arXiv subjects

Mi-Xiang Lan

Publications and source records attributed to Mi-Xiang Lan.

25 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2019

Detailed polarization measurements of the prompt emission of five Gamma-Ray Bursts

Gamma-ray bursts are the strongest explosions in the Universe since the Big Bang, believed to be produced either in forming black holes at the end of massive star evolution or merging of compact objects. Spectral and timing properties of gamma-ray bursts suggest that the observed bright gamma-rays are produced in the most relativistic jets in the Universe; however, the physical properties, especially the structure and magnetic topologies in the jets are still not well known, despite several decades of studies. It is widely believed that precise measurements of the polarization properties of gamma-ray bursts should provide crucial information on the highly relativistic jets. As a result there have been many reports of gamma-ray burst polarization measurements with diverse results, see, however many such measurements suffered from substantial uncertainties, mostly systematic. After the first successful measurements by the GAP and COSI instruments, here we report a statistically meaningful sample of precise polarization measurements, obtained with the dedicated gamma-ray burst polarimeter, POLAR onboard China's Tiangong-2 spacelab. Our results suggest that the gamma-ray emission is at most polarized at a level lower than some popular models have predicted; although our results also show intrapulse evolution of the polarization angle. This indicates that the low polarization degrees could be due to an evolving polarization angle during a gamma-ray burst.

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arXiv2018

Polarization with a 3-dimensional Mixed Magnetic Field and Its Application to GRB 170817A

A large-scale ordered magnetic field plays a very important role in the formation and acceleration of a gamma-ray burst (GRB) jet. During the GRB prompt phase, some dissipation processes may happen and disturb the magnetic field, making the field become random to some extent. Therefore, a mixed magnetic field consisting of an ordered component and a random component is plausible for the early afterglow phase. Here we investigate the polarization evolution and light curve of an afterglow under such a 3-dimensional mixed magnetic field. Three kinds of ordered component (i.e., aligned, toroidal and radial) are discussed. We find that the three cases are distinguishable through jet polarization evolution. The polarization angle for a 3D mixed magnetic field with an aligned ordered component can evolve gradually but only changes abruptly by $90^\circ$ in the toroidal and radial cases. Furthermore, during the reverse shock crossing time, the polarization degree (PD) can be non-zero for the toroidal case but roughly zero for the radial case. Since an aligned component in a jet corresponds to a magnetar central engine and a toroidal component corresponds to a black hole, GRB central engines are distinguishable through polarization observations even if the magnetic field is mixed in a jet. In addition, our polarization calculation can be applied to GRB 170817A associated with GW170817. Using the recently-observed PD upper limit $12\%$ of GRB 170817A at $t=244$ days, the magnetic field strength ratio of the ordered to random components in this afterglow is constrained to be $\lesssim0.9$.

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arXiv2018

Gamma-Ray Burst Optical Afterglows with Two-Component Jets: Polarization Evolution Revisited

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have been widely argued to originate from binary compact object mergers or core collapses of massive stars. Jets from these systems may have two components, an inner, narrow sub-jet and an outer, wider sub-jet. Such a jet subsequently interacts with its ambient gas, leading to a reverse shock (RS) and a forward shock (FS). The magnetic field in the narrow sub-jet is very likely to be mixed by an ordered component and a random component during the afterglow phase. In this paper, we calculate light curves and polarization evolution of optical afterglows with this mixed magnetic field in the RS region of the narrow sub-jet in a two-component jet model. The resultant light curve has two peaks: an early peak arises from the narrow sub-jet and a late-time rebrightening is due to the wider sub-jet. We find the polarization degree (PD) evolution under such a mixed magnetic field confined in the shock plane is very similar to that under the purely ordered magnetic field condition. The two-dimensional `mixed' magnetic fields confined in the shock plane are essentially the ordered magnetic fields only with different configurations. The position angle (PA) of the two-component jet can change gradually or abruptly by $90^\circ$. In particular, an abrupt $90^\circ$ change of the PA occurs when the PD changes from its decline phase to rise phase.

