Research Note: X-ray polarimetry of Relativistic Jets
The Imaging X-ray Polarization Explorer (IXPE) is a recently launched NASA SMEX mission that has just opened up a new window on the universe as the first imaging X-ray polarimeter. I will start by briefly discussing how we measure polarization with IXPE and some of my work on improving its sensitivity using simulation-based inference. Next, I will cover some of the recent and upcoming science we have been doing with IXPE on blazar jets – focusing on polarization rotations. I’ll finish by noting some ideas for future research, including using polarization measurements to place limits on jet turbulence scaling.
Discussion highlights: We discussed the accuracy of the detector simulator, equivariance in neural posterior estimation, outlier events in the detector and possible Gaussian process modelling of blazar rotations as a future direction.
For simulation based inference in X-ray polarimetry see https://arxiv.org/abs/2107.08289