The Gas Pixel Detector as an X-ray photoelectric polarimeter with a large field of view

TL;DR

This paper investigates the potential of the Gas Pixel Detector as a large field of view X-ray polarimeter, analyzing its feasibility for observing transient astrophysical sources with inclined beams.

Contribution

It explores a novel application of the GPD as a wide-field instrument, including analytical and experimental validation of its polarization sensitivity at various inclinations.

Findings

Sensitivity to polarization is maintained for inclinations up to about 20 degrees.

Systematic effects increase significantly beyond 20 degrees inclination.

Methods to mitigate systematic effects are discussed.

Abstract

The Gas Pixel Detector (GPD) is a new generation device which, thanks to its 50 um pixels, is capable of imaging the photoelectrons tracks produced by photoelectric absorption in a gas. Since the direction of emission of the photoelectrons is strongly correlated with the direction of polarization of the absorbed photons, this device has been proposed as a polarimeter for the study of astrophysical sources, with a sensitivity far higher than the instruments flown to date. The GPD has been always regarded as a focal plane instrument and then it has been proposed to be included on the next generation space-borne missions together with a grazing incidence optics. Instead in this paper we explore the feasibility of a new kind of application of the GPD and of the photoelectric polarimeters in general, i.e. an instrument with a large field of view. By means of an analytical treatment and measurements, we verify if it is possible to preserve the sensitivity to the polarization for inclined beams, opening the way for the measurement of X-ray polarization for transient astrophysical sources. While severe systematic effects arise for inclination greater than about 20 degrees, methods and algorithms to control them are discussed.