| תקציר: | Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the strongest explosions in the Universe, and are powered by initially ultra-relativistic jets. The angular profile of GRB jets encodes important information about their launching and propagation near the central source, and can be probed through their afterglow emission. Detailed analysis of the multiwavelength afterglow light curves of recent GRBs shows evidence of an extended angular structure beyond the jet’s narrow core. The afterglow emission is determined by the jet angular structure, our viewing angle, and the magnetic field structure behind the shock, often leading to degeneracies when considering the light curves and broadband spectrum alone. Such degeneracies can be lifted with joint modeling of the afterglow light curves and polarization, which is expected for synchrotron radiation. In this talk I will explain the origin of polarized emission in GRB afterglows, and expand our basic intuition to the regime of structured jets. Finally, I will show the potential and implications such models have for energetic GRBs and orphan afterglow candidates. |