Development of a Hard X-Ray Focal Plane Compton Polarimeter: a Compact Polarimetric Configuration with Scintillators and Si Photomultipliers
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Noname manuscript No. (will be inserted by the editor) Development of a Hard X-ray focal plane Compton Polarimeter: A compact polarimetric configuration with Scintillators and Si photomultipliers T. Chattopadhyay· S. V. Vadawale· S. K. Goyal· Mithun N. P. S.· A. R. Patel· R. Shukla· T. Ladiya· M. Shanmugam· V. R. Patel· G. P. !"ale Received: date / Accepted: date Abstract X-ray polarization measurement of cosmic sources provides two unique parameters namely degree and angle of polarization which can probe the emission mechanism and geometry at close vicinity of the compact ob- jects. Specifically the hard X-ray polarimetry is more rewarding because the sources are e!pected to be intrinsically highly polarized at higher energies. "ith the successful implementation of Hard X-ray optics in NuS%&' it is now feasible to conceive Compton polarimeters as focal plane detectors. Such a configuration is li)ely to provide sensitive polarization measurements in hard X-rays with a broad energy band. "e are developing a focal plane hard X- ray Compton polarimeter consisting of a plastic scintillator as active scatterer surrounded by a cylindrical array of CsI(Tl) scintillators. %he scatterer is + mm diameter and ,-- mm long plastic scintillator (.C404) viewed by nor- mal 01T. The photons scattered by the plastic scatterer are collected by a cylindrical array of ,2 CsI(Tl) scintillators (+ mm×+ mm×,+- mm) which are read by Si Photomultiplier (SiP1). Use of the new generation Si01s ensures the compactness of the instrument which is essential for the design of focal plane detectors. %he expected sensitivity of such polarimetric configuration and complete characterization of the plastic scatterer, specially at lower ener- gies have been discussed in 4,, ,56. In this paper we characterize the CsI(Tl) absorbers coupled to Si01. "e also present the experimental results from the fully assembled configuration of the Compton polarimeter. T. Chattopadhyay Astronomy and Astrophysics Division, Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, India Indian Institute of Technology, !andhinagar, India Tel.: "#$%&'#%()*$+)$' ,-mail: [email protected] S. /. /ada0ale· .. K. !oyal· 2ithun P. S.· A. R. Patel· R. Shukla· T. Ladiya· 2. Shanmugam· V. R. Patel· G. P. 4bale Astronomy and Astrophysics Division, Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, India ( T. Chattopadhyay et al. Keywords X-ray polarimetry· Hard X-ray optics· Instrumentation· Compton scattering polarimeter· Scintillators· Si photomultiplier # Introduction X-ray polarimetry promises to open a new window in Astrophysics with its vast applications all the way from distant &7Ns and blazars, galactic blac) hole and neutron star X-ray binaries to the solar atmosphere. However the field of X-ray polarimetry has been mostly une!plored since the birth of X-ray astronomy in early 1960s. Initially in the 1970s, there were many attempts and initiatives 4, +/ 58 :5 :: +: +5 // :+6 in the measurements of X-ray polariza- tion for celestial objects. However in the next :+ years there was no major advancement in the field of X-ray polarimetry e!cept for few mission proposals based on Bragg and Rayleigh polarimeters 4:; /2 /; ,; 5/6. The main reason behind the lac) of progress in X-ray polarimetry is the high photon throughput which results in poorer sensitivity of the X-ray polarimeters. "ith the vast improvement in the detection technology in the last decade or so, particularly with the invention of photoelectric polarimeters 4,2 5 + 26 X-ray polarimetry has witnessed a significant growth in interest of the astronomical community. <ew polarimetric missions were proposed based on the photoelectric polarimeters 4,+ /9 :2 / /+6. Among them, 7ravity and =!- treme 1agnetism Small =xplorer (7=1S) 4:26 carrying a %ime 0rojection Chamber (%0C) based photoelectric polarimeter 426 was the only dedicated X-ray polarimetry mission selected for launch in :-,4. However the mission was cancelled due to programmatic issues. Though photoelectric polarimeters are expected to provide sensitive polarization measurements these instruments are effective primarily in soft X-rays where radiation from the source is e!