Design, Construction, and Test of the Gas Pixel Detectors for the IXPE Mission
Creators: name: Baldini, L.
name: Barbanera, M.
name: Bellazzini, R.
name: Bonino, R.
name: Borotto, F.
name: Brez, A.
name: Caporale, C.
name: Cardelli, C.
name: Castellano, S.
name: Ceccanti, M.
name: Citraro, S.
name: Di Lalla, N.
name: Latronico, L.
name: Lucchesi, L.
name: Magazzù, C.
name: Magazzù, G.
name: Maldera, S.
name: Manfreda, A.
name: Marengo, M.
name: Marrocchesi, A.
name: Mereu, P.
name: Minuti, M.
name: Mosti, F.
name: Nasimi, H.
name: Nuti, A.
name: Oppedisano, C.
name: Orsini, L.
name: Pesce-Rollins, M.
name: Pinchera, M.
name: Profeti, A.
name: Sgrò, C.
name: Spandre, G.
name: Tardiola, M.
name: Zanetti, D.
name: Amici, F.
name: Andersson, H.
name: Attinà, P.
name: Bachetti, M.
name: Baumgartner, W.
name: Brienza, D.
name: Carpentiero, R.
name: Castronuovo, M.
name: Cavalli, L.
name: Cavazzuti, E.
name: Centrone, M.
name: Costa, E.
name: D'Alba, E.
name: D'Amico, F.
name: Del Monte, E.
name: Di Cosimo, S.
name: Di Marco, A.
name: Di Persio, G.
name: Donnarumma, I.
name: Evangelista, Y.
name: Fabiani, S.
name: Ferrazzoli, R.
name: Kitaguchi, T.
name: La Monaca, F.
name: Lefevre, C.
name: Loffredo, P.
name: Lorenzi, P.
name: Mangraviti, E.
name: Matt, G.
name: Meilahti, T.
name: Morbidini, A.
name: Muleri, F.
name: Nakano, T.
name: Negri, B.
name: Nenonen, S.
name: O'Dell, S. L.
name: Perri, M.
name: Piazzolla, R.
name: Pieraccini, S.
name: Pilia, M.
name: Puccetti, S.
name: Ramsey, B. D.
name: Rankin, J.
name: Ratheesh, A.
name: Rubini, A.
name: Santoli, F.
name: Sarra, P.
name: Scalise, E.
name: Sciortino, A.
name: Soffitta, P.
name: Tamagawa, T.
name: Tennant, A. F.
name: Tobia, A.
name: Trois, A.
name: Uchiyama, K.
name: Vimercati, M.
name: Weisskopf, M. C.
name: Xie, F.
name: Zanetti, F.
name: Zhou, Y.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2021
Subjects: subject: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)
subject: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)
subject: Instrumentation and Detectors (physics.ins-det)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Due to be launched in late 2021, the Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) is a NASA Small Explorer mission designed to perform polarization measurements in the 2-8 keV band, complemented with imaging, spectroscopy and timing capabilities. At the heart of the focal plane is a set of three polarization-sensitive Gas Pixel Detectors (GPD), each based on a custom ASIC acting as a charge-collecting anode. In this paper we shall review the design, manufacturing, and test of the IXPE focal-plane detectors, with particular emphasis on the connection between the science drivers, the performance metrics and the operational aspects. We shall present a thorough characterization of the GPDs in terms of effective noise, trigger efficiency, dead time, uniformity of response, and spectral and polarimetric performance. In addition, we shall discuss in detail a number of instrumental effects that are relevant for high-level science analysis -- particularly as far as the response to unpolarized radiation and the stability in time are concerned.
description: To be published in Astroparticle Physics