7
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
0 collections
    0
    shares
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: found
      Is Open Access

      Polarization and Polarimetry: A Review

      Preprint

      Read this article at

      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          Polarization is a basic property of light and is fundamentally linked to the internal geometry of a source of radiation. Polarimetry complements photometric, spectroscopic, and imaging analyses of sources of radiation and has made possible multiple astrophysical discoveries. In this article I review (i) the physical basics of polarization: electromagnetic waves, photons, and parameterizations; (ii) astrophysical sources of polarization: scattering, synchrotron radiation, active media, and the Zeeman, Goldreich-Kylafis, and Hanle effects, as well as interactions between polarization and matter (like birefringence, Faraday rotation, or the Chandrasekhar-Fermi effect); (iii) observational methodology: on-sky geometry, influence of atmosphere and instrumental polarization, polarization statistics, and observational techniques for radio, optical, and X/gamma wavelengths; and (iv) science cases for astronomical polarimetry: solar and stellar physics, planetary system bodies, interstellar matter, astrobiology, astronomical masers, pulsars, galactic magnetic fields, gamma-ray bursts, active galactic nuclei, and cosmic microwave background radiation.

          Related collections

          Most cited references53

          • Record: found
          • Abstract: not found
          • Article: not found

          Wavelength dependence of interstellar polarization and ratio of total to selective extinction

            Bookmark
            • Record: found
            • Abstract: not found
            • Article: not found

            Magnetic Fields in Spiral Arms.

              Bookmark
              • Record: found
              • Abstract: found
              • Article: found
              Is Open Access

              The Physics of Gamma-Ray Bursts

              Tsvi Piran (2004)
              Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs), short and intense pulses of low energy gamma-rays, have fascinated astronomers and astrophysicists since their unexpected discovery in the late sixties. During the last decade, several space missions: BATSE (Burst and Transient Source Experiment) on Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory, BeppoSAX and now HETE II (High-Energy Transient Explorer), together with ground optical, infrared and radio observatories have revolutionized our understanding of GRBs showing that they are cosmological, that they are accompanied by long lasting afterglows and that they are associated with core collapse Supernovae. At the same time a theoretical understanding has emerged in the form of the fireball internal-external shocks model. According to this model GRBs are produced when the kinetic energy of an ultra-relativistic flow is dissipated in internal collisions. The afterglow arises when the flow is slowed down by shocks with the surrounding circum-burst matter. This model has numerous successful predictions like the prediction of the afterglow itself, the prediction of jet breaks in the afterglow light curve and of an optical flash that accompanies the GRBs themselves. In this review I focus on theoretical aspects and on physical processes believed to take place in GRBs.
                Bookmark

                Author and article information

                Journal
                2014-01-09
                Article
                10.5303/JKAS.2014.47.1.015
                1401.1911
                dac27749-b70c-4c3c-8c28-f65cd4a6b2e9

                http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/

                History
                Custom metadata
                25 pages, 5 figures; review article, to appear in JKAS (received 30 August 2013; revised 17 December 2013; accepted 28 December 2013)
                astro-ph.IM

                Instrumentation & Methods for astrophysics
                Instrumentation & Methods for astrophysics

                Comments

                Comment on this article