The imaging properties of the Gas Pixel Detector as a focal plane polarimeter

Abstract

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 polarimeter Gas Pixel Detector (GPD) as an instrument candidate to fill the gap of more than thirty years of lack of measurements. The GPD, in the focus of a telescope, will increase the sensitivity of orders of magnitude. Moreover, since it can measure the energy, the position, the arrival time and the polarization angle of every single photon, allows to perform polarimetry of subsets of data singled out from the spectrum, the light curve or the image of source. The GPD has an intrinsic very fine imaging capability and in this work we report on the calibration campaign carried out in 2012 at the PANTER X-ray test facility of the Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik of Garching (Germany) in which, for the first time, we coupled it to a JET-X optics module with a focal length of 3.5 m and an angular resolution of 18 arcsec at 4.5 keV. This configuration was proposed in 2012 aboard the X-ray Imaging Polarimetry Explorer (XIPE) in response to the ESA call for a small mission. We derived the imaging and polarimetric performance for extended sources like Pulsar Wind Nebulae and Supernova Remnants as case studies for the XIPE configuration, discussing also possible improvements by coupling the detector with advanced optics, having finer angular resolution and larger effective area, to study with more details extended objects.

arXiv commentAccepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement

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Cited by in corpus (14)

• XIPE: the X-ray Imaging Polarimetry Explorer
• A Study of background for IXPE
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• The Instrument of the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer
• PeV particle acceleration and non-thermal emission in the `minimalist' model of the extended jets in W50/SS433
• Testing multilayer-coated polarizing mirrors for the LAMP soft X-ray telescope
• Unveiling the Magnetic Structure of VHE SNRs/PWNe with XIPE, the X-ray Imaging-Polarimetry Satellite