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X-Ray Polarimetry Workshop SLAC, Stanford, California 9-11 February 2004 |
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Calibration of the Stellar X-Ray Polarimeter
John
Tomsick
University of California, San Diego
jtomsick@ucsd.edu
John A. Tomsick, Igor Lapshov, Enrico Costa, Joseph R. Dwyer, Ronald F. Elsner, Eric C. Ford, Philip Kaaret, Robert Novick, Andrea Santangelo, Eric H. Silver, Paolo Soffitta, Martin C. Weisskopf, Klaus P. Ziock
The Stellar X-Ray Polarimeter (SXRP) was designed and built for the Spectrum-X-Gamma mission. At the focus of a SODART telescope, SXRP is an order of magnitude more sensitive than any previous X-ray polarimeter in the 2-15 keV energy band. SXRP exploits the polarization dependence of Bragg reflection from a graphite crystal and of Thomson scattering from a target of metallic lithium. The SXRP flight model calibration occurred in 1996 at a facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The purpose of the calibration was to measure the SXRP response to a converging polarized and unpolarized X-ray beams. We present the results of the calibration, including modulation factors and limits on the systematic errors that are the limiting factor for the polarimeter sensitivity.
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For more information, contact
Jennifer Formichelli |
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