Development of a hard X-ray polarimeter for astrophysics

Conference Paper

Abstract

  • We have been developing a Compton scatter polarimeter for measuring the linear polarization of hard X-rays (100-300 keV) from astrophysical sources. A laboratory prototype polarimeter has been used to successfully demonstrate the reliability of our Monte Carlo simulation code and to demonstrate our ability to generate a polarized photon source in the lab. Our design concept places a self-containedpolarimeter module on the front-end of a a 5-inch position sensitive PMT (PSPMT). We are currently working on the fabrication of a science model based on this PSPMT concept. Although the emphasis of our development effort is towards measuring hard X-rays from solar flares, our design has the advantage that it is sensitive over a rather large field-of-view (\textgreater1 steradian), a feature that makes it especially attractive for γ-ray burst studies.
  • Authors

  • McConnell, Mark
  • Macri, JR
  • McClish, M
  • Ryan, J
  • Forrest, DJ
  • Vestrand, WT
  • Status

    Publication Date

  • 1998
  • Digital Object Identifier (doi)

    Start Page

  • 698
  • End Page

  • 704
  • Volume

  • 1