The POLAR experiment – what next?

The POLAR detector was launched in September 2016 to the Tian-Gong 2 Chinse space station. Its objective was to measure polarization of gamma photons observed as Gamma Ray Bursts (GRB). High voltage circuitry of the detector failed around beginning of April 2017 and since than the detector has not been operated. Currently the team of experimenters is concentrating their attention to find the cause of the failure and to identify possible corrective actions.

Some examples of analysis of the so far acquired data will be presented. The detector managed to observe a number of GRBs, however in none of them it was oriented in a way that would make evaluation of the gamma photon polarization feasible. That issue will be discussed during the seminar in some more detail.

We know very little why the failure has occurred, nevertheless some hypotheses will be presented.

All interested persons are invited
Agnieszka Majczyna