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arXiv2017

New test of weak equivalence principle using polarized light from astrophysical events

Einstein's weak equivalence principle (WEP) states that any freely falling, uncharged test particle follows the same identical trajectory independent of its internal structure and composition. Since the polarization of a photon is considered to be part of its internal structure, we propose that polarized photons from astrophysical transients, such as gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and fast radio bursts (FRBs), can be used to constrain the accuracy of the WEP through the Shapiro time delay effect. Assuming that the arrival time delays of photons with different polarizations are mainly attributed to the gravitational potential of the Laniakea supercluster of galaxies, we show that a strict upper limit on the differences of the parametrized post-Newtonian parameter $γ$ value for the polarized optical emission of GRB 120308A is $Δγ<1.2\times10^{-10}$, for the polarized gamma-ray emission of GRB 100826A is $Δγ<1.2\times10^{-10}$, and for the polarized radio emission of FRB 150807 is $Δγ<2.2\times10^{-16}$. These are the first direct verifications of the WEP for multiband photons with different polarizations. In particular, the result from FRB 150807 provides the most stringent limit to date on a deviation from the WEP, improving by one order of magnitude the previous best result based on Crab pulsar photons with different energies.

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arXiv2016

Testing Models for the Shallow Decay Phase of Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglows with Polarization Observations

The X-ray afterglows of almost one half of gamma-ray bursts have been discovered to have a shallow decay phase by the {\em Swift} satellite, whose origin remains mysterious. Two main models have been proposed to explain this phase, relativistic wind bubbles (RWBs) and structured ejecta, which could originate from millisecond magnetars and rapidly-rotating black holes, respectively. Based on these models, we here investigate polarization evolution in the shallow decay phase of X-ray and optical afterglows. We find that in the RWB model, a significant bump of the polarization degree evolution curve appears during the shallow decay phase of both optical and X-ray afterglows, while the polarization position angle changes its direction by $90^\circ$ abruptly. In the structured ejecta model, however, the polarization degree does not evolve significantly during the shallow decay phase of afterglows, no matter whether the magnetic field configuration in the ejecta is random or globally large-scale. Therefore, we conclude that these two models for the shallow decay phase and relevant central engines would be testable with future polarization observations.

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arXiv2015

Polarization Evolution of Early Optical Afterglows of Gamma-Ray Bursts

The central engine and jet composition of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) remain mysterious. Here we suggest that observations on polarization evolution of early optical afterglows may shed light on these questions. We first study the dynamics of a reverse shock and a forward shock that are generated during the interaction of a relativistic jet and its ambient medium. The jet is likely magnetized with a globally large-scale magnetic field from the central engine. The existence of the reverse shock requires that the magnetization degree of the jet should not be high ($σ\leq 1$), so that the jet is mainly composed of baryons and leptons. We then calculate the light curve and polarization evolution of an early optical afterglow, and find that when the polarization position angle changes by $90^\circ$ during the early afterglow, the polarization degree is zero for a toroidal magnetic field but is very likely to be non-zero for an aligned magnetic field. This result would be expected to provide a probe for the central engine of GRBs, because an aligned field configuration could originate from a magnetar central engine and a toroidal field configuration could be produced from a black hole via the Blandford-Znajek mechanism. Finally, for such two kinds of magnetic field configurations, we fit the observed data of the early optical afterglow of GRB 120308A equally well.

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arXiv2010

Cosmic age test in inhomogeneous cosmological models mimicking $Λ$CDM on the light cone

The possibility of reconstructing a spherically symmetric inhomogeneous Lemaitre-Tolman-Bondi (LTB) model with $Λ$CDM observations has drawn a lot of attention. Recently, a LTB model having the same luminosity-distance and light-cone mass density as the $Λ$CDM model was reconstructed. We calculate the cosmic age at our position in this model, and get the age $t_{LTB}<11.7$Gyr in 2$σ$ confidence level from the Seven-Year WMAP observations. This result is inconsistent with some Milky Way observations.

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