Title: Imaging polarimetry of Comet C/2013 V1 (Boattini) and Comet 290P/Jager before and after perihelion Author: P. Deb Roy, P. Halder, H. S. Das, B. J. Medhi
We report the results obtained from the optical polarimetric study of the light scattered by Comet C/2013 V1 (Boattini) and Comet 290P/Jager at lower phase angles. The polarimetric observations of two comets have been performed with the 1.04-metre Sampurnanand telescope of ARIES near Nainital in India on 4th & 5th of December, 2013 and on 24th April, 2014 using R photometric band (lambda = 630 nm, Delta lambda =120nm). We covered observations in both the pre and post perihelion passage of Comet C/2013 V1 (Boattini) and Comet 290P/Jager at two phase angles ~ 13° and 27°. The degree of polarisation changes from (-1.4±0.3)% to (+2.8±0.5)% for Comet C/2013 V1 (Boattini) and (-1.6±0.5)% to (+2.5±0.5)% for Comet 290P/Jager at phase angles ~13° and 27° respectively. The change in the physical properties of cometary dust is being well studied from the polarisation maps obtained for both the period of observations. It is found that the aperture polarisation values are comparable to those of other comets. The variation in the brightness profile of both the comets from the standard canonical nature is also being observed in both the solar and anti-solar direction during this phase which suggests the various physical evolution influencing the cometary comae.