On the calibration of the polarimetric slope - albedo relation for asteroids: Work in progress

Abstract

Asteroid polarimetry is known to be an excellent tool to derive information on the geometric albedo of these objects. This is made possible by the existence of a relation between the albedo and the morphology of the curve which describes the variation of the degree of linear polarization of asteroid light as a function of the illumination conditions. A major problem is that the calibration of the commonly accepted form of the polarization - albedo relation includes numerical coefficients which are affected by fairly high uncertainties. Following some recommendations issued by IAU Commission 15, we are trying to improve the albedo - polarization relation by taking profit of new polarimetric data obtained in dedicated observation campaigns. We present here some very preliminary results.