Related papers: Analyzing the Data from X-ray Polarimeters with St…
Light's polarisation contains information about its source and interactions, from distant stars to biological samples. Polarimeters can recover this information, but reliance on birefringent or rotating optical elements limits their…
We compute rest-frame reflection spectra and the corresponding energy-dependent linear polarization degree and angle for (un)polarized single-temperature blackbody spectra impinging on a partially ionized constant-density optically thick…
The polarimetry of the light scattered by planetary surfaces is a powerful tool to provide constraints on their microstructure. To improve the interpretation of polarimetric data from icy surfaces, we have developed the POLarimeter for ICE…
X-ray polarization is a powerful tool to investigate the geometry of accreting material around black holes, allowing independent measurements of the black hole spin and orientation of the innermost parts of the accretion disk. We perform…
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,…
Many polarisation techniques have been harnessed for decades in biological and clinical research, each based upon measurement of the vectorial properties of light or the vectorial transformations imposed on light by objects. Various…
This paper defines the mathematical convention adopted to describe an electromagnetic wave and its polarisation state, as implemented in the PSRCHIVE software and represented in the PSRFITS definition. Contrast is made between the…
We discuss the effects of strong gravity on the polarization properties of a black hole accretion disc. The intrinsic polarization is computed taking into account light scattered on the disc surface and using different approximations. The…
Metasurfaces composed of anisotropic subwavelength structures provide an ultrathin platform for a compact, real-time polarimeter. However, applications in polychromatic scenes are restricted by the limited operating bandwidths and degraded…
Scattering measurements with incident linearly polarized $\gamma$ rays provide information on spins, parities, and $\gamma$-ray multipolarity mixing coefficients, and, therefore, on the nuclear matrix elements involved in the transitions.…
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…
Many active stars are covered in spots, much more so than the Sun, as indicated by spectroscopic and photometric observations. It has been predicted that star spots induce non-zero intrinsic linear polarization by breaking the visible…
Particle acceleration mechanisms in supermassive black hole jets, such as shock acceleration, magnetic reconnection, and turbulence, are expected to have observable signatures in the multi-wavelength polarization properties of blazars. The…
Inversion codes are numerical tools used for the inference of physical properties from the observations. Despite their success, the quality of current spectropolarimetric observations and those expected in the near future presents a…
Polarimetry of extrasolar planets becomes a new tool for their investigation, which requires the development of diagnostic techniques and parameter case studies. Our goal is to develop a theoretical model which can be applied to interpret…
We present a pipeline that allows recovering reliable information for all four Stokes parameters with high accuracy. Its novelty relies on the treatment of the instrumental effects already prior to the computation of the Stokes parameters…
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…
We review the basic principles of X-ray polarimetry and current detector technologies based on the photoelectric effect, Bragg reflection, and Compton scattering. Recent technological advances in high-spatial-resolution gas-filled X-ray…
Many objects on the sky exhibit a centrosymmetric polarization pattern, particularly in cases involving single scattering around a central source. Utilizing a novel liquid crystal device (the ``theta cell'') that transforms the coordinate…
This is the first in a series of papers in which we study the application of spectroastrometry in the context of gas kinematical studies aimed at measuring the mass of supermassive black holes. The spectroastrometrical method consists in…