Related papers: Broad-Band Soft X-ray Polarimetry
In many polarimetry applications, including observations in the X-ray band, the measurement of a polarization signal can be reduced to the detection and quantification of a deviation from uniformity of a distribution of measured angles. We…
Polarimetric measurements, especially if extended at high energy, are expected to provide important insights into the mechanisms underlying the acceleration of relativistic particles in jets. In a previous work we have shown that the…
In a previous paper, we reviewed theoretically some of the available processing schemes for X-ray wavefront sensing based on random modulation. We here show experimental applications of the technique for characterising both refractive and…
Emission spectra from magnetars in the soft X-ray band likely contain a thermal component emerging directly from the neutron star surface. However, the lack of observed absorption-like features in quiescent spectra makes it difficult to…
Axion-like-particles (ALPs) produced in the core of a magnetar can convert to photons in the magnetosphere, giving rise to novel features in the X-ray spectrum. Since ALPs only mix with the parallel mode of the photon, the polarization of…
The use of polarimetric techniques is nowadays widespread among solar and stellar astronomers. However, notwithstanding the recommandations that have often been made about the publication of polarimetric results in the astronomical…
We develop two algorithms, based on maximum likelihood (ML) inference, for estimating the parameters of polarized radio sources which emit at a single rotation measure (RM), e.g., pulsars. These algorithms incorporate the flux density…
The measurement of radio polarization may be regarded as a three-dimensional statistical problem because the large photon densities at radio wavelengths allow the simultaneous detection of the three Stokes parameters which completely…
The effects of strong gravity on the polarization of the Compton reflection from an X-ray illuminated accretion disc are studied. The gravitational field of a rotating black hole influences Stokes parameters of the radiation along the…
The multipolar expansion of the electromagnetic field plays a key role in the study of light-matter interactions. All the information about the radiation and coupling between the incident wavefield and the object is embodied in the electric…
We discuss the experimental techniques used to date for measuring the changes in polarization state of a laser produced by a strong transverse magnetic field acting in a vacuum. We point out the likely artifacts that can arise in such…
The synchrotron radiation is commonly known to be completely linearly polarized when observed in the orbital plane of the synchrotron motion. Under actual experimental conditions, however, the degree of polarization of the synchrotron…
We present a new model for the propagation of polarized light in a random birefringent medium. This model is based on a decomposition of the higher order statistics of the reduced Stokes parameters along the irreducible representations of…
An eight stage balanced modulation scheme for dual beam polarimetry is presented in this paper. The four Stokes parameters are weighted equally in all the eight stages of modulation resulting in total polarimetric efficiency of unity. The…
The new generation of X-ray polarisation detectors, gas pixel detectors, which will be employed by the future space missions IXPE and eXTP, allows for spatially resolved X-ray polarisation studies. This will be of particular interest for…
The polarization of an X-ray beam that produces electrons with velocity components perpendicular to the beam generates an azimuthal distribution of the ejected electrons. We present methods for simulating and for analyzing the angular…
X-ray polarimetry offers a unique window into neutron star physics and can provide answers to questions that cannot otherwise be probed. The up-and-coming REDSoX sounding rocket mission will be the first experiment equipped with a detector…
New-generation X-ray polarimeters currently under development promise to open a new window in the study of high-energy astrophysical sources. Among them, neutron stars appear particularly suited for polarization measurements. Radiation from…
High precision polarization measurements open new opportunities for the study of the magnetic field structure as traced by polarimetric measurements of the interstellar dust emission. Polarization parameters suffer from bias in the presence…
BaR-SPOrt (Balloon-borne Radiometers for Sky Polarisation Observations) is an experiment to measure the linearly polarized emission of sky patches at 32 and 90 GHz with sub-degree angular resolution. It is equipped with high sensitivity…