Development of a high energy X-ray polarimeter for small satellites

摘要

We are developing a Thomson-scattering-type polarimeter sensitive in the energy range from 10 keV to 20 keV for a small satellite. The polarimeter consists of three beryllium disks as scatterers and a cylindrical position-sensitive proportional counter as a detector of the scattered X-rays. Its performance has been investigated through computer simulations. From these, it was concluded that the polarimeter can obtain a modulation factor of 34%, a detection efficiency of /spl sim/10%, and a minimum detectable polarization of about 3.0% for Her X-1 in 2 keV bands and a 2/spl times/10/sup 5/ sec observation.