학술논문

Calibration of the IXPE focal plane X-ray polarimeters to polarized radiation
Document Type
Working Paper
Author
Di Marco, AlessandroFabiani, SergioLa Monaca, FabioMuleri, FabioRankin, JohnSoffitta, PaoloXie, FeiAmici, Fabrizioattinà, PrimoBachetti, MatteoBaldini, LucaBarbanera, MattiaBaumgartner, WayneBellazzini, RonaldoBorotto, FabioBrez, AlessandroBrienza, DanieleCaporale, CiroCardelli, ClaudiaCarpentiero, RitaCastellano, SimoneCastronuovo, MarcoCavalli, LucaCavazzuti, ElisabettaCeccanti, MarcoCentrone, MauroCitraro, SaverioCosta, EnricoD'Alba, ElisaD'Amico, FabioDel Monte, EttoreDi Cosimo, SergioDi Lalla, NiccolòDi Persio, GiuseppeDonnarumma, ImmacolataEvangelista, YuriFerrazzoli, RiccardoLatronico, LucaLefevre, CarloLoffredo, PasqualinoLorenzi, PaoloLucchesi, LeonardoMagazzù, CarloMagazzù, GuidoMaldera, SimoneManfreda, AlbertoMangraviti, ElioMarengo, MarcoMatt, GiorgioMereu, PaoloMinuti, MassimoMorbidini, AlfredoMosti, FedericoNasimi, HikmatNegri, BarbaraNuti, AlessioO'Dell, Stephen L.Orsini, LeonardoPerri, MatteoPesce-Rollins, MelissaPiazzolla, RaffaelePieraccini, StefanoPilia, MauraPinchera, MicheleProfeti, AlessandroPuccetti, SimonettaRamsey, Brian D.Ratheesh, AjayRubini, AldaSantoli, FrancescoSarra, PaoloScalise, EmanueleSciortino, AndreaSgrò, CarmeloSpandre, GloriaTardiola, MarcelloTennant, Allyn F.Tobia, AntoninoTrois, AlessioVimercati, MarcoWeisskopf, Martin C.Zanetti, DavideZanetti, Francesco
Source
The Astronomical Journal 164 (2022) 103
Subject
Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Language
Abstract
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 incidence mirror modules coupled to three detector units hosting each one a Gas Pixel Detector (GPD), a gas detector that allows measuring the polarization degree by using the photoelectric effect. A wide and accurate ground calibration was carried out on the IXPE Detector Units (DUs) at INAF-IAPS, in Italy, where a dedicated facility was set-up at this aim. In this paper, we present the results obtained from this calibration campaign to study the IXPE focal plane detector response to polarized radiation. In particular, we report on the modulation factor, which is the main parameter to estimate the sensitivity of a polarimeter.
Comment: Accepted for publication on The Astronomical Journal