THE POLARIZATION SENSITIVITY OF THE LIQUID XENON IMAGING TELESCOPE

Citation
E. Aprile et al., THE POLARIZATION SENSITIVITY OF THE LIQUID XENON IMAGING TELESCOPE, The Astrophysical journal. Supplement series, 92(2), 1994, pp. 689-692
Citations number
12
Categorie Soggetti
Astronomy & Astrophysics
ISSN journal
00670049
Volume
92
Issue
2
Year of publication
1994
Pages
689 - 692
Database
ISI
SICI code
0067-0049(1994)92:2<689:TPSOTL>2.0.ZU;2-9
Abstract
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.