arXiv · 1309.6995
XIPE: the X-ray Imaging Polarimetry Explorer
Abstract
X-ray polarimetry, sometimes alone, and sometimes coupled to spectral and temporal variability measurements and to imaging, allows a wealth of physical phenomena in astrophysics to be studied. X-ray polarimetry investigates the acceleration process, for example, including those typical of magnetic reconnection in solar flares, but also emission in the strong magnetic fields of neutron stars and white dwarfs. It detects scattering in asymmetric structures such as accretion disks and columns, and in the so-called molecular torus and ionization cones. In addition, it allows fundamental physics in regimes of gravity and of magnetic field intensity not accessible to experiments on the Earth to be probed. Finally, models that describe fundamental interactions (e.g. quantum gravity and the extension of the Standard Model) can be tested. We describe in this paper the X-ray Imaging Polarimetry Explorer (XIPE), proposed in June 2012 to the first ESA call for a small mission with a launch in 2017 but not selected. XIPE is composed of two out of the three existing JET-X telescopes with two Gas Pixel Detectors (GPD) filled with a He-DME mixture at their focus and two additional GPDs filled with pressurized Ar-DME facing the sun. The Minimum Detectable Polarization is 14 % at 1 mCrab in 10E5 s (2-10 keV) and 0.6 % for an X10 class flare. The Half Energy Width, measured at PANTER X-ray test facility (MPE, Germany) with JET-X optics is 24 arcsec. XIPE takes advantage of a low-earth equatorial orbit with Malindi as down-link station and of a Mission Operation Center (MOC) at INPE (Brazil).
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Paolo Soffitta, Xavier Barcons, Ronaldo Bellazzini, João Braga, Enrico Costa, George W. Fraser, Szymon Gburek, Juhani Huovelin, Giorgio Matt, Mark Pearce, Juri Poutanen, Victor Reglero, Andrea Santangelo, Rashid A. Sunyaev, Gianpiero Tagliaferri, Martin Weisskopf, Roberto Aloisio, Elena Amato, Primo Attiná, Magnus Axelsson, Luca Baldini, Stefano Basso, Stefano Bianchi, Pasquale Blasi, Johan Bregeon, Alessandro Brez, Niccoló Bucciantini, Luciano Burderi, Vadim Burwitz, Piergiorgio Casella, Eugene Churazov, Marta Civitani, Stefano Covino, Rui Miguel Curado da Silva, Giancarlo Cusumano, Mauro Dadina, Flavio D'Amico, Alessandra De Rosa, Sergio Di Cosimo, Giuseppe Di Persio, Tiziana Di Salvo, Michal Dovciak, Ronald Elsner, Chris J. Eyles, Andrew C. Fabian, Sergio Fabiani, Hua Feng, Salvatore Giarrusso, René W. Goosmann, Paola Grandi, Nicolas Grosso, Gianluca Israel, Miranda Jackson, Philip Kaaret, Vladimir Karas, Michael Kuss, Dong Lai, Giovanni La Rosa, Josefin Larsson, Stefan Larsson, Luca Latronico, Antonio Maggio, Jorge Maia, Frédéric Marin, Marco Maria Massai, Teresa Mineo, Massimo Minuti, Elena Moretti, Fabio Muleri, Stephen L. O'Dell, Giovanni Pareschi, Giovanni Peres, Melissa Pesce, Pierre-Olivier Petrucci, Michele Pinchera, Delphine Porquet, Brian Ramsey, Nanda Rea, Fabio Reale, Juana Maria Rodrigo, Agata Różańska, Alda Rubini, Pawel Rudawy, Felix Ryde, Marco Salvati, Valdivino Alexandre de Santiago Júnior, Sergey Sazonov, Carmelo Sgró, Eric Silver, Gloria Spandre, Daniele Spiga, Luigi Stella, Toru Tamagawa, Francesco Tamborra, Fabrizio Tavecchio, Teresa Teixeira Dias, Matthew van Adelsberg, Kinwah Wu, Silvia Zane. 2013-09-26. XIPE: the X-ray Imaging Polarimetry Explorer. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10686-013-9344-3
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