Welcome to the documentation page! Here, we provide detailed explanations of how our system works and how you can make the most out of it.

We encourage you to contact us if you encounter any issues while using this tool. Additionally, we welcome your suggestions for new features or improvements to existing functionality. Your input is invaluable to us as we strive to enhance this product. We are eager to hear your ideas and would be delighted to have you join our team to help realize them.

1. IXPE Data
2. The Home Page
3. The Analysis Page
4. The Joint Observations Page
5. The Reference Page
6. The Reference Page
7. Our To Do List

Updates and Versions

• Source list updated to November 16 2024.
• The IXPE data are processed with ixpeobssim version 31.0.2

Recommendations

We recomment using Chrome or Safari as browsers when using xpqlt, as some other browsers (e.g., Firefox) has shown lags for the interactive display of several features.

IXPE Data

The IXPE Level 2 data files (along with any provided readme file) are downloaded from the IXPE Catalog hosted by NASA's HEASARC archive every two weeks and the database is updated with the new processed observations. The list of available targets and observations can be found in the table on the Home page.

The Home Page

The Home page shows the available targets organized in "cards", each one representing a different type of object. The user can go to the category of interest and select the target from the dropdown menu. This action will activate the buttons "Quick look Data" and "Joint Obs" , which will bring the user to different pages that we decribe in the next sections.

Underneath the source cards, the IXPE observed targets are displayed on a sky map, color coded by type. The map offers different fun visualization options that we invite the user to explore. The observed targets on the sky map are automatically updated when a new query is made for the table undrneath.

The observations table lists all the publicly available ixpe observations. The order is by default set to be alphabetical by source name, but it can be changed by clicking on the arrows next to the column names.

The Analysis page

This is the beating heart of xpqlt. This quick look tool allows the user to quickly check the polarization in IXPE data in custom-selected regions of the field of view and custom-defined energy bins.

What the User Sees

What is Behind the Scene

                  ENERGY_BINNING = list(np.linspace(2., 8., 51))
                  NPIX = 800

                  pipeline.xpbin(
                                *file_list,
                                algorithm='PMAPCUBE',
                                npix=NPIX,
                                ebinalg='LIST',
                                ebinning=ENERGY_BINNING,
                                overwrite=True,
                                irfname=DEFAULT_IRF_NAME)
                

The Joint Observaitons Page

The Joint Observation Page provides an updated list of observations conducted by multiple X-ray telescopes besides IXPE. In particular, we regularly collect the list of publicly available observations by NuStar, NICER, Chandra, XMM-Newton, and Swift-XRT for each target observed by IXPE. This page serves as a comprehensive resource for researchers interested in studying X-ray sources with multiple X-ray missions.

For each instrument, a separate table is displayed, detailing the Observation ID (Obsid), Modified Julian Date (MJD) of the start of the observations, exposure duration, as well as the closest IXPE Obsid, and the delay in days from the corresponding IXPE observation. This information enables users to identify simultaneous or near-simultaneous observations across different X-ray missions.

The References Page

The References Page compiles all available resources mentioning "IXPE" either in the title or in the abstract. We gather this information from the public ArXiv repository without distinction between peer-reviewed or non-peer-reviewed publications. This inclusive approach ensures that proceedings and conference contributions are also listed in the table. The table features a query function enabling users to search for specific strings such as source names or author names. As the user types, the table dynamically updates to display relevant entries. We will periodically update the list pulling the most recent publications from the ArXiv.

On Our To Do List:

(Listed in random order)