XPOL: a photoelectric polarimeter onboard XEUS

摘要

The XEUS mission incorporates two satellites: the Mirror Spacecraft with 5 m~2 of collecting area at 1 keV and 2 m~2 at 7 keV, and an imaging resolution of 5' HEW and the Payload Spacecraft which carries the focal plane instrumentation. XEUS was submitted to ESA Cosmic Vision and was selected for an advanced study as a large mission. The baseline design includes XPOL, a polarimeter based on the photoelectric effect, that takes advantage of the large effective area which permits the study of the faint sources and of the long focal length, resulting in a very good spatial resolution, which allows the study of spatial features in extended sources. We show how, with XEUS, Polarimetry becomes an efficient tool at disposition of the Astronomical community.