PolarLight: a CubeSat X-ray Polarimeter based on the Gas Pixel Detector

Abstract

The gas pixel detector (GPD) is designed and developed for high-sensitivity astronomical X-ray polarimetry, which is a new window about to open in a few years. Due to the small mass, low power, and compact geometry of the GPD, we propose a CubeSat mission Polarimeter Light (PolarLight) to demonstrate and test the technology directly in space. There is no optics but a collimator to constrain the field of view to 2.3 degrees. Filled with pure dimethyl ether (DME) at 0.8 atm and sealed by a beryllium window of 100 micron thick, with a sensitive area of about 1.4 mm by 1.4 mm, PolarLight allows us to observe the brightest X-ray sources on the sky, with a count rate of, e.g., ~0.2 counts/s from the Crab nebula. The PolarLight is 1U in size and mounted in a 6U CubeSat, which was launched into a low Earth Sun-synchronous orbit on October 29, 2018, and is currently under test. More launches with improved designs are planned in 2019. These tests will help increase the technology readiness for future missions such as the enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry (eXTP), better understand the orbital background, and may help constrain the physics with observations of the brightest objects.

arXiv commentAccepted for publication in Experimental Astronomy

References in corpus (15)

• The Spin of the Near-Extreme Kerr Black Hole GRS 1915+105
• An efficient photoelectric X-ray Polarimeter for the study of Black Holes and Neutron Stars
• eXTP -- enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry Mission
• 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
• Crab: the standard X-ray candle with all (modern) X-ray satellites
• Spectral Investigations of the nature of the Sco X-1 like sources
• Development of Thick-foil and Fine-pitch GEMs with a Laser Etching Technique
• On the Statistical Analysis of X-ray Polarization Measurements
• Spectral and polarimetric characterization of the Gas Pixel Detector filled with dimethyl ether
• X-ray Polarimetry: a new window on the high energy sky
• MAXI observations of long-term variations of Cygnus X-1 in the low/hard and the high/soft states
• Assembly and Test of the Gas Pixel Detector for X-ray Polarimetry

Cited by in corpus (24)

• Design, Construction, and Test of the Gas Pixel Detectors for the IXPE Mission
• Re-detection and a Possible Time Variation of Soft X-ray Polarisation from the Crab
• X-ray spectra and polarization from magnetar candidates
• An algorithm to calibrate and correct the response to unpolarized radiation of the X-ray polarimeter on board IXPE
• Polarization properties of the weakly magnetized neutron star X-ray binary GS 1826-238 in the high soft state
• Unbinned Likelihood Analysis for X-ray Polarization
• CATCH: Chasing All Transients Constellation Hunters Space Mission
• Probing magnetar emission mechanisms with spectropolarimetry
• Polarisation of Accreting X-ray Pulsars. II. Hercules X-1
• A Study of background for IXPE
• XPOL-III: a New-Generation VLSI CMOS ASIC for High-Throughput X-ray Polarimetry
• Polarisation Leakage due to Errors in Track Reconstruction in Gas Pixel Detectors
• In-orbit Operation and Performance of the CubeSat Soft X-ray Polarimeter PolarLight
• X-ray Polarimetry of the accreting pulsar 1A~0535+262 in the supercritical state with PolarLight
• Modeling the in-orbit background of PolarLight
• Feasibility of Observing Gamma-ray Polarization from Cygnus X-1 Using a CubeSat
• NinjaSat: Astronomical X-ray CubeSat Observatory
• Diagnostics for ultrashort X-ray pulses using silicon trackers
• Equalizing the Pixel Response of the Imaging Photoelectric Polarimeter On-Board the IXPE Mission
• In search of the third dimension in Compton X-ray polarimeters
• General History of X-Ray Polarimetry in Astrophysics
• Simulation of a Xe-based X-ray Polarimeter at 10-30 keV
• A significant detection of X-ray Polarization in Sco X-1 with PolarLight and constraints on the corona geometry
• The HaloSat and PolarLight CubeSat Missions for X-ray Astrophysics