Dr. Sujay Mate

Over the past 50 years numerous high-energy missions have been flown; however X-/gamma-ray polarisation measurements have been difficult to carry out due to the photon-hungry nature of the measurement and technological limitations. However, over the past decade, dedicated polarimeters such as the POLAR for Gamma-ray Bursts (GRB) polarimetry and Imaging X-ray Polarimeter (IXPE) for persistent sources have been flown and the field has gained traction again. Indian missions have been at the forefront of this resurgence with the launch of the dedicated polarimeter XPoSat/POLIX in January 2024 and measurements of GRB and Crab pulsar polarisation by AstroSat/CZTI. In addition, the proposed mission Daksha is poised to contribute significantly with respect to GRB polarimetry. In the first half of the talk, I will touch upon the contribution of AstroSat/CZTI to GRB polarimetry, our efforts to improve the current results using a common framework called polpy and how Daksha will improve upon the legacy of CZTI. In the second half, I will give an overview of POLIX and show some early results obtained using the flight data.