Related papers: Balloon-borne gamma-ray polarimetry
The gas pixel detector (GPD) is designed and developed for high-sensitivity astronomical X-ray polarimetry, which is a new window about to open in a few years. Due to the small mass, low power, and compact geometry of the GPD, we propose a…
POLAR is a compact wide field space-borne detector dedicated for precise measurements of the linear polarization of hard X-rays emitted by transient sources in the energy range from 50 keV to 500 keV. It consists of 1600 plastic…
The SUNRISE balloon-borne solar observatory, consisting of a 1~m aperture telescope that provided a stabilized image to a UV filter imager and an imaging vector polarimeter, carried out its second science flight in June 2013. It provided…
In recent years, a number of purpose-built scintillator-based polarimeters have studied bright astronomical sources for the first time in the hard X-ray band (tens to hundreds of keV). The addition of polarimetry can help data…
Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) are the strongest explosions in the universe which might be associated with creation of black holes. Magnetic field structure and burst dynamics may influence polarization of the emitted gamma-rays. Precise…
e-ASTROGAM is a gamma-ray space mission proposed for the fifth Medium-size mission (M5) of the European Space Agency. It is dedicated to the study of the non-thermal Universe in the photon energy range from ~0.15 MeV to 3 GeV with…
POLAR is a compact space-borne detector designed to perform reliable measurements of the polarization for transient sources like Gamma-Ray Bursts in the energy range 50-500keV. The instrument works based on the Compton Scattering principle…
An X-ray photoelectric polarimeter based on the Gas Pixel Detector has been proposed to be included in many upcoming space missions to fill the gap of about 30 years from the first (and to date only) positive measurement of polarized X-ray…
The Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (BLAST) is a sub-orbital experiment designed to study the process of star formation in local galaxies (including the Milky Way) and in galaxies at cosmological distances. Using a 2-m…
X-ray polarimetry promises to give qualitatively new information about high-energy astrophysical sources, such as binary black hole systems, micro-quasars, active galactic nuclei, neutron stars, and gamma-ray bursts. We designed, built and…
Over the past few decades impressive progress has been made in the field of photon polarimetry, especially in the hard X-ray and soft gamma-ray energy regime. Measurements of the linear degree of polarization for some of the most energetic…
The last decade has seen a leapfrog in the interest in X-ray polarimetry with a number of new polarization measurements in hard X-rays from AstroSat, POLAR, GAP, and PoGO+. The measurements provide some interesting insights into various…
X-ray polarimetry has seen a growing interest in recent years. Improvements in detector technology and focusing X-ray optics now enable sensitive astrophysical X-ray polarization measurements. These measurements will provide new insights…
The maturity of current detectors based on technologies that range from solid state to gases renewed the interest for X-ray polarimetry, raising the enthusiasm of a wide scientific community to improve the performance of polarimeters as…
A possibility to measure the energy and polarization distributions of high intensity gamma-beams is considered. This possibility is based on measurements of the number of electron-pozitron pairs in such media as laser waves and single…
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are exceptionally bright electromagnetic events occurring daily on the sky. The prompt emission is dominated by X-/$\gamma$-rays. Since their discovery over 50 years ago, GRBs are primarily studied through spectral…
We present a concept for an imaging gamma-ray polarimeter operating from ~50 MeV to ~1 GeV. Such an instrument would be valuable for the study of high-energy pulsars, active galactic nuclei, supernova remnants, and gamma-ray bursts. The…
X-ray polarisation measurement is a unique tool which may provide crucial information regarding the emission mechanism and the geometry of various astrophysical sources, like neutron stars, accreting black holes, pulsar wind nebulae, AGNs,…
The Gamma-RAy Polarimeter Experiment (GRAPE) is a concept for an astronomical hard X-ray Compton polarimeter operating in the 50 - 500 keV energy band. The instrument has been optimized for wide-field polarization measurements of transient…
We report on the optimization of the hard X-ray polarimeter X-Calibur for a high-altitude balloon-flight in the focal plane of the InFOC{\mu}S X-ray telescope from Fort Sumner (NM) in Fall 2013. X-Calibur combines a low-Z scintillator slab…