Feasibility of Observing Gamma-ray Polarization from Cygnus X-1 Using a CubeSat
arXiv:1911.12958 · doi:10.3847/1538-3881/ab9caf
Abstract
Instruments flown on CubeSats are small. Meaningful applications of CubeSats in astronomical observations rely on the choice of a particular subject that is feasible for CubeSats. Here we report the result of a feasibility study for observing gamma-ray polarization from Cygnus X-1 using a small Compton polarimeter on board a 3U CubeSat. Silicon detectors and cerium bromide scintillators were employed in the instrument models that we discussed in this study. Through Monte Carlo simulations with Geant4-based MEGAlib package, we found that, with a 10-Ms on-axis, zenith-direction observation in a low inclination, low altitude earth orbit radiation background environment, the minimum detectable polarization degree can be down to about 10\% in 160 - 250 keV, 20\% in 250 - 400 keV, and 65\% in 400 - 2000 keV. A 3U CubeSat dedicated to observing Cygnus X-1 can therefore yield useful information on the polarization state of gamma-ray emissions from the brightest persistent X-ray black-hole binary in the sky.
arXiv comment11 pages, 7 figures, accepted on June 11, 2020, for publication in The Astronomical Journal
References in corpus (19)
- Polarized Gamma-ray Emission from the Galactic Black Hole Cygnus X-1
- On understanding the figures of merit for detection and measurement of x-ray polarization
- Separation of two contributions to the high energy emission of Cygnus X-1: Polarization measurements with INTEGRAL SPI
- INTEGRAL SPI All-Sky View in Soft Gamma Rays: Study of Point Source and Galactic Diffuse Emissions
- Event reconstruction in high resolution Compton telescopes
- Re-detection and a Possible Time Variation of Soft X-ray Polarisation from the Crab
- Jet contributions to the broad-band spectrum of Cyg X-1 in the hard state
- PolarLight: a CubeSat X-ray Polarimeter based on the Gas Pixel Detector
- On the Verge of an Astronomy CubeSat Revolution
- Gamma-Ray Burst Polarimeter - GAP - aboard the Small Solar Power Sail Demonstrator IKAROS
- Accretion geometry of the black-hole binary Cygnus X-1 from X-ray polarimetry
- Detection and Imaging of the Crab Nebula with the Nuclear Compton Telescope
- Masses of the components of the HDE 226868/Cyg X-1 binary system
- Demonstrating high-precision photometry with a CubeSat: ASTERIA observations of 55 Cancri e
- HaloSat -- A CubeSat to Study the Hot Galactic Halo
- MinXSS-2 CubeSat mission overview: Improvements from the successful MinXSS-1 mission
- Maximum Likelihood Compton Polarimetry with the Compton Spectrometer and Imager
- PoGO+ polarimetric constraint on the synchrotron jet emission of Cygnus X-1
- Soft gamma-ray sources detected by INTEGRAL