Abstract
Since the very beginning of X-ray Astronomy, polarimetry has been suggested as a tool of diagnostics, of great potentiality. While almost all measurements of X-rays were based on detectors using the photoelectric effect, the first attempt to perform polarimetry were based on Compton scattering and Bragg diffraction. The use of photoelectric effect also for polarimetry has been hypothesized and attempted for many years but never accomplished. Only 40 years from the start of X-ray astronomy, the Gas Pixel Detector (GPD) was developed, compatible with an X-ray optics, and capable of measuring energy, time, position and polarization simultaneously. Only after 20 more years, the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer, based on the GPD detectors, will be launched. I present the story of the development of photoelectric polarimetry that arrived to the Gas Pixel Detector, and discuss the possible future evolutions.
Highlights
Since the very beginning of X-ray Astronomy, polarimetry has been suggested as a tool of diagnostics, of great potentiality
While almost all measurements of X-rays were based on detectors using the photoelectric effect, the first attempt to perform polarimetry were based on Compton scattering and Bragg diffraction
I present the story of the development of photoelectric polarimetry that arrived to the Gas Pixel Detector, and discuss the possible future evolutions
Summary
Scientists devoting a significant amount of their time and with a continuity not far from obstinacy to X-ray Polarimetry have been a well confined subset of the X-ray Astronomy community. X-ray emission from the Crab, Ginzburg foresaw the relevance of a measurement of polarization to discriminate whether the synchrotron was still the dominant emission process and the implication on the acceleration processes. The only viable technique to perform X-ray polarimetry was the Bragg diffraction around 45◦. This technique, originally proposed by Herbert W. The presence of theoretical papers in the literature has been correlated to the expectation of having one of these missions approved Another peculiarity of X-ray polarimetry is that there have been two experiments approved and never flown for different reasons. At the end, I introduce the potential extension of the technique to the Hard X-ray range, I omit any discussion or comparison with other techniques or experiments in this same range, because this would require a significant increase of the dimensions of the paper
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