The Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer - opening a new observational window in X-ray Astronomy

by Paolo Soffitta (IAPS/INAF)

Tuesday 25 Apr 2023, 13:15 → 14:15 Europe/Stockholm

FA32 (AlbaNova Main Building)

IXPE is a NASA-ASI Small Explorer (SMEX) mission entirely devoted to imaging X-ray polarimetry studies in the 2-8 keV energy band. IXPE was selected for launch on January 2017 and launched on 9th December 2021. After one month of commissioning, it observed many dozens of sources from almost all of classes (Supernova Remnants, Pulsar Wind Nebulae, Black-Hole Binaries, Neutron Star Binaries, Magnetars, Radio Quiet Active Galactic Nuclei, the Galactic Center and Blazars). It is detecting significant X-ray polarization from many of them. The mission is composed of three telescopes clocked at 120 degrees. Each telescope hosts a detector sensitive to polarization and a full calibration system developed by INAF, INFN and OHB-Italia. The detectors and the mirrors were calibrated at INAF-IAPS and MSFC respectively. A spare telescope was extensively calibrated with both polarized and un-polarized sources at MSFC.

In this talk I will show how the mission was conceived, its main characteristics and the main astrophysical results after 1 year and half of observations. I anticipate that some astrophysical results were unexpected to theoretician requiring a deep revisiting of the current theories.