Stellar X-Ray Polarimeter:  a focal plane polarimeter for the Spectrum X-Gamma mission

Philip E. Kaaret; Robert Novick; Christopher Martin; Ping-Shine Shaw; Thomas Hamilton; Rashid Sunyaev; Igor Y. Lapshov; Eric H. Silver; Martin C. Weisskopf; Ronald F. Elsner; Gary A. Chanan; Enrico Costa; Giuseppe Manzo; George W. Fraser; G. C. Perola

doi:10.1117/12.55660

1 July 1990 Stellar X-Ray Polarimeter: a focal plane polarimeter for the Spectrum X-Gamma mission

Philip E. Kaaret, Robert Novick, Christopher Martin, Ping-Shine Shaw, Thomas Hamilton, Rashid Sunyaev, Igor Y. Lapshov, Eric H. Silver, Martin C. Weisskopf, Ronald F. Elsner, Gary A. Chanan, Enrico Costa, Giuseppe Manzo, George W. Fraser, G. C. Perola

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Optical Engineering, Vol. 29, Issue 7, (July 1990). https://doi.org/10.1117/12.55660

n this paper we describe an x-ray polarimeter that will be flown on the Spectrum X-Gamma mission. The instrument exploits three distinct physical processes to measure polarization: Bragg reflection from a graphite crystal, Thomson scattering from a metallic lithium target, and pho-toemission from a cesium iodide photocathode. These three methods allow polarization measurements over an energy band from 0.3 to 12 keV. The polarimeter will make possible sensitive measurements of several hundred known x-ray sources, an increase of two orders of magnitude over the x-ray polarimeters flown to date. X-ray polarization measurements will allow us to constrain the geometry of gas flow in x-ray binaries, identify nonthermal emission in supernova remnants, test current models for x-ray emission in radio pulsars, determine the radiation mechanisms in active galactic nuclei, and search for inertial frame dragging (Lense-Thirring effect) around the putative black hole in Cygnus X-1.

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Philip E. Kaaret, Robert Novick, Christopher Martin, Ping-Shine Shaw, Thomas Hamilton, Rashid Sunyaev, Igor Y. Lapshov, Eric H. Silver, Martin C. Weisskopf, Ronald F. Elsner, Gary A. Chanan, Enrico Costa, Giuseppe Manzo, George W. Fraser, and G. C. Perola "Stellar X-Ray Polarimeter: a focal plane polarimeter for the Spectrum X-Gamma mission," Optical Engineering 29(7), (1 July 1990). https://doi.org/10.1117/12.55660

Published: 1 July 1990

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