Optical and NIR monitoring of the GRB020405 afterglow

Optical and near-infrared (NIR) observations of GRB020405 started about 1 day after the GRB and extended over ~70 days. Photometry shows that the early decay is consistent with a single power law of index alpha = 1.54 +- 0.06 in all bands. The late epoch light curves, sampled with HST and VLT, exhibit a plateau or slight rebrightening around 10-20 days after the GRB. This bump can be modeled with a SN2002ap template underlying the afterglow. Alternatively, the late-epoch data can also be fitted using a power law with index steeper (alpha' = 1.85 +- 0.15) than that of the early decay phase, in agreement with a late shell collision interpretation. Spectroscopy indicates that the GRB is at z = 0.691 and that the host galaxy complex is angularly close to a system of at least two galaxies at z = 0.472. R-band polarimetry shows that the afterglow is polarized, with $ = 1.5 +- 0.4 % and polarization angle theta = 172 +- 8 degrees.