- pected to be less polarized because of the dominance of thermal radiation. Consequently many groups across the globe are now involved in developing Compton polarimeters effective in hard X-ray regime where the expected po- larization is above the typical sensitivity level of the instruments 4+2 5, :8 ; /-6. <or the same reason there have been several attempts during the last decade in retrieving polarization information from instruments not specifically designed for polarimetry but could be sensitive to it 45+ ,/ 55 :9 ,8 ,9 5; :, :- 52 59 5: ,: +-6. The major issue with such attempts is the non-optimized polarimetric configuration of these instruments which results in quite poor sensitivity. Hence such bonus polarization measurements are limited only for few very bright and highly polarized sources like Crab, CygX1, or for 7amma Ray Bursts. "ith recent development of Hard X-ray optics e.g. $UST&' Astro-H, now hard X-ray polarimetry may see manyfold improvement in terms of sen- sitivity of the polarimeters. (ompton polarimeters at the focal plane of hard X-ray telescopes are expected to provide sensitive polarization measurements because of two factors− 1. compact focal plane detectors can be designed with an optimized configuration for polarimetry and 2. concentration of ?u! in hard Title .uppressed Due to ,5cessive Length * X-rays and narrow <@A of the telescopes reduces the bac)ground which sig- nificantly improves the sensitivity of the focal plane polarimeters. 1otivated by this, we are developing a focal plane Compton X-ray polarimeter (CXPOL) for hard X-ray optics 4,, ,56. The planned polarimetric configuration consists of a long thin plastic scintillator surrounded by a cylindrical array of CsI(Tl) scintillators viewed by Si01s. The development of the polarimeter is essen- tially an extension of our study of the Rayleigh polarimeter 4+,6 for a proposed IS'@ mission called 0@LIX 4/:6. The other objective of the study is also to show our readiness level prior to proposing for a future hard X-ray polarimetry mission. In our earlier work 4,,6 we estimated polarimetric sensitivity of the instrument using detailed 7eant/ simulations followed by complete character- ization of the central plastic scatterer 4,56. In this paper we start with a brief description of our earlier wor) in section : followed by a detailed e!perimen- tal study on characterization of CsI(%l) absorbers in section 3. *n section / we describe the polarization experiment with CXP@B using polarized sources of different energies and finally we conclude with future plans regarding the optimization of the instrument. % CXPOL con(guration The proposed focal plane (ompton polarimeter configuration consists of a + mm diameter and ,- cm long plastic scintillator as central scatterer surrounded by a cylindrical array of ,2 CsI(%l) scintillators (see <ig. 1). The CsI(Tl) ab- Fig. 1 Planned Compton polarimeter configuration. The photons scattered by the central plastic scatterer 7$& cm lon 0ith 8 mm diameter) are collected by a cylindrical array of $) CsI(Tl) scintillators (each $8 cm long and 8 mm× 8 mm cross-section). In :$1], 0e reported simulation for the Compton polarimeter geometry assuming *( absorbers< ho0ever in the current experimental configuration, $) CsI(Tl9 scintillators have been used. sorbers are ,+ cm long and + mm× + mm in cross-section. "e carried out + T. Chattopadhyay et al. detailed Geant/ simulation for this polarimeter configuration in :-−;- )ev, ;- )ev being the upper energy detection limit of hard X-ray optics (assumed to be the NUS%&' type optics for this study). 1inimum Cetectable 0olariza- tion (1C0) of the instrument was estimated taking into account the effective area of NUS%&' optics in 5−;- )ev and proper bac)ground estimates. Bac)- ground chance events within a coincidence time window of ,-µs was found to be insignificant which is expected for a Compton polarimeter thanks to the active coincidence between the scatterer and absorbers and narrow <@A of hard X-ray telescopes. The 1C0 for a ,-- mCrab source was found to be∼ , D for , 1s exposure, whereas for ,-- )s exposure the expected sensitivity of the instrument is∼ 5 %. Cetails of simulation and polarimetric sensitivity estimations are reported in 4,,6. Here it is to be noted that reflection off the hard X-ray mirror may introduce small artificial modulation in the azimuthal angle distribution due to the dependence of mirror reflectance on the polar- ization plane. Recent studies 45-6 suggest that change in polarization because of the hard X-ray mirrors is around∼ , D limiting the sensitivity of the po- larimeters at the focal plane of such hard X-ray telescopes to ∼ , %. There are few other polarimetric mission proposals based on hard X-ray focal plane Compton polarimeters li)e X-Calibur 4:6 0olariS 4:/6 and TS3.&1= 4++6. Among these, our polarimetric configuration closely resembles with the scat- tering geometry used in X-Calibur 4:6 which is under active consideration for NAS&Es next small satellite mission 0olS%AR. The basic difference between these two configurations is that X-Calibur employs (F% detector array as ab- sorbers which also enables the feasibility of spectro-polarimetry in :-−;- )ev. However use of scintillators with Si01 readout makes our scattering geome- try more optimized for polarimetry measurements comparatively less complex electronically and much more compact. 0olarimetric sensitivity