| 1. |
- Axelsson, Magnus, et al.
(författare)
-
Measuring energy dependent polarization in soft gamma-rays using compton scattering in PoGOLite
- 2007
-
Ingår i: Astroparticle physics. - : Elsevier. - 0927-6505 .- 1873-2852. ; 28:3, s. 327-337
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Linear polarization in X-and gamma-rays is an important diagnostic of many astrophysical sources, foremost giving information about their geometry, magnetic fields, and radiation mechanisms. However, very few X-ray polarization measurements have been made, and then only mono-energetic detections, whilst several objects are assumed to have energy dependent polarization signatures. In this paper, we investigate whether detection of energy dependent polarization from cosmic sources is possible using the Compton technique, in particular with the proposed PoGOLite balloon-experiment, in the 25-100 keV range. We use Geant4 simulations of a PoGOLite model and input photon spectra based on Cygnus X-1 and accreting magnetic pulsars (100 mCrab). Effective observing times of 6 and 35 h were simulated, corresponding to a standard and a long duration flight, respectively. Both smooth and sharp energy variations of the polarization are investigated and compared to constant polarization signals using chi-square statistics. We can reject constant polarization, with energy, for the Cygnus X-1 spectrum (in the hard state), if the reflected component is assumed to be completely polarized, whereas the distinction cannot be made for weaker polarization. For the accreting pulsar, constant polarization can be rejected in the case of polarization in a narrow energy band with at least 50% polarization, and similarly for a negative step distribution from 30% to 0% polarization.
|
|
| 2. |
- Sofitta, P, et al.
(författare)
-
XIPE the X-ray Imaging Polarimetry Explorer
- 2016
-
Ingår i: Proceedings of SPIE. - : SPIE - The International Society for Optics and Photonics. - 9781510601895 - 9781510601901
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- XIPE, the X-ray Imaging Polarimetry Explorer, is a mission dedicated to X-ray Astronomy. At the time of writing XIPE is in a competitive phase A as fourth medium size mission of ESA (M4). It promises to reopen the polarimetry window in high energy Astrophysics after more than 4 decades thanks to a detector that efficiently exploits the photoelectric effect and to X-ray optics with large effective area. XIPE uniqueness is time-spectrally-spatially- resolved X-ray polarimetry as a breakthrough in high energy astrophysics and fundamental physics. Indeed the payload consists of three Gas Pixel Detectors at the focus of three X-ray optics with a total effective area larger than one XMM mirror but with a low weight. The payload is compatible with the fairing of the Vega launcher. XIPE is designed as an observatory for X- ray astronomers with 75% of the time dedicated to a Guest Observer competitive program and it is organized as a consortium across Europe with main contributions from Italy, Germany, Spain, United Kingdom, Poland, Sweden.
|
|
