SPRG Seminars
December 3, 2013:
"Pathfinder flight of Polarized Gamma-ray Observer (PoGOLite) in 2013"
Hiromitsu Takahashi, Hiroshima University, Japan
Processes common in astrophysical systems can yield polarized hard X-rays. Despite the importance of the polarization measurements, there have been very few dedicated X-ray missions. Polarized Gamma-ray Observer (PoGOLite) is a balloon-borne hard X-ray polarimeter in the energy range of 25-80 keV. The instrument was developed by an international collaboration from Sweden, Japan and U.S. Polarization is determined using coincident events of Compton scattering and photo-absorption in a segmented array of plastic scintillators. They are surrounded by a BGO anticoincidence system and a polyethylene neutron shield to reject/reduce cosmic-ray/gamma-ray/neutron backgrounds. The PoGOLite pathfinder was successfully launched from the Esrange Space Center, Sweden in July 2013. The primary observation targets were Crab and Cygnus X-1. We present the PoGOLite mission and the analysis status of the pathfinder flight.