Optical Linear Polarization in the Case of Two Supernovae Associated to X-ray Flashes: XRF060218/SN2006aj and XRF080109/SN2008D

Gorosabel, J.; de Postigo, A. U.; Castro-Tirado, A. J.; Jel'inek, M.; Larionov; Guziy, S.; Augusteijn, T.; Fynbo, J.; Hjorth, J.; Malesani, D.; Xu, D.; Ferrero, P.; Kann, A.; Klose, S.; Rossi, A.; Llorente, A.; Madrid, J. P.
Bibliographical reference

Astronomical Polarimetry 2008: Science from Small to Large Telescopes. Proceedings of a Workshop held at Fairmont Le Manoir Richelieu, La Malbaie, Quebec, Canada 6-11 July 2008. Edited by Pierre Bastien, Nadine Manset, Dan P. Clemens, and Nicole St-Louis. ASP Conference Series, Vol. 449. San Francisco: Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 2012., p.421

Advertised on:
11
2011
Number of authors
17
IAC number of authors
0
Citations
1
Refereed citations
1
Description
We present the polarization monitoring carried out for two SNe associated with GRBs: XRF060218/SN2006aj and XRF080109/SN2008D. For XRF060218/SN2006aj we measured a mean polarization of P˜4% at 2.6-5.6 days after the X-ray event. This is the highest polarization value ever measured for a supernova. We derived the intrinsic polarization of XRF080109/SN2008D, assuming that the last polarization detection is due to the host galaxy. The resulting XRF060218/SN2006aj intrinsic polarization decayed as t-2, similarly as the one reported for SN2004dj. This decay can be explained by a circularization of the expansion geometry. Surprisingly the XRF060218/SN2006aj polarization position angle displayed a ≍ 100° rotation when we compare data taken before and after the light curve peak. On the other hand, XRF080109/SN2008D showed polarization values in the range 0.7-1.6%. A statistical analysis of the data distribution on the Stokes plane strongly suggests that XRF080109/SN2008D showed intrinsic variable polarization. Assuming that the Ib-type SN2007uy (another SN simultaneously imaged in the same host of XRF080109/SN2008D) is constant in the Stokes plane, then the Stokes parameters of XRF080109/ SN2008D evolve approximately on a straight line as expected for an axisymmetric expansion. These two examples illustrate how to obtain geometric information without resolving the emitting source.