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arXiv · 2206.07582

Calibration of the IXPE focal plane X-ray polarimeters to polarized radiation

Alessandro Di Marco·Sergio Fabiani·Fabio La Monaca·Fabio Muleri·John Rankin·Paolo Soffitta·Fei Xie·Fabrizio Amici·Primo attinà·Matteo Bachetti·Luca Baldini·Mattia Barbanera·Wayne Baumgartner·Ronaldo Bellazzini·Fabio Borotto·Alessandro Brez·Daniele Brienza·Ciro Caporale·Claudia Cardelli·Rita Carpentiero·Simone Castellano·Marco Castronuovo·Luca Cavalli·Elisabetta Cavazzuti·Marco Ceccanti·Mauro Centrone·Saverio Citraro·Enrico Costa·Elisa D'Alba·Fabio D'Amico·Ettore Del Monte·Sergio Di Cosimo·Niccolò Di Lalla·Giuseppe Di Persio·Immacolata Donnarumma·Yuri Evangelista·Riccardo Ferrazzoli·Luca Latronico·Carlo Lefevre·Pasqualino Loffredo·Paolo Lorenzi·Leonardo Lucchesi·Carlo Magazzù·Guido Magazzù·Simone Maldera·Alberto Manfreda·Elio Mangraviti·Marco Marengo·Giorgio Matt·Paolo Mereu·Massimo Minuti·Alfredo Morbidini·Federico Mosti·Hikmat Nasimi·Barbara Negri·Alessio Nuti·Stephen L. O'Dell·Leonardo Orsini·Matteo Perri·Melissa Pesce-Rollins·Raffaele Piazzolla·Stefano Pieraccini·Maura Pilia·Michele Pinchera·Alessandro Profeti·Simonetta Puccetti·Brian D. Ramsey·Ajay Ratheesh·Alda Rubini·Francesco Santoli·Paolo Sarra·Emanuele Scalise·Andrea Sciortino·Carmelo Sgrò·Gloria Spandre·Marcello Tardiola·Allyn F. Tennant·Antonino Tobia·Alessio Trois·Marco Vimercati·Martin C. Weisskopf·Davide Zanetti·Francesco Zanetti
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Abstract

IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) is a NASA Small Explorer mission -- in partnership with the Italian Space Agency (ASI) -- dedicated to X-ray polarimetry in the 2--8 keV energy band. The IXPE telescope comprises three grazing incidence mirror modules coupled to three detector units hosting each one a Gas Pixel Detector (GPD), a gas detector that allows measuring the polarization degree by using the photoelectric effect. A wide and accurate ground calibration was carried out on the IXPE Detector Units (DUs) at INAF-IAPS, in Italy, where a dedicated facility was set-up at this aim. In this paper, we present the results obtained from this calibration campaign to study the IXPE focal plane detector response to polarized radiation. In particular, we report on the modulation factor, which is the main parameter to estimate the sensitivity of a polarimeter.

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Alessandro Di Marco, Sergio Fabiani, Fabio La Monaca, Fabio Muleri, John Rankin, Paolo Soffitta, Fei Xie, Fabrizio Amici, Primo attinà, Matteo Bachetti, Luca Baldini, Mattia Barbanera, Wayne Baumgartner, Ronaldo Bellazzini, Fabio Borotto, Alessandro Brez, Daniele Brienza, Ciro Caporale, Claudia Cardelli, Rita Carpentiero, Simone Castellano, Marco Castronuovo, Luca Cavalli, Elisabetta Cavazzuti, Marco Ceccanti, Mauro Centrone, Saverio Citraro, Enrico Costa, Elisa D'Alba, Fabio D'Amico, Ettore Del Monte, Sergio Di Cosimo, Niccolò Di Lalla, Giuseppe Di Persio, Immacolata Donnarumma, Yuri Evangelista, Riccardo Ferrazzoli, Luca Latronico, Carlo Lefevre, Pasqualino Loffredo, Paolo Lorenzi, Leonardo Lucchesi, Carlo Magazzù, Guido Magazzù, Simone Maldera, Alberto Manfreda, Elio Mangraviti, Marco Marengo, Giorgio Matt, Paolo Mereu, Massimo Minuti, Alfredo Morbidini, Federico Mosti, Hikmat Nasimi, Barbara Negri, Alessio Nuti, Stephen L. O'Dell, Leonardo Orsini, Matteo Perri, Melissa Pesce-Rollins, Raffaele Piazzolla, Stefano Pieraccini, Maura Pilia, Michele Pinchera, Alessandro Profeti, Simonetta Puccetti, Brian D. Ramsey, Ajay Ratheesh, Alda Rubini, Francesco Santoli, Paolo Sarra, Emanuele Scalise, Andrea Sciortino, Carmelo Sgrò, Gloria Spandre, Marcello Tardiola, Allyn F. Tennant, Antonino Tobia, Alessio Trois, Marco Vimercati, Martin C. Weisskopf, Davide Zanetti, Francesco Zanetti. 2022-06-15. Calibration of the IXPE focal plane X-ray polarimeters to polarized radiation. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881%2Fac7719

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