The Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer and new directions for the future
The Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE), a joint NASA–ASI SMEX mission, represents the current culmination of decades of research aimed at routinely providing the field of high-energy astrophysics with two additional observables: the degree and angle of polarization. Launched in December 2021, IXPE has observed about one hundred celestial sources, offering invaluable insights into the emission mechanisms, magnetic-field configurations, and geometries of compact objects.
To measure X-ray polarization in the 2–8 keV energy band, IXPE exploits the photoelectric effect in gas, analyzing two-dimensional tracks through a detector system developed through a joint effort of INAF, INFN, and OHB-Italia.
In this talk, I will describe the IXPE mission and payload, together with the main astrophysical results obtained so far. I will also discuss its main limitations and the new opportunities offered by ESA, in particular the concept of the Enhanced X-ray Polarimetry Observatory (EXPO), proposed for the next Medium-Size Mission call. EXPO aims to achieve a quantum leap in X-ray polarimetry, enabling the detection of polarization from transients and faint steady sources across a much broader energy range than IXPE.
Paolo Soffitta
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- IEAP, CTU in Prague
- Husova 240/5
- Prague, Czech Republic
- Czech Republic