Related papers: Analysis of Polarimetry Data with Angular Uncertai…
An event-based maximum likelihood method for handling X-ray polarimetry data is extended to include the effects of background and nonuniform sampling of the possible position angle space. While nonuniform sampling in position angle space…
We present a method for enhancing the sensitivity of X-ray telescopic observations with imaging polarimeters, with a focus on the gas pixel detectors (GPDs) to be flown on the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE). Our analysis…
An optimal estimate for Stokes parameters is derived for the situation in X-ray astronomy where the instrument has a modulation factor that varies significantly with energy but the signals are very weak or mildly polarized. For such…
IXPE is a Small Explorer mission that was launched at the end of 2021 to measure the polarization of X-ray emission from tens of astronomical sources. Its focal plane detectors are based on the Gas Pixel Detector, which measures the…
This chapter presents deep neural network based methods for enhancing the sensitivity of X-ray telescopic observations with imaging polarimeters. Deep neural networks can be used to determine photoelectron emission directions, photon…
X-ray polarimetry will soon open a new window on the high energy universe with the launch of NASA's Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE). Polarimeters are currently limited by their track reconstruction algorithms, which typically use…
Launched on December 9, 2021, the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) is the first imaging polarimeter ever flown, providing sensitivity in the 2--8 keV range, and during the 2-year initial phase of the mission will sample tens of…
Radiation from X-ray pulsars (XRPs) was expected to be strongly linearly polarized owing to a large difference in their ordinary and extraordinary mode opacities. The launch of IXPE allowed us to check this prediction. IXPE observed a dozen…
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…
To determine if the recently launched Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) can follow the polarization variations induced by different particle acceleration mechanisms in blazars jets we simulate observations of a high synchrotron peak…
The prospects for accomplishing x-ray polarization measurements of astronomical sources have grown in recent years, after a hiatus of more than 37 years. Unfortunately, accompanying this long hiatus has been some confusion over the…
Accreting X-ray pulsars (XRPs) are presumably ideal targets for polarization measurements, as their high magnetic field strength is expected to polarize the emission up to a polarization degree of ~80%. However, such expectations are being…
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…
X-ray polarization should provide new probes of magnetic field geometry and acceleration physics near the base of blazar jets, but near-future missions will have limited sensitivity. We thus use existing lower energy data and X-ray…
Astrophysical polarization measurements in the soft gamma-ray band are becoming more feasible as detectors with high position and energy resolution are deployed. Previous work has shown that the minimum detectable polarization (MDP) of an…
We describe an optimal signal extraction process for imaging X-ray polarimetry using an ensemble of deep neural networks. The initial photo-electron angle, used to recover the polarization, has errors following a von Mises distribution.…
IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) is a NASA Small Explorer mission -- in partnership with the Italian Space Agency (ASI) -- dedicated to X-ray polarimetry in the 2--8 keV energy band. The IXPE telescope comprises three grazing…
X-ray polarization is a unique new probe of the particle acceleration in astrophysical jets made possible through the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer. Here we report on the first dense X-ray polarization monitoring campaign on the blazar…
We present a systematic study of the unbinned, photon-by-photon likelihood technique which can be used as an alternative method to analyse phase-dependent, X-ray spectro-polarimetric observations obtained with IXPE and other photo-electric…
We review the tools and procedures for the analysis of the data collected by X-ray photoelectric gas polarimeters, like the ones on-board the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE). Although many of such tools are in principle common…