Afterglow Imaging and Polarization of Misaligned Structured GRB Jets and Cocoons: Breaking the Degeneracy in GRB 170817A

TL;DR

This paper proposes using afterglow imaging and polarization measurements to distinguish between different jet and cocoon structures in GRB 170817A, addressing degeneracies in interpreting the afterglow emission.

Contribution

It introduces a method to break degeneracies in GRB afterglow models by predicting the evolution of image shape, size, and polarization for various outflow structures.

Findings

Polarization peaks when the jet core becomes visible.

Elongated images with high aspect ratios indicate off-axis jets.

Quasi-spherical flows produce circular images with low polarization.

Abstract

The X-ray to radio afterglow emission of GRB 170817A/GW 170817 so far scales as $F_\nu\propto\nu^{-0.6}t^{0.8}$ with observed frequency and time, consistent with a single power-law segment of the synchrotron spectrum from the external shock going into the ambient medium. This requires the effective isotropic equivalent afterglow shock energy in the visible region to increase as $\sim t^{1.7}$. The two main channels for such an energy increase are (i) \emph{radial}: more energy carried by slower material (in the visible region) gradually catches up with the afterglow shock and energizes it, and (ii) \emph{angular}: more energy in relativistic outflow moving at different angles to our line of sight, whose radiation is initially beamed away from us but its beaming cone gradually reaches our line of sight as it decelerates. One cannot distinguish between these explanations (or combinations of them) using only the X-ray to radio $F_\nu(t)$. Here we demonstrate that the most promising way to break this degeneracy is through afterglow imaging and polarization, by calculating the predicted evolution of the afterglow image (its size, shape and flux centroid) and linear polarization $\Pi(t)$ for different angular and/or radial outflow structures that fit $F_\nu(t)$. We consider two angular profiles -- a Gaussian and a narrow core with power-law wings in energy per solid angle, as well as a (cocoon motivated) (quasi-) spherical flow with radial velocity profile. For a jet viewed off-axis (and a magnetic field produced in the afterglow shock) $\Pi(t)$ peaks when the jet's core becomes visible, at $\approx2t_p$ where the lightcurve peaks at $t_p$, and the image can be elongated with aspect ratios$\;\gtrsim2$. A quasi-spherical flow has an almost circular image and a much lower $\Pi(t)$ (peaking at $\approx t_p$) and flux centroid displacement.