Related papers: Polarisation measurements with a CdTe pixel array …
Since the initial exploration of soft gamma-ray sky in the 60's, high-energy celestial sources have been mainly characterized through imaging, spectroscopy and timing analysis. Despite tremendous progress in the field, the radiation…
The energy range above 60 keV is important for the study of many open problems in high energy astrophysics such as the role of Inverse Compton with respect to synchrotron or thermal processes in GRBs, non thermal mechanisms in SNR, the…
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…
Hard X / soft gamma-ray polarimetric analysis can be performed efficiently by the study of Compton scattering anisotropy in a detector composed of fine pixels. But in the energy range above 100 keV where sources flux are extremely weak and…
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…
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…
We are developing an X-ray polarimeter using micro-pixel CMOS sensors for solar flare X-ray polarimetry. The system consists of a 2.5-$\mu$m pixel CMOS image sensor with a 12.8$\times$12.8 mm$^2$ imaging area and a readout system based on a…
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…
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…
We examine the potential for gamma-ray conversion to electron-positron pairs, either in the field of a nucleus or of an electron of a detector, to measure the fraction P of linear polarization of cosmic gamma sources. For this purpose we…
A Compton camera is the most promising approach for gamma-ray detection in the energy region from several hundred keV to MeV, especially for application in high energy astrophysics. In order to obtain good angular resolution, semiconductor…
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…
This paper discusses the latest progress in the development of GRAPE (Gamma-Ray Polarimeter Experiment), a hard X-ray Compton Polarimeter. The purpose of GRAPE is to measure the polarization of hard X-rays in the 50-300 keV energy range. We…
Polarization measurements in the X-ray and gamma-ray energy range can provide crucial information on massive compact objects such as black holes and neutron stars. The Polarized Gamma-ray Observer (PoGO) is a new balloon-borne instrument…
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 MIT X-ray Polarimetry Beamline is a facility that we developed for testing components for possible use in X-ray polarimetry. Over the past few years, we have demonstrated that the X-ray source can generate nearly 100% polarized X-rays…
Polarization measurements of hard X-rays from solar flares can provide a direct handle on the extent to which the accelerated electrons are beamed, which, in turn, has important implications for particle acceleration models. Past efforts to…
We are developing an imaging polarimeter by combining a fine-pixel CMOS image sensor with a coded aperture mask as part of the cipher project, aiming to achieve X-ray polarimetry in the energy range of…
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…
To detect and track structural changes in atomic nuclei, the systematic study of nuclear levels with firm spin-parity assignments is important. While linear polarization measurements have been applied to determine the electromagnetic…