Related papers: RHESSI as a Hard X-Ray Polarimeter
Significant improvements in our understanding of nuclear $\gamma$-ray line production and instrument performance allow us to better characterize the continuum emission from electrons at energies $\gtrsim$ 300 keV during solar flares. We…
The Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) has been observing gamma-ray lines from the Sun and the Galaxy since its launch in February 2002. Here I summarize the status of RHESSI observations of solar lines (nuclear…
(abridged) A previous analysis of the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager observation of GRB 021206 found that the gamma-ray flux was 80+/-20 polarized. We re-examine this data and find no signal that can be interpreted as…
X-ray polarization measurement of cosmic sources provides two unique parameters namely degree and angle of polarization which can probe the emission mechanism and geometry at close vicinity of the compact objects. Specifically, the hard…
Resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) has become an important scientific tool. Nonetheless, conventional high-resolution RIXS measurements (<100 meV), especially in the soft x-ray range, require large and low-throughput grating…
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…
Even small solar flares can display a surprising level of complexity regarding their morphology and temporal evolution. Many of their properties, such as energy release and electron acceleration can be studied using highly complementary…
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,…
Solar flare electron acceleration is an extremely efficient process, but the method of acceleration is not well constrained. Two of the essential diagnostics: electron anisotropy (velocity angle to the guiding magnetic field) and the high…
X-ray polarimetry promises to give qualitatively new information about high-energy sources. Examples of interesting source classes are binary black hole systems, rotation and accretion powered neutron stars, Microquasars, Active Galactic…
We use RHESSI high-resolution imaging and spectroscopy observations from ~5 to 100 keV to characterize the hot thermal plasma during the 2002 July 23 X4.8 flare. These measurements of the steeply falling thermal X-ray continuum are well fit…
Aims. The H-alpha emission of solar flare kernels and associated hard X-ray (HXR) emission often show similar time variations but their light curves are shifted in time by energy transfer mechanisms. We searched for fast radiative response…
Synchrotron radiation facilities provide highly polarized X-ray beams across a wide energy range. However, the exact type and degree of polarization varies according to the beamline and experimental setup. To accurately determine the angle…
We describe two inversion methods for the reconstruction of hard X-ray solar images. The methods are tested against experimental visibilities recorded by the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) and synthetic…
We study the evolution of the spectral index and the normalization (flux) of the non-thermal component of the electron spectra observed by RHESSI during 24 solar hard X-ray flares. The quantitative evolution is confronted with the…
Photons preferentially Compton scatter perpendicular to the plane of polarisation. This property can be exploited to design instruments to measure the linear polarisation of hard X-rays ($\sim$10 - 100 keV). Photons may undergo two…
The observed hard X-ray (HXR) flux spectrum $I(\epsilon)$ from solar flares is a combination of primary bremsstrahlung photons $I_P(\epsilon)$ with a spectrally modified component from photospheric Compton backscatter of downward primary…
Recent measurements of vertical extents and positions of the chromospheric hard X-ray (HXR) flare sources based on Ramaty High-Energy Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) observations show a significant inconsistency with the theoretical…
Most of the light from blazars, active galactic nuclei with jets of magnetized plasma that point nearly along the line of sight, is produced by high-energy particles, up to $\sim 1$ TeV. Although the jets are known to be ultimately powered…
The Gamma-Ray Imager/Polarimeter for Solar flares (GRIPS) is a balloon-borne telescope designed to study solar-flare particle acceleration and transport. We describe GRIPS's first Antarctic long-duration flight in Jan 2016 and report…