1. Off-axis effects on the performance of a scattering polarimeter at the focus of an x-ray telescope
- Author
-
Robert Novick, Ronald F. Elsner, Martin C. Weisskopf, Philip E. Kaaret, and Eric H. Silver
- Subjects
Physics ,X-ray astronomy ,business.industry ,Scattering ,Linear polarization ,Astrophysics::High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena ,Astrophysics::Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics ,General Engineering ,X-ray telescope ,Field of view ,Polarimeter ,Optical polarization ,Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics ,law.invention ,Telescope ,Optics ,law ,business - Abstract
Scattering from bound electrons in a suitable material placed at the focus of an X-ray telescope can be exploited to measure the linear polarization of radiation emitted from cosmic X-ray sources. Among the factors that affect the performance of such an instrument is a spurious polarization signal from unpolarized sources that lie within the field of view but are offset from the telescope pointing direction. This paper presents the results of analytical and Monte Carlo studies of this effect and provides means of evaluating its impact on realistic polarimeters for X-ray astronomy.
- Published
- 1990