Related papers: The gas pixel detector as a solar X-ray polarimete…
The Gas Pixel Detector (GPD) is a new generation device which, thanks to its 50 um pixels, is capable of imaging the photoelectrons tracks produced by photoelectric absorption in a gas. Since the direction of emission of the photoelectrons…
The Gas Pixel Detector was designed and built as a focal plane instrument for X-ray polarimetry of celestial sources, the last unexplored subtopics of X-ray astronomy. It promises to perform detailed and sensitive measurements resolving…
X-rays are particularly suited to probe the physics of extreme objects. However, despite the enormous improvements of X-ray Astronomy in imaging, spectroscopy and timing, polarimetry remains largely unexplored. We propose the photoelectric…
X-ray polarimetry of solar flares is still a not well established field of observation of our star. Past polarimeters were not able to measure with a high significance the polarization in X-rays from solar flares. Moreover, they had no…
We report on the results of a new, sealed, Gas Pixel Detector. The very compact design and the absence of the gas flow system, make this detector substantially ready for use as focal plane detector for future X-ray space telescopes. The…
The Gas Pixel Detector, recently developed and continuously improved by Pisa INFN in collaboration with IASF-Roma of INAF, can visualize the tracks produced within a low Z gas by photoelectrons of few keV. By reconstructing the impact point…
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…
Polarimetry is widely considered a powerful observational technique in X-ray astronomy, useful to enhance our understanding of the emission mechanisms, geometry and magnetic field arrangement of many compact objects. However, the lack of…
The polarisation of x-ray photons can be determined by measuring the direction of emission of a K-shell photoelectron. Effective exploitation of this effect below 10 keV would allow development of a highly sensitive x-ray polarimeter…
The NASA/ASI Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer, which will be launched in 2021, will be the first instrument to perform spatially resolved X-ray polarimetry on several astronomical sources in the 2-8 keV energy band. These measurements are…
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…
The INFN and INAF Italian research institutes developed a space-borne X-Ray polarimetry experiment based on a X-Ray telescope, focussing the radiation on a Gas Pixel Detector (GPD). The instrument obtains the polarization angle of the…
The Galactic center (GC) holds the closest-to-Earth supermassive black hole (SMBH), which makes it the best laboratory to study the close environment of extremely massive compact objects. Polarimetry is sensitive to geometry of the source,…
The Gas Pixel Detector is an X-ray polarimeter to fly on-board IXPE and other missions. To correctly measure the source polarization, the response of IXPE's GPDs to unpolarized radiation has to be calibrated and corrected. In this paper we…
We discuss a new class of Micro Pattern Gas Detectors, the Gas Pixel Detector (GPD), in which a complete integration between the gas amplification structure and the read-out electronics has been reached. An Application-Specific Integrated…
Our Sun is the closest X-ray astrophysical source to Earth. As such, it makes a formidable case study to better understand astrophysical processes. Solar flares are in particular very interesting as they are linked to coronal mass ejections…
Polarization is one of the fundamental natures of electromagnetic radiation. The detection of polarization or polarized photons from distant X-ray radiating systems (such as X-ray binaries (XBs), active galactic nuclei (AGN), pulsars, and…
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…
Polarization detection of X-rays is a non-negligible topic to astrophysical observation. Many polarization detection methods have been well developed for X-rays in the energy range below 10~keV, while the detection at 10-30~keV is rarely…
X-ray polarimetry, based on Gas Pixel Detectors (GPDs), have reached a high level of maturity with the Imaging X-ray Polarimeter Explorer (IXPE) leading to the first ever spatially resolved polarimetric measures. However, being this a new…