Science prospects for SPHiNX - a small satellite GRB polarimetry mission

Abstract

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are exceptionally bright electromagnetic events occurring daily on the sky. The prompt emission is dominated by X-/$\gamma$-rays. Since their discovery over 50 years ago, GRBs are primarily studied through spectral and temporal measurements. The properties of the emission jets and underlying processes are not well understood. A promising way forward is the development of missions capable of characterising the linear polarisation of the high-energy emission. For this reason, the SPHiNX mission has been developed for a small-satellite platform. The polarisation properties of incident high-energy radiation (50-600 keV) are determined by reconstructing Compton scattering interactions in a segmented array of plastic and Gd${}_3$Al${}_2$Ga${}_3$O${}_{12}$(Ce) (GAGG(Ce)) scintillators. During a two-year mission, $\sim$200 GRBs will be observed, with $\sim$50 yielding measurements where the polarisation fraction is determined with a relative error $\le$10%. This is a significant improvement compared to contemporary missions. This performance, combined with the ability to reconstruct GRB localisation and spectral properties, will allow discrimination between leading classes of emission models.

arXiv commentAccepted for publication in Astroparticle Physics

References in corpus (34)

• GW170817: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Neutron Star Inspiral
• Unsteady Outflow Models for Cosmological Gamma-Ray Bursts
• Gamma-Ray Bursts
• The Physics of Gamma-Ray Bursts and Relativistic Jets
• The Fourth BATSE Gamma-Ray Burst Catalog (Revised)
• The Synchrotron Shock Model Confronts a `Line of Death' in the BATSE Gamma-Ray Burst Data
• Polarization of the prompt gamma-ray emission from the gamma-ray burst of 6 December 2002
• Polarization of prompt GRB emission: evidence for electromagnetically-dominated outflow
• An analysis of gamma-ray burst spectral break models
• Analyzing the Data from X-ray Polarimeters with Stokes Parameters
• Nucleosynthesis in Electron Capture Supernovae of AGB Stars
• Neutrino heating near hyper-accreting black holes
• Linear Polarization in Gamma-Ray Bursts: The Case for an Ordered Magnetic Field
• Detection of Gamma-Ray Polarization in Prompt Emission of GRB 100826A
• Statistical Properties of Gamma-Ray Burst Polarization
• A theory of photospheric emission from relativistic, collimated outflows
• Re-Analysis of Polarization in the Gamma-ray flux of GRB 021206
• Polarisation studies of the prompt gamma-ray emission from GRB 041219a using the Spectrometer aboard INTEGRAL
• Magnetic Structures in Gamma-Ray Burst Jets Probed by Gamma-Ray Polarization
• On understanding the figures of merit for detection and measurement of x-ray polarization
• Variable polarization measured in the prompt emission of GRB 041219A using IBIS on board INTEGRAL
• Gamma-Ray Burst Polarization: Limits from RHESSI Measurements
• Search for polarization from the prompt gamma-ray emission of GRB 041219a with SPI on INTEGRAL
• Compton drag as a mechanism for very high linear polarization in Gamma-Ray Bursts
• A Turbulent Model of Gamma-Ray Burst Variability
• Polarization properties of photospheric emission from relativistic, collimated outflows
• High Energy Polarimetry of Prompt GRB Emission
• Design and construction of the POLAR detector
• On the operation of X-ray polarimeters with a large field of view
• Calibration and performance studies of the balloon-borne hard X-ray polarimeter PoGO+
• Pitfalls of statistics-limited X-ray polarization analysis
• GRBs and fundamental physics
• Imaging Polarimeter for a Sub-MeV Gamma-Ray All-Sky Survey using an Electron-Tracking Compton Camera
• The anatomy of a long gamma-ray burst: a simple classification scheme for the emission mechanism(s)

Cited by in corpus (11)

• Time-Resolved GRB Polarization with POLAR and GBM
• Linear polarization in gamma-ray burst prompt emission
• Improved Constraints on Anisotropic Birefringent Lorentz Invariance and CPT Violation from Broadband Optical Polarimetry of High Redshift Galaxies
• A Study of Background Conditions for Sphinx--The Satellite-Borne Gamma-Ray Burst Polarimeter
• A Compton polarimeter using scintillators read out with MPPCs through Citiroc ASIC
• Design and Performance of a Universal SiPM Readout System for X- and Gamma-Ray Missions
• The design and performance of CUBES -- a CubeSat X-ray detector
• Gamma-Ray Burst Polarimetry with the COMCUBE-S CubeSat Swarm -- Design and Performance Simulations
• Hard X-ray Polarimetry -- An overview of the method, science drivers and recent findings
• Gamma-ray burst localisation strategies for the SPHiNX hard X-ray polarimeter
• Design and preliminary performance study of the broad-band spectrometer detector for POLAR-2