1999; Gruzinov 1999) or, (ii) the fireball is collimated (Hjorth et al. 1999a) (i.e. it is beamed). Therefore, measurements of optical polarization can provide constraints on the geometry of the emitting source.

Additional information come from the afterglow light curve which shows a gradual steepening in the bands $`V`$, $`R`$ and $`I`$, which was never observed before (Marconi et al. 1999a). The observed steepening is almost wavelength independent, thus excluding that it could be entirely caused by a curved spectrum shifting in time rigidly to lower frequencies, in which case we ought to see the highest frequencies steepening first. In addition, the $`VR`$ and $`RI`$ colors are changing very slowly during the evolution, indicating that the spectral slope is changing slowly with time. These information suggest that the fireball is collimated in a jet. The solid angle of the jet visible to the observer is limited to those regions making an angle smaller than $`1/\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ with the line of sight. As $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ decreases, the visible solid angle increases as $`1/\mathrm{\Gamma }^2`$, until $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=\mathrm{\Gamma }_1=1/(\theta _j\theta )`$ (with $`\theta _j`$ being the cone of semi–aperture angle and $`\theta `$ the angle between the cone axis and the line of sight). When $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=\mathrm{\Gamma }_2=1/(\theta _j+\theta )`$ the observed solid angle remains constant, since the entire jet is visible. For $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$–factors between $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_1`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_2`$ the observed solid angle increases somewhat slower than $`1/\mathrm{\Gamma }^2`$. Since the flux at the earth is proportional to the observed solid angle, we have two well defined behaviors of the light curve, corresponding to $`\mathrm{\Gamma }>\mathrm{\Gamma }_1`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }<\mathrm{\Gamma }_2`$, and a transition period of gradual steepening in between. Photons produced in regions at an angle $`1/\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ with respect to the line of sight are emitted, in the comoving frame, at $`90^{}`$ from the velocity vector. A comoving observer at this angle can then see a compressed emitting region and a projected magnetic field structure with a preferred orientation. If the gradual steepening of the light curve is due to the mechanism just mentioned, we would observe only some regions at a viewing angle $`1/\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, not all those we would see in axis–symmetric situation, and this asymmetry can be the cause of the observed linear polarization.

The above arguments suggest that we are observing, slightly off–axis, a collimated beam. If this is the case, we would have a link between the flux decay behavior, the presence of polarization, and the degree of collimation, opening a new perspective for measuring the intrinsic power of GRBs.

Deeper understanding of polarization in GRBs may come from future multi–filter observations and from spectropolarimetry. Frequency dependent polarization can in fact easily disentangle different components of polarization. In addition, variability in the degree of polarization and its position angle is expected in such fastly evolving sources: therefore repeated observations of the same afterglow will also be important.

###### Acknowledgements.

We thank the ESO–VLT service team, and in particular H. Boehnhardt, F. Bresolin, P. Møller and G. Rupprecht. FH thanks the kind hospitality of the Department of Physics of the University of Milan. We also thank the referee J. Hjorth for his helpful comments.