PoGOLite – A high sensitivity balloon-borne soft gamma-ray polarimeter

Kamae, T.; Andersson, Viktor; Arimoto, M.; Axelsson, M.; Bettolo, C. Marini; Björnsson, C. I.; Bogaert, G.; Carlson, P.; Craig, William W.; Ekeberg, Tomas; Engdegård, O.; Fukazawa, Yasushi; Gunji, Shuichi; Hjalmarsdotter, L.; Iwan, Bianca; Kanai, Yoshikazu; Kataoka, J.; Kawai, N.; Kazejev, Jaroslav; Kiss, Mózsi; Klamra, W.; Larsson, Stefan; Madejski, G.; Mizuno, T.; Ng, J.; Pearce, Mark; Ryde, F.; Suhonen, Markus; Tajima, H.; Takahashi, H.; Takahashi, Tadayuki; Tanaka, Takuya; Thurston, T.; Ueno, Masaru; Varner, G.; Yamamoto, K.; Yamashita, Y.; Ylinen, T.; Yoshida, Hiroaki

doi:10.1016/j.astropartphys.2008.07.004

Cited by 45 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 73 publications

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“…INTEGRAL was also used by Dean et al (2008) to detected gamma-ray polarized emission from the Crab. Recently Chauvin et al (2016) reported hard X-ray polarization measurements of the Crab pulsar with a balloon-borne polarimeter called PoGOLite (Kamae et al 2008). …”

Section: Polarization Of the Synchrotron Pulsed Emissionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Theory of pulsar magnetosphere and wind

Pétri

2016

J. Plasma Phys.

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Neutron stars are fascinating astrophysical objects immersed in strong gravitational and electromagnetic fields, at the edge of our current theories. These stars manifest themselves mostly as pulsars, emitting a timely very stable and regular electromagnetic signal. Even though discovered almost fifty years ago, they still remain mysterious compact stellar objects. In this review, we summarize the most fundamental theoretical aspects of neutron star magnetospheres and winds. The main competing models explaining their radiative properties like multi-wavelength pulse shapes and spectra and the underlying physical processes such as pair creation and radiation mechanisms are scrutinized. A global but still rather qualitative picture slowly emerges thanks to recent advances in numerical simulations on the largest scales. However considerations about pulsar magnetospheres remain speculative. For instance, the exact composition of the magnetospheric plasma is not yet known. Is it solely filled with a mixture of e ± leptons or does it contain a non-negligible fraction of protons and/or ions? Is it almost entirely filled or mostly empty except for some small anecdotal plasma filled regions? Answers to these questions will strongly direct the description of the magnetosphere to seemingly contradictory results leading sometimes to inconsistencies. Nevertheless, accounts are given as to the latest developments in the theory of pulsar magnetospheres and winds, the existence of a possible electrosphere and physical insight obtained from related observational signatures of multi-wavelength pulsed emission.

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Section: Polarization Of the Synchrotron Pulsed Emissionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Theory of pulsar magnetosphere and wind

Pétri

2016

J. Plasma Phys.

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“…3. We have developed a CSA with fast slew rate and confirmed that we can select pure fast scintillator signal down to ∼15 keV, well below the threshold of photo-absorption site of Compton events [1].…”

Section: Pogolite Instrument and Signal Processingmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…T HE PoGOLite is a balloon-born instrument to measure the polarization of hard X-rays / soft gamma-rays in the 25-80 keV energy range [1], [2]. It is scheduled for launch in 2009 (engineering flight) and 2010 (science flight) and will observe polarization from astrophysical objects above 10 keV for the first time.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Data acquisition system for the PoGOLite astronomical hard X-ray polarimeter

Tanaka

Arimoto

Axelsson

et al. 2007

2007 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium Conference Record

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The PoGOLite is a new balloon-borne instrument to measure the polarization of hard X-rays / soft gamma-rays in the 25-80 keV energy range for the first time. In order to detect the polarization, PoGOLite measures the azimuthal angle asymmetry of Compton scattering and the subsequent photoabsorption in an array of detectors. This array consists of 217 well-type phoswich detector cells (PDCs) surrounded by a side anti-coincidence shield (SAS) composed of 54 segments of BGO crystals. At balloon altitude, the intensity of backgrounds due to cosmic-ray charged particles, atmospheric gamma-rays and neutrons is extremely high, typically a few hundred Hz per unit. Hence the data acquisition (DAQ) system of PoGOLite is required to handle more than 270 signals simultaneously, and detect weak signals from astrophysical objects (100 mCrab, 1.5 c s −1 in 25-80 keV ) under such a severe environment. We have developed a new DAQ system consisting of front-end electronics, waveform digitizer, Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) and a microprocessor. In this system, all output signals of PDC / SAS are fed into individual charge-sensitive amplifier and then digitized to 12 bit accuracy at 24 MSa/s by pipelined analog to digital converters. A DAQ board for the PDC records waveforms which will be examined in an off-line analysis to distinguish signals from the background events and measure the energy spectrum and polarization of targets. A board for the SAS records hit pattern to be used for background rejection. It also continuously records a pulse-height analysis (PHA) histogram to monitor incident background flux. These basic functions of the DAQ system were verified in a series of beam tests.

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“…We note that charged-particle background events will be eliminated with an efficiency of almost 100 % by the side (SAS) and bottom (PDC) BGO crystals. Instrument details can be found in [11]. See also [12] for signal processing details.…”

Section: Pogolite Instrumentation and Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

High sensitivity balloon-borne hard X-ray/soft Gamma-Ray Polarimeter PoGOLite

Mizuno

Arimoto

Axelsson

et al. 2007

2007 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium Conference Record

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The Polarized Gamma-ray Observer -Lightweight Version (PoGOLite) is a new balloon experiment capable of detecting 10% polarization from a 200 mCrab source in the 25-80 keV energy range in a single 6-hour flight for the first time. Polarization measurements of hard X-rays and soft gammarays are expected to provide a powerful probe into high-energy emission mechanisms as well as source geometries. PoGOLite uses Compton scattering and photo-absorption to measure polarization in an array of 217 well-type phoswich detector cells made of plastic and BGO scintillators. The adoption of a welltype phoswich counter concept and a thick polyethylene neutron shield provides a narrow field-of-view (1.25 msr), a large effective area ( ≥ 250 cm 2 at 40-50 keV), a high modulation factor (more than 25 %) and the low background (∼ 100 mCrab) required to conduct high-sensitivity polarization measurements. Through tests in laboratories and accelerator facilities of a scaled-down prototype with the front-end electronics of flight design and an extensive study by Monte-Carlo simulation, we have demonstrated high instrument performance. PoGOLite will be ready for a first engineering flight in 2009 and a science flight in 2010, during which polarization signals from the Crab Nebula/pulsar, Cygnus X-1 and other objects will be observed.

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PoGOLite – A high sensitivity balloon-borne soft gamma-ray polarimeter

Cited by 45 publications

References 73 publications

Theory of pulsar magnetosphere and wind

Theory of pulsar magnetosphere and wind

Data acquisition system for the PoGOLite astronomical hard X-ray polarimeter

High sensitivity balloon-borne hard X-ray/soft Gamma-Ray Polarimeter PoGOLite

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