1. XIPE: the x-ray imaging polarimetry explorer
- Author
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Soffitta, Paolo, Bellazzini, Ronaldo, Bozzo, Enrico, Burwitz, Vadim, Castro Tirado, Alberto, Costa, Enrico, Courvoisier, Thierry, Feng, Hua, Gburek, Szymon, Goosmann, Rene', Karas, Vladimir, Matt, Giorgio, Muleri, Fabio, Nandra, Kirpal, Pearce, Mark, Poutanen, Juri, Reglero, Victor, Graziati, Maria Dolores, Santangelo, Andrea, Tagliaferri, Gianpiero, Tenzer, Christopher, Vink, Jacco, Weisskopf, Martin, Zane, Silvia, Agudo, I, Antonelli, A, Attina, P, Baldini, L, Bykov, A, Carpentiero, R, Cavazzuti, E, Churazov, E, Del Monte, E, De Martino, D, Donnarumma, I, Doroshenko, V, Evangelista, Y, Ferreira, I, Gallo, E, Grosso, N, Kaaret, P, Kuulkers, E, Laranaga, J, Latronico, L, Lumb, DH, Macian, J, Malzac, J, Marin, F, Massaro, E, Minuti, M, Mundell, C, Ness, JU, Oosterbroek, T, Paltani, S, Pareschi, G, Perna, R, Petrucci, P-O, Pinazo, HB, Pinchera, M, Rodriguez, JP, Roncadelli, M, Santovincenzo, A, Sazonov, S, Sgro, C, Spiga, D, Svoboda, J, Theobald, C, Theodorou, T, Turolla, R, Wilhelmi de Ona, E, Winter, B, Akbar, AM, Allan, H, Aloisio, R, Altamirano, D, Amati, L, Amato, E, Angelakis, E, Arezu, J, Atteia, J-L, Axelsson, M, Bachetti, M, Ballo, L, Balman, S, Bandiera, R, Barcons, X, Basso, S, Baykal, A, Becker, W, Behar, E, Beheshtipour, B, Belmont, R, Berger, E, Bernardini, F, Bianchi, S, Bisnovatyi-Kogan, G, Blasi, P, Blay, P, Bodaghee, A, and Boer, M
- Subjects
X-ray Astronomy ,Polarimetry ,X-ray optics ,Gas Pixel Detector - Abstract
XIPE, the X-ray Imaging Polarimetry Explorer, is a mission dedicated to X-ray Astronomy. At the time of writing XIPE is in a competitive phase A as fourth medium size mission of ESA (M4). It promises to reopen the polarimetry window in high energy Astrophysics after more than 4 decades thanks to a detector that efficiently exploits the photoelectric effect and to X-ray optics with large effective area. XIPE uniqueness is time-spectrally-spatially-resolved X-ray polarimetry as a breakthrough in high energy astrophysics and fundamental physics. Indeed the payload consists of three Gas Pixel Detectors at the focus of three X-ray optics with a total effective area larger than one XMM mirror but with a low weight. The payload is compatible with the fairing of the Vega launcher. XIPE is designed as an observatory for X-ray astronomers with 75 % of the time dedicated to a Guest Observer competitive program and it is organized as a consortium across Europe with main contributions from Italy, Germany, Spain, United Kingdom, Poland, Sweden.
- Published
- 2016