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Polarization of the prompt γ-ray emission from the γ-ray burst of 6 December 2002

Nature volume 423, pages 415–417 (2003)Cite this article

Abstract

Observations of the afterglows of γ-ray bursts (GRBs) have revealed that they lie at cosmological distances, and so correspond to the release of an enormous amount of energy1,2. The nature of the central engine that powers these events and the prompt γ-ray emission mechanism itself remain enigmatic because, once a relativistic fireball is created, the physics of the afterglow is insensitive to the nature of the progenitor. Here we report the discovery of linear polarization in the prompt γ-ray emission from GRB021206, which indicates that it is synchrotron emission from relativistic electrons in a strong magnetic field. The polarization is at the theoretical maximum, which requires a uniform, large-scale magnetic field over the γ-ray emission region. A large-scale magnetic field constrains possible progenitors to those either having or producing organized fields. We suggest that the large magnetic energy densities in the progenitor environment (comparable to the kinetic energy densities of the fireball), combined with the large-scale structure of the field, indicate that magnetic fields drive the GRB explosion.

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Figure 1: RHESSI light curves (in total measured counts) in three energy bins for GRB21206.
Figure 2: The azimuthal scatter distribution for the RHESSI data, corrected for spacecraft rotation.

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Acknowledgements

We thank D. Smith for help in learning RHESSI data analysis and providing simulation support, K. Hurley for IPN data and references, R. Lin, E. Quataert, J. Arons, C. Matzner and I. Fisk for discussions, and especially the RHESSI team for making all of their data immediately available to the public at 〈http://rhessidatacenter.ssl.berkeley.edu〉.

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  1. Space Sciences Laboratory, and Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California, 94720, USA

    Steven E. Boggs

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  1. Wayne Coburn
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Correspondence to Steven E. Boggs.

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Coburn, W., Boggs, S. Polarization of the prompt γ-ray emission from the γ-ray burst of 6 December 2002. Nature 423, 415–417 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature01612

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