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XIPE: the X-ray imaging polarimetry explorer

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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. The proposal was, unfortunately, not selected. To be compliant with this schedule, we designed the payload mostly with existing items. The XIPE proposal takes advantage of the completed phase A of POLARIX for an ASI small mission program that was cancelled, but is different in many aspects: the detectors, the presence of a solar flare polarimeter and photometer and the use of a light platform derived by a mass production for a cluster of satellites. 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. Two additional GPDs filled with a 3-bar Ar-DME mixture always face the Sun to detect polarization from solar flares. The Minimum Detectable Polarization of a 1 mCrab source reaches 14 % in the 2–10 keV band in 105 s for pointed observations, and 0.6 % for an X10 class solar flare in the 15–35 keV energy band. The imaging capability is 24 arcsec Half Energy Width (HEW) in a Field of View of 14.7 arcmin × 14.7 arcmin. The spectral resolution is 20 % at 6 keV and the time resolution is 8 μs. The imaging capabilities of the JET-X optics and of the GPD have been demonstrated by a recent calibration campaign at PANTER X-ray test facility of the Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik (MPE, Germany). 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). The data policy is organized with a Core Program that comprises three months of Science Verification Phase and 25 % of net observing time in the following 2 years. A competitive Guest Observer program covers the remaining 75 % of the net observing time.

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Notes

  1. http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/ftpdir/weekly/Predict.txt, 2012/04/04

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Acknowledgments

This work is partially funded by ASI, INAF and INFN.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. IAPS/INAF, Via Fosso del Cavaliere 100, 00133, Rome, Italy

    Paolo Soffitta, Enrico Costa, Alessandra De Rosa, Sergio Di Cosimo, Giuseppe Di Persio, Sergio Fabiani, Fabio Muleri & Alda Rubini

  2. Instituto de Física de Cantabria (CSIC-UC), Avenida de los Castros, s/n, 39005, Santander Cantabria, Spain

    Xavier Barcons

  3. INFN-Pisa, Largo B. Pontecorvo 3, 56127, Pisa, Italy

    Ronaldo Bellazzini, Johan Bregeon, Alessandro Brez, Michael Kuss, Luca Latronico, Massimo Minuti, Melissa Pesce, Michele Pinchera, Carmelo Sgró & Gloria Spandre

  4. INPE Div de Astrofsica, Av dos Astronautas 1758 Jd. Granja - CEP: 12227-010, São José dos Campos, SP, Brazil

    João Braga, Flavio D’Amico & Valdivino Alexandre de Santiago Jr.

  5. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, Space Research Centre, Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK

    George W. Fraser

  6. Solar Physics Division, Space Research Centre, Polish Academy of Sciences, 51-622, Wroclaw, ul. Kopernika, Poland

    Szymon Gburek

  7. Department of Physics, University of Helsinki, Erik Palmenin aukio 1, 00014, Finland

    Juhani Huovelin

  8. Dipartimento di Física ”E. Amaldi”, Universita’ degli Studi Roma Tre, Via della Vasca Navale 84, 00146, Rome, Italy

    Giorgio Matt, Stefano Bianchi & Francesco Tamborra

  9. Department of Physics, KTH, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden

    Mark Pearce, Magnus Axelsson, Miranda Jackson, Josefin Larsson, Stefan Larsson, Elena Moretti & Felix Ryde

  10. The Oskar Klein Centre for Cosmoparticle Physics AlbaNova University Centre, Stockholm, Sweden

    Mark Pearce, Magnus Axelsson, Miranda Jackson, Josefin Larsson, Stefan Larsson, Elena Moretti & Felix Ryde

  11. Department of Physics, Astronomy Division, University of Oulu, PO Box 3000, 90014, Oulu, Finland

    Juri Poutanen

  12. Instituto de Ciencias de los Materiales, Universidad de Valencia, Astronomia i Astrofísica, Dr Moliner 50, 46100, Burjassot, Spain

    Victor Reglero & Juana Maria Rodrigo

  13. Iniversität Tübingen, Institut für Astronomie und Astrophysik, Sand 1, 72076, Tübingen, Germany

    Andrea Santangelo

  14. Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 1, 85748, Garching, Germany

    Rashid A. Sunyaev & Eugene Churazov

  15. INAF/Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, Via E. Bianchi 46, 23807, Merate, Lc, Italy

    Gianpiero Tagliaferri, Stefano Basso, Marta Civitani, Stefano Covino, Giovanni Pareschi, Daniele Spiga & Fabrizio Tavecchio

