POLAR: THE SPACE EXPERIMENT TO STUDY THE ORIGIN OF GAMMA RAY BURSTS

Measurements of polarisation of gamma-rays emitted in Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) will provide a new parameter in collected data. This parameter is sensitive to predictions of different models of poorly known gamma-ray emission processes. Here, we present the POLAR experiment - a compact space detector dedicated to the measurement of polarisation of GRB gamma-rays prompt emission. The flight model of POLAR will be ready in 2014, for launch in space by 2015 on the Chinese Spacelab TG-2. Expected lifetime of experiment is 3 years.