The hard X-ray polarimeter POLAR aims to measure the linear polarization of
the 50-500 keV photons arriving from the prompt emission of gamma-ray bursts
(GRBs). The position in the sky of the detected GRBs is needed to determine
their level of polarization. We present here a method by which, despite of the
polarimeter incapability of taking images, GRBs can be roughly localized using
POLAR alone. For this purpose scalers are attached to the output of the 25
multi-anode photomultipliers (MAPMs) that collect the light from the POLAR
scintillator target. Each scaler measures how many GRB photons produce at least
one energy deposition above 50 keV in the corresponding MAPM. Simulations show
that the relative outputs of the 25 scalers depend on the GRB position. A
database of very strong GRBs simulated at 10201 positions has been produced.
When a GRB is detected, its location is calculated searching the minimum of the
chi2 obtained in the comparison between the measured scaler pattern and the
database. This GRB localization technique brings enough accuracy so that the
error transmitted to the 100% modulation factor is kept below 10% for GRBs with
fluence Ftot \geq 10^(-5) erg cm^(-2) . The POLAR localization capability will
be useful for those cases where no other instruments are simultaneously
observing the same field of view.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figure