  16. NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, 320 Sparkman Drive NW, Huntsville, AL, 35805-1912, USA

    Martin Weisskopf, Ronald Elsner, Stephen L. O’Dell & Brian Ramsey

  17. Thales Alenia Space-Italia s.p.a., Strada Antica di Collegno 253, 10146, Turin, Italy

    Primo Attiná

  18. Dipartimento di Física, Universita’ di Pisa & INFN-Pisa, Largo Pontecorvo, 3 56127, Pisa, Italy

    Luca Baldini & Marco Maria Massai

  19. INAF/Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Largo Enrico Fermi, 50125, Florence, Italy

    Roberto Aloisio, Elena Amato, Pasquale Blasi, Niccoló Bucciantini & Marco Salvati

  20. Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Cagliari, SP Monserrato-Sestu km 0.7, 09042, Cagliari, Italy

    Luciano Burderi

  21. Max-Planck-Institut fur extraterrestrische Physik, 85741, Garching, Germany

    Vadim Burwitz

  22. Panter X-ray test facility, Gautinger Str. 45, 82061, Neuried, Germany

    Vadim Burwitz

  23. INAF/Osservatorio Astrofisico di Roma, Via di Frascati, 33, 00040, Rome, Italy

    Piergiorgio Casella, Gianluca Israel & Luigi Stella

  24. Departimento de Física, Coimbra Universidad Portugal, 3004-516, Coimbra, Portugal

    Rui Miguel Curado da Silva, Jorge Maia & Teresa Teixeira Dias

  25. INAF/IASF-Palermo, Via Ugo La Malfa 153, 90146, Palermo, Italy

    Giancarlo Cusumano, Salvatore Giarrusso, Giovanni La Rosa & Teresa Mineo

  26. INAF/IASF-Bologna, via Gobetti 101, 40129, Bologna, Italy

    Mauro Dadina & Paola Grandi

  27. DiFC, Universita degli Studi di Palermo, via Archirafi 36, 90123, Palermo, Italy

    Tiziana Di Salvo, Giovanni Peres & Fabio Reale

  28. Astronomical Institute, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Bocni II 1401, 14131, Prague, Czech Republic

    Michal Dovciak & Vladimir Karas

  29. School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, B152TT, Birmingham, UK

    Chris J. Eyles

  30. Department of Engineering Physics & Center for Astrophysics, Tsinghua University, 100084, Beijing, China

    Hua Feng

  31. Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Madingley Rd, CB3 0HA, Cambridge, UK

    Andrew C. Fabian

  32. Observatoire Astronomique de Strasbourg, 11 rue de l’université, 67000, Strasbourg, France

    René W. Goosmann, Nicolas Grosso, Frédéric Marin & Delphine Porquet

  33. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, 52242, USA

    Philip Kaaret

  34. Cornell University, Space Sciences Bldg., Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA

    Dong Lai

  35. INAF/Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo, Piazza del Parlamento 1, 90134, Palermo, Italy

    Antonio Maggio

  36. Institut de Planétologie et d’Astrophysique de Grenoble (IPAG), UJF-Grenoble 1 /CNRS-INSU UMR 5274, 38041, Grenoble, France

    Pierre-Olivier Petrucci

  37. Institute of Space Sciences, CSIC-IEEC; Facultat de Ciencies, 08193, Barcelona, Spain

    Nanda Rea

  38. Polish Academy of Sciences, Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Centre, Bartycka 18, 00-716, Warsaw, Poland

    Agata Różańska

  39. Astronomical Institute, Wroclaw University, Kopernika 11, 51-622, Wroclaw, Poland

    Pawel Rudawy

  40. Space Research Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Profsoyuznaya 84/32, 117997, Moscow, Russia

    Sergey Sazonov

  41. Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Institutsky per. 9, 141700, Dolgoprudny, Russia

    Sergey Sazonov

  42. Harvard-Smithsonian Center For Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA

    Eric Silver

  43. RIKEN, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama, 351-0198, Japan

    Toru Tamagawa

  44. Centre for Relativistic Astrophysics, Georgia Institute of Technology, 837 State Street, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA

    Matthew van Adelsberg

  45. Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London, Holmbury St Mary, RH5 6NT, Dorking, UK

    Kinwah Wu & Silvia Zane

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Correspondence to Paolo Soffitta.

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Soffitta, P., Barcons, X., Bellazzini, R. et al. XIPE: the X-ray imaging polarimetry explorer. Exp Astron 36, 523–567 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10686-013-9344-3

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