Abstract
High-energy astrophysics polarimetry may significantly benefit from e-ASTROGAM and from AMEGO mission proposals, since to date limited polarimetric measurements were performed in this domain, exclusively under 1 MeV. The polarimetric potential of both missions was analyzed in the Compton regime by Monte Carlo mass model simulations with MEGAlib toolkit. The performance of e-ASTROGAM was analyzed by simulating Si tracker and calorimeter alternative configurations and detection materials, within missions’ volume, mass and power margins. The modulation polarimetric factor, Q, and the MDP were calculated for different polarized source types and for variable incidence angle measurement conditions. Finally, the polarimetric performances of both instruments was compared and analyzed. Q modulation factors obtained ranged between ~0.2 and ~0.4 in the 0.2–2.0 MeV band and MDP ~0.65% was estimated for a 100% polarized Crab type source, 1 Ms. observation time and 3σ significance.
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Acknowledgements
André Cortez research grant and complementary research leading to these results was funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Programme under the AHEAD project (grant agreement n. 654215). Miguel Moita was supported by a Doctorate in Applied and Engineering Physics fellowship (PD/BD/105922/2014), a FCT funded Ph.D. program.
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Cortez, A.F.V., da Silva, R.M.C., Rodriguez, G. et al. Future gamma-ray missions’ polarimetric prospects. Exp Astron 48, 65–76 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10686-019-09637-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10686-019-09637-9