Gamma-ray burst polarization reduction induced by the Lorentz invariance violation

Abstract

It has been observed that photons in the prompt emission of some gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are highly polarized. The high polarization is used by some authors to give a strict constraint on the Lorentz invariance violation (LIV). If the Lorentz invariance is broken, the polarization vector of a photon may rotate during its propagation. The rotation angle of polarization vector depends on both the photon energy and the distance of source. It is believed that if high polarization is observed, then the relative rotation angle (denoted by $\alpha$) of polarization vector of the highest energy photon with respect to that of the lowest energy photon should be no more than $\pi /2$. Otherwise, the net polarization will be severely suppressed, thus couldn't be as high as what was actually observed. In this paper, we will give a detailed calculation on the evolution of GRB polarization arising from LIV effect duration the propagation. It is shown that the polarization degree rapidly decrease as $\alpha$ increases, and reaches a local minimum at $\alpha \approx \pi$, then increases until $\alpha \approx 3\pi /2$, after that decreases again until $\alpha \approx 2\pi$, etc. The polarization degree as a function of $\alpha$ oscillates with a quasi-period $T\approx \pi$, while the oscillating amplitude gradually decreases to zero. Moreover, we find that a considerable amount (more than $60\%$ of the initial polarization) of polarization degree can be conserved when $\alpha \approx \pi /2$. The polarization observation in a higher and wider energy band, a softer photon spectrum, and a higher redshift GRB is favorable in order to tightly constrain LIV effect.

7 pages, 4 figures, accepted by MNRAS

References in corpus (6)

• Lorentz-violation-induced arrival delays of cosmological particles
• Polarisation studies of the prompt gamma-ray emission from GRB 041219a using the Spectrometer aboard INTEGRAL
• Evolution of the polarization of the optical afterglow of the gamma-ray burst GRB 030329
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Cited by in corpus (5)

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• New constraints on Lorentz invariance violation with polarized gamma-ray bursts
• Light Speed Variation with Brane/String-Inspired Space-Time Foam
• Precision Test of the Weak Equivalence Principle from Gamma-Ray Burst Polarization
• Constraints on Lorentz invariance violation with multiwavelength polarized astrophysical sources