Related papers: HX-POL - A Balloon-Borne Hard X-Ray Polarimeter
POLAR is a compact polarimeter dedicated to measure the polarization of GRBs between 50-300 keV. The light collection of 200*6*6mm3 plastic bars has been simulated and optimized in order to get uniform response to x-rays at different points…
We have built a polarimeter in order to measure the electron beam polarization in hall C at JLAB. Using a superconducting solenoid to drive the pure-iron target foil into saturation, and a symmetrical setup to detect the Moller electrons in…
Measurements of the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation are expected to significantly increase our understanding of the early universe. We present a design for a CMB polarimeter in which a cryogenically cooled…
While the scientific potential of high-energy X-ray and gamma-ray polarimetry has long been recognized, measuring the polarization of high-energy photons is challenging. To date, there has been very few significant detections from an…
We show that the parameter space of axion-like particles can be severly constrained using high-precision measurements of quasar polarisations. Robust limits are derived from the measured bounds on optical circular polarisation and from the…
X-rays astrophysical sources have been almost exclusively characterized through imaging, spectroscopy and timing analysis. Nevertheless, more observational parameters are needed because some radiation mechanisms present in neutrons stars or…
We examine the potential for gamma-ray conversion to electron-positron pairs, either in the field of a nucleus or of an electron of a detector, to measure the fraction P of linear polarization of cosmic gamma sources. For this purpose we…
The Polarized Instrument for Long-wavelength Observation of the Tenuous interstellar medium (PILOT) is a balloon-borne experiment aiming at measuring the polarized emission of thermal dust at a wavelength of 240 mm (1.2 THz). A first PILOT…
Imaging polarimetry is an important tool for the study of cosmic magnetic fields. In our Galaxy, polarization levels of a few up to $\sim$10\% are measured in the submillimeter dust emission from molecular clouds and in the synchrotron…
Most of the light from blazars, active galactic nuclei with jets of magnetized plasma that point nearly along the line of sight, is produced by high-energy particles, up to $\sim 1$ TeV. Although the jets are known to be ultimately powered…
X-ray polarimetry is a new tool capable of probing the geometry of accretion onto weakly magnetized neutron stars. Here we present the first X-ray spectropolarimetric results from coordinated observations of the atoll source 4U 1735-44,…
In astronomy there are basically four kinds of observations to extract the information carried by electromagnetic radiation: photometry, imaging, spectroscopy and polarimetry. By optimal exploitation of the first three techniques, X-ray…
Both leptonic and hadronic emission processes may contribute to blazar jet emission; which dominates in blazars's high energy emission component remains an open question. Some intermediate synchrotron peaked blazars transition from their…
EBEX is a balloon-borne polarimeter designed to measure the intensity and polarization of the cosmic microwave background radiation. The measurements would probe the inflationary epoch that took place shortly after the big bang and would…
POLAR is a dedicated Gamma-Ray Burst polarimeter making use of Compton-scattering which took data from the second Chinese spacelab, the Tiangong-2 from September 2016 to April 2017. It has a wide Field of View of $\sim6$ steradians and an…
The upcoming launch of the first space based X-ray polarimeter in $\sim 40$ years will provide powerful new diagnostic information to study accreting compact objects. In particular, analysis of rapid variability of the polarisation degree…
We report linear polarization measurements of x rays emitted due to dielectronic recombination into highly charged krypton ions. The ions in the He-like through O-like charge states were populated in an electron beam ion trap with the…
An approach for measuring linear X-ray polarization over a broad-band using conventional spectroscopic optics is described. A set of multilayer-coated flats reflect the dispersed X-rays to the instrument detectors. The intensity variation…
Future cosmology space missions will concentrate on measuring the polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background, which potentially carries invaluable information about the earliest phases of the evolution of our universe. Such ambitious…
Over the next year, a new era of observations of compact objects in X-ray polarization will commence. Among the key targets for the upcoming Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer mission, will be the magnetars 4U 0142+61 and 1RXS…