The IXPE Instrument Calibration Equipment
Abstract
The Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer is a mission dedicated to the measurement of X-ray polarization from tens of astrophysical sources belonging to different classes. Expected to be launched at the end of 2021, the payload comprises three mirrors and three focal plane imaging polarimeters, the latter being designed and built in Italy. While calibration is always an essential phase in the development of high-energy space missions, for IXPE it has been particularly extensive both to calibrate the response to polarization, which is peculiar to IXPE, and to achieve a statistical uncertainty below the expected sensitivity. In this paper we present the calibration equipment that was designed and built at INAF-IAPS in Rome, Italy, for the calibration of the polarization-sensitive focal plane detectors on-board IXPE. Equipment includes calibration sources, both polarized and unpolarized, stages to align and move the beam, test detectors and their mechanical assembly. While all these equipments were designed to fit the specific needs of the IXPE Instrument calibration, their versatility could also be used in the future for other projects.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2111.02066,
title = {The IXPE Instrument Calibration Equipment},
author = {Fabio Muleri and Raffaele Piazzolla and Alessandro Di Marco and Sergio Fabiani and Fabio La Monaca and Carlo Lefevre and Alfredo Morbidini and John Rankin and Paolo Soffitta and Antonino Tobia and Fei Xie and Fabrizio Amici and Primo Attinà and Matteo Bachetti and Daniele Brienza and Mauro Centrone and Enrico Costa and Ettore Del Monte and Sergio Di Cosimo and Giuseppe Di Persio and Yuri Evangelista and Riccardo Ferrazzoli and Pasqualino Loffredo and Matteo Perri and Maura Pilia and Simonetta Puccetti and Ajay Ratheesh and Alda Rubini and Francesco Santoli and Emanuele Scalise and Alessio Trois},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2111.02066},
year = {2021}
}
Comments
17 pages, 25 figures