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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
CdTe/CZT based spectroscopic two-dimensional (2D)/three-dimensional (3D) imagers
when operated in the Compton regime can work as high performance scattering polarimeters, for
high-energy astrophysics. Polarimetry in high-energy astrophysics has been little explored. To date,
X- and γ-ray source emissions have been studied almost exclusively through spectral, imaging, and
timing analysis. Polarization measurements provide two additional observational parameters: the
polarization angle and the level of linear polarization. These additional parameters should allow for
a better discrimination between the physical mechanisms of different emission models characterizing
a celestial object. Therefore, polarimetry will play a strategic role in new instrumentations for
future high-energy astronomy missions. 2D and 3D CZT/CdTe spectroscopic imagers provided
with coincidence readout logic can efficiently handle scattering events to perform simultaneously
polarization, spectroscopy, imaging, and timing measurements. Herein, we describe the results
obtained, both experimentally and by MC simulations, with CdTe/CZT pixel detector prototypes
in high-energy polarimetry. We give an overview on the achievable polarimetric performance
with spectroscopic imagers and on how these performances are affected by detector configuration
parameters. Finally, we address the perspective of scattering polarimetry opened by the recent
implementation of new high energy focusing optics, as broadband Laue lens, in next generation of
hard X- and soft γ-ray astronomy instrumentation. The unprecedented sensitivity achievable by
these telescopes will definitely open the window of polarimetry in this high-energy range.
Description
Keywords
Scattering polarimetry CdTe/CZT spectrometers Pixel detectors X- and γ-rays astrophysics