X-Ray Polarimetry with the Polarization Spectroscopic Telescope Array   (PolSTAR)

Henric S. Krawczynski (1); Daniel Stern (2); Fiona A. Harrison (3),; Fabian F. Kislat (1); Anna Zajczyk (1); Matthias Beilicke (1); Janie Hoormann; (1); Qingzhen Guo (1); Ryan Endsley (1); Adam R. Ingram (4); Hiromasa; Miyasaka (3); Kristin K. Madsen (3); Kim M. Aaron (2); Rashied Aminia (2),; Matthew G. Baring (5); Banafsheh Beheshtipour (1); Arash Bodaghee (6),; Jeffrey Booth (2); Chester Borden (2); Markus Boettcher (7); Finn E.; Christensen (8); Paolo S. Coppi (9); Ramanath Cowsik (1); Shane Davis (10),; Jason Dexter (11); Chris Done (12); Luis A. Dominguez (2); Don Ellison (13),; Robin J. English (2); Andrew C. Fabian (14); Abe Falcone (15); Jeffrey A.; Favretto (2); Rodrigo Fernandez (16,17); Paolo Giommi (18); Brian W.; Grefenstette (3); Erin Kara (14); Chung H. Lee (2); Maxim Lyutikov (19),; Thomas Maccarone (20); Hironori Matsumoto (21); Jonathan McKinney (22),; Tatehiro Mihara (23); Jon M. Miller (24); Ramesh Narayan (25); Lorenzo; Natalucci (26); Feryal Oezel (27); Michael J. Pivovaroff (28); Steven Pravdo; (2); Dimitrios Psaltis (27); Takashi Okajima (29); Kenji Toma (30); William; W. Zhang (29) ((1) Washington University in Saint Louis; Physics Department; and McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences (2) Jet Propulsion Laboratory,; (3) California Institute of Technology; Cahill Center for Astronomy and; Astrophysics; (4) Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy; (5) Rice; University; Department of Physics; Astronomy; (6) Georgia College,; Department of Chemistry; Physics; and Astronomy; (7) North-West University,; Centre for Space Research; (8) Technical University of Denmark; DTU Space,; National Space Institute; (9) Yale University; Department of Astronomy; (10); University of Virginia; Department of Astronomy; (11) MPI for; Extraterrestrial Physics Garching; (12) Durham University; Centre for; Extragalactic Astronomy; Department of Physics; (13) North Carolina State; University; Department of Physics; (14) Cambridge; Institute of Astronomy,; UK; (15) Penn State University; Department of Astronomy; Astrophysics,; (16) University of California; Berkeley; Department of Physics; (17); University of California; Berkeley; Department of Astronomy & Theoretical; Astrophysics Center; (18) ASI Science Data Center; Italy; (19) Purdue; University; Department of Physics; Astronomy; (20) Texas Tech University,; Physics Department; (21) Nagoya University; Center for Experimental Studies,; Kobayashi-Maskawa Institute for the Origin of Particles; the Universe,; (22) University of Maryland; Physics Department; (23) RIKEN; (24) Univ. of; Michigan in Ann Arbor; Astronomy Dept.; (25) Harvard-Smithsonian Center for; Astrophysics; (26) Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali; INAF,; (27) Department of Astronomy/Steward Observatory; (28) Lawrence Livermore; National Laboratory; (29) NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; (30) Tohoku; University; Astronomical Institute)

arXiv:1510.08358·astro-ph.IM·January 6, 2016

X-Ray Polarimetry with the Polarization Spectroscopic Telescope Array (PolSTAR)

Henric S. Krawczynski (1), Daniel Stern (2), Fiona A. Harrison (3),, Fabian F. Kislat (1), Anna Zajczyk (1), Matthias Beilicke (1), Janie Hoormann, (1), Qingzhen Guo (1), Ryan Endsley (1), Adam R. Ingram (4), Hiromasa, Miyasaka (3), Kristin K. Madsen (3), Kim M. Aaron (2)

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TL;DR

PolSTAR is a proposed NASA mission designed to measure X-ray polarization in the 2.5-70 keV range, aiming to study extreme astrophysical environments like black holes and neutron stars with high sensitivity.

Contribution

This paper introduces the PolSTAR mission concept, leveraging NuSTAR technology to enable X-ray polarization measurements in a new energy range.

Findings

01

Design based on NuSTAR technology

02

Sensitivity to ~1% polarization fractions

03

Potential to observe sources down to 5 mCrab flux

Abstract

This paper describes the Polarization Spectroscopic Telescope Array (PolSTAR), a mission proposed to NASA's 2014 Small Explorer (SMEX) announcement of opportunity. PolSTAR measures the linear polarization of 3-50 keV (requirement; goal: 2.5-70 keV) X-rays probing the behavior of matter, radiation and the very fabric of spacetime under the extreme conditions close to the event horizons of black holes, as well as in and around magnetars and neutron stars. The PolSTAR design is based on the technology developed for the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) mission launched in June 2012. In particular, it uses the same X-ray optics, extendable telescope boom, optical bench, and CdZnTe detectors as NuSTAR. The mission has the sensitivity to measure ~1% linear polarization fractions for X-ray sources with fluxes down to ~5 mCrab. This paper describes the PolSTAR design as well as the…

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