INTRODUCTION

The Stellar X-Ray Polarimeter (SXRP) will measure the polarization of x-rays with energies between 2 and 15 keV. The SXRP will provide an order of magnitude increase in polarization sensitivity over any previous astronomical x-ray polarimeter. It will allow x-ray polarization measurements of several classes of astronomical objects, including: binary x-ray pulsars, x-ray novae, radio pulsars, supernova remnants, and low-mass x-ray binaries.

The SXRP is a focal plane detector for the Danish-Russian SODART telescope and will be launched on the Russian Spectrum-X-Gamma (SXG) mission (the SXG spacecraft is shown above viewing a supernova remnant.) The SXRP uses the polarization sensitivity of a graphite Bragg crystal and a lithium Thomson scattering target to measure the polarization of x-rays from astronomical sources.