Maximum Likelihood Compton Polarimetry with the Compton Spectrometer and Imager
Abstract
Astrophysical polarization measurements in the soft gamma-ray band are becoming more feasible as detectors with high position and energy resolution are deployed. Previous work has shown that the minimum detectable polarization (MDP) of an ideal Compton polarimeter can be improved by when an unbinned, maximum likelihood method is used instead of the standard approach of fitting a sinusoid to a histogram of azimuthal scattering angles. Here we outline a procedure for implementing this maximum likelihood approach for real, non-ideal polarimeters. As an example, we use the recent observation of GRB 160530A with the Compton Spectrometer and Imager. We find that the MDP for this observation is reduced by when the maximum likelihood method is used instead of the standard method.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1709.05352,
title = {Maximum Likelihood Compton Polarimetry with the Compton Spectrometer and Imager},
author = {Alexander W. Lowell and Steven E. Boggs and Jeng-Lun Chiu and Carolyn A. Kierans and Clio C. Sleator and John A. Tomsick and Andreas C. Zoglauer and Hsiang-Kuang Chang and Chao-Hsiung Tseng and Chien-Ying Yang and Pierre Jean and Peter von Ballmoos and Chih-Hsun Lin and Mark Amman},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1709.05352},
year = {2017}
}
Comments
This paper is meant to accompany another paper by the same authors: "Polarimetric Analysis of the Long Duration Gamma Ray Burst GRB 160530A With the Balloon Borne Compton Spectrometer and Imager"