Related papers: Astrophysical X-Ray Polarization
The prospects for accomplishing X-ray polarization measurements appear to have grown in recent years after a more than 35-year hiatus. Unfortunately, this long hiatus has brought with it some confusion over the statistical uncertainties…
Neutron stars (NSs) powered by accretion, which are known as accretion-powered NSs, always locate in binary systems and manifest themselves as X-ray sources. Physical process during accreting material from their companions is a challenging…
This chapter is intended to provide a general presentation of the atomic and nuclear processes responsible for X-ray line and gamma-ray line emission in various astrophysical environments. I consider line production from hot plasmas, from…
Over the next year, a new era of observations of compact objects in X-ray polarization will commence. Among the key targets for the upcoming Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer mission, will be the magnetars 4U 0142+61 and 1RXS…
The development of micropixel gas detectors, capable to image tracks produced in a gas by photoelectrons, makes possible to perform polarimetry of X-ray celestial sources in the focus of grazing incidence X-ray telescopes. HXMT is a mission…
The study of cosmic reionization has acquired increasing significance over the last few years because of various reasons. On the observational front, we now have good quality data of different types at high redshifts (quasar absorption…
Axions generated thermally in the solar core can convert nearly directly to X-rays as they pass through the solar atmosphere via interaction with the magnetic field. The result of this conversion process would be a diffuse…
Synchrotron is considered the dominant emission mechanism in the production of gamma-ray burst photons in the prompt as well as in the afterglow phase. Polarization is a characteristic feature of synchrotron and its study can reveal a…
A novel approach for measuring linear X-ray polarization over a broad-band using conventional imaging optics and cameras is described. A new type of high efficiency grating, called the critical angle transmission grating is used to disperse…
The measurement of the linear polarization is one of the hot topics of High Energy Astrophysics. Gas detectors based on photoelectric effect have paved the way for the design of sensitive instruments and mission proposals based on them have…
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…
Accreting X-ray pulsars are among the best observed objects of X-ray astronomy with a rich data set of observational phenomena in the spectral and timing domain. While the general picture for these sources is well established, the detailed…
Magnetars are neutron stars that host huge, complex magnetic fields which require supporting currents to flow along the closed field lines. This makes magnetar atmospheres different from those of passively cooling neutron stars because of…
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…
Gamma-ray bursts are the strongest explosions in the Universe since the Big Bang, believed to be produced either in forming black holes at the end of massive star evolution or merging of compact objects. Spectral and timing properties of…
The magnetic field conditions in astrophysical relativistic jets can be probed by multiwavelength polarimetry, which has been recently extended to X-rays. For example, one can track how the magnetic field changes in the flow of the…
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…
The development of micropixel gas detectors, capable to image tracks produced in a gas by photoelectrons, makes possible to perform polarimetry of X-ray celestial sources in the focus of grazing incidence X-ray telescopes. HXMT is a mission…
Polarization dependence has historically seen extensive use in x-ray spectroscopy to determine magnetic and local geometric properties, but more broadly as a way to gain extra sensitivity to electronic structure at the level of individual…
Ultra-high energy cosmic rays are mostly charged particles and they are therefore deflected by magnetic fields on their path from their sources to Earth. An interesting phenomenon arising from these deflections is the appearance of multiple…