Polarimetric studies of Comet C/2009 P1 (Garradd)

We present the optical imaging polarimetric observations of comet C/2009 P1(Garradd) at three different phase angles e.g., 28.2\(^\circ\), 28.1\(^\circ\) and 21.6\(^\circ\). The observations were carried out using IUCAA Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera mounted on Cassegrain focus of the 2-m Telescope of IGO, IUCAA, Pune in R\(_{comet}\), R photometric bands, on 21 and 22 March 2012 and ARIES Imaging Polarimeter mounted on Cassegrain focus of the 1.04-m Sampurnanand Telescope of ARIES, Nainital in R photometric band, on 23 May 2012. We show the presence of a jet activity in the rotational gradient treated image of comet Garradd at phase angle 28.1\(^\circ\). These jets are mainly oriented towards the Sun and extended up to \(\sim\) 5100 km from the cometary photocenter. The antisolar extension of jet seems to be fainter, which is extended up to \(\sim\) 1800 km. It is found that the comet Garradd shows negative polarization at phase angle 21.6\(^\circ\). The degree of polarization derived for Garradd is in good agreement with other comets at nearly similar phase angles e.g., comets 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, 22P/Kopff, 1P/Halley, C/1990 K1 (Levy), 4P/Faye, and C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) at phase angle \(\sim\) 28\(^\circ\), and 47P/Ashbrook-Jackson at phase angle \(\sim\) 21.6\(^\circ\), respectively. It is also found that the degree of polarization of dusty coma of comet Garradd at phase angle \(\sim\) 28\(^\circ\) is high but, not as high as in the case of comet Hale-Bopp.