THE POLARIZATION SENSITIVITY OF THE LIQUID XENON IMAGING TELESCOPE

The properties and the expected performance of a liquid xenon (LXe) ga mma-ray imaging telescope, optimized for the MeV energy region, are pr esented. The unique potential of this telescope as a Compton polarimet er is particularly emphasized. Based on Monte Carlo simulations, we sh ow that the modulation factor is as high as 40% at 1 MeV with a detect ion efficiency close to 20%. These figures of merit, combined with the excellent background suppression capability of the three-dimensional position sensitive LXe detector, yield sensitivity at the 3 sigma leve l to polarization fractions as small as a few percent for strong sourc es, even in a balloon flight.