Early polarization observations of the optical emission of gamma-ray bursts: GRB 150301B and GRB 150413A

GORBOVSKOY, E.S.; LIPUNOV, V.M.; BUCKLEY, D.A.H.; KORNILOV, V.G.; BALANUTSA, P.V.; TYURINA, N.V.; KUZNETSOV, A.S.; KUVSHINOV, D.A.; GORBUNOV, I.A.; VLASENKO, D.; POPOVA, E.; CHAZOV, V.V.; POTTER, S.; KOTZE, M.; KNIAZEV, A.Y.; GRESS, O.A.; BUDNEV, N.M.; IVANOV, K.I.; YAZEV, S.A.; TLATOV, A.G.; SENIK, V.A.; DORMIDONTOV, D.V.; PARHOMENKO, A.V.; KRUSHINSKI, V.V.; ZALOZHNICH, I.S.; ALBERTO CASTRO-TIRADO, R.; SÁNCHEZ-RAMÍREZ, R.; SERGIENKO, YU.P.; GABOVICH, A.; YURKOV, V.V.; LEVATO, H.; SAFFE, C.; VLADIMIROV, V.V.

MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Año: 2016 vol. 455 p. 3312 - 3318

0035-8711

We report early optical linear polarization observations of two gamma-ray bursts made with the MASTER robotic telescope network. We found the minimum polarization for GRB 150301B to be 8 per cent at the beginning of the initial stage, whereas we detected no polarization for GRB 150413A either at the rising branch or after the burst reached the power-law afterglow stage. This is the earliest measurement of the polarization (in cosmological rest frame) of gamma-ray bursts. The primary intent of the paper is to discover optical emission and publish extremely rare (unique) high-quality light curves of the prompt optical emission of gamma ray bursts during the non-monotonic stage of their evolution. We report that our team has discovered the optical counterpart of one of the bursts, GRB 150413A.