Thomson X-ray Polarimeter for a Small Satellite Mission

Abstract

We will describe a Thomson X-ray polarimeter developed for a small satellite mission. The instrument works in the 5-30 keV band and will be suitable for X-ray polarisation measurement in about 50 hard X-ray sources. The accretion powered X-ray pulsars, black hole X-ray binaries, rotation powered pulsars and non-thermal SNR will be the prime targets for this mission. In spite of its moderate sensitivity, this experiment can give us unique opportunity to expand the field of X-ray astronomy into a hitherto unexplored dimension.