LAMP: a micro-satellite based soft X-ray polarimeter for astrophysics
arXiv:1509.04392 · doi:10.1117/12.2186133
Abstract
The Lightweight Asymmetry and Magnetism Probe (LAMP) is a micro-satellite mission concept dedicated for astronomical X-ray polarimetry and is currently under early phase study. It consists of segmented paraboloidal multilayer mirrors with a collecting area of about 1300 cm^2 to reflect and focus 250 eV X-rays, which will be detected by position sensitive detectors at the focal plane. The primary targets of LAMP include the thermal emission from the surface of pulsars and synchrotron emission produced by relativistic jets in blazars. With the expected sensitivity, it will allow us to detect polarization or place a tight upper limit for about 10 pulsars and 20 blazars. In addition to measuring magnetic structures in these objects, LAMP will also enable us to discover bare quark stars if they exist, whose thermal emission is expected to be zero polarized, while the thermal emission from neutron stars is believed to be highly polarized due to plasma polarization and the quantum electrodynamics (QED) effect. Here we present an overview of the mission concept, its science objectives and simulated observational results.
References in corpus (22)
- Neutron Star Structure and the Equation of State
- Probing the Inner Jet of the Quasar PKS 1510-089 with Multi-waveband Monitoring during Strong Gamma-ray Activity
- X-ray background measurements with XMM-Newton EPIC
- An efficient photoelectric X-ray Polarimeter for the study of Black Holes and Neutron Stars
- A change in the optical polarization associated with a gamma-ray flare in the blazar 3C 279
- X-ray Polarization from Accreting Black Holes: II. The Thermal State
- The ROSAT All-Sky Survey Bright Source Catalogue
- A Sealed Gas Pixel Detector for X-ray Astronomy
- On understanding the figures of merit for detection and measurement of x-ray polarization
- XIPE: the X-ray Imaging Polarimetry Explorer
- Direct reading of charge multipliers with a self-triggering CMOS analog chip with 105k pixels at 50 micron pitch
- Inferring the Inclination of a Black Hole Accretion Disk from Observations of its Polarized Continuum Radiation
- QED and the High Polarization of the Thermal Radiation from Neutron Stars
- Light curves and polarization of accretion- and nuclear-powered millisecond pulsars
- Polarization Evolution in Strong Magnetic Fields
- Gas Pixel Detectors for X-ray Polarimetry applications
- Spectral and polarimetric characterization of the Gas Pixel Detector filled with dimethyl ether
- Opacities and spectra of hydrogen atmospheres of moderately magnetized neutron stars
- A Soft X-ray Polarimeter Designed for Broad-band X-ray Telescopes
- Pulsar Populations and Unidentified Gamma-Ray Sources
- To differentiate neutron star models by X-ray polarimetry
- X-ray polarimetry in Astrophysics with the Gas Pixel Detector
Cited by in corpus (6)
- Systematic study on the quark-hadron mixed phase in compact stars
- The optical/UV excess of X-ray dim isolated neutron star: I. bremsstrahlung emission from a strangeon star plasma atmosphere
- Polarisation of Accreting X-ray Pulsars. II. Hercules X-1
- Instrumentation and Future Missions in the Upcoming Era of X-Ray Polarimetry
- Monte-Carlo Applications for Partially Polarised Inverse External-Compton Scattering (MAPPIES) -- I. Description of the code and First Results
- Probing Black Hole Magnetic Fields with QED