Joint NICER/IXPE Workshop 2024

Workshop Overview and Logistics

The Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) and Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) missions are pleased to announce a joint 2024 workshop. The workshop will be held at The George Washington University in Washington D.C from Monday, 29th of July, 2024 to Thursday, 1st of August, 2024. Registration is free for both in-person and remote attendees.

The first 3 days of the workshop will be held in hybrid format, and participants who cannot attend in person will be able to attend virtually. During this time there will be presentations on the missions status, latest calibration, and GO programs. There will also be invited and solicited science talks and poster presentations. The fourth day of the workshop is an in-person only hands-on session for data analysis, where NICER and IXPE experts will guide participants through the analysis of data from various source classes. Registration deadline for in-person attendance is July 1st, while for remote attendance is July 26th. We especially welcome users new to NICER/IXPE data analysis to attend the workshop.

The primary objective of the workshop is to introduce mission capabilites, discuss data analysis techniques and new science results that maximize use of the unique capabilities of both mission, as well as highlight synergies between them. The workshop will also update the community on opportunities to propose for time on both missions through the General Observer Program, and provide ample time for questions, discussion and networking. We anticipate that the program will provide a showcase for possible uses of NICER and IXPE for the community's scientific investigations.

Presentation topics will include, but are not limited to:

• Mission Overview
• Calibration and Software Tools
• Data Analysis and Tutorials
• General Observer Program and Target of Opportunity Requests
• Magnetars and Rotation-powered Pulsars
• X-ray Binaries
• Supernova Remnants, Pulsar Wind Nebulae, and other extended galactic sources
• Blazars, Active Galaxies, and Quasars
• Tidal Disruption Events, Quasi-periodic Eruptions, and Changing-look AGN
• Multimessenger Astronomy
• Galaxy Clusters and Extragalactic Extended Sources

For any questions related the workshop, please email the organizing committee

Mission Overview

NICER is a non-imaging X-ray telescope mounted onboard the International Space Station. It is sensitive to X-ray photons in the energy range 0.2-12 keV and boasts the largest effective area of any instrument up to 5 keV, a factor 2 larger than XMM-Newton. It provides timing accuracy as well as CCD-level spectral resolution. NICER's narrow field of view of about 30 arcmin^2, large effective area, and low background results in a high dynamic range of sensitivity. NICER can detect a 10 microCrab X-ray source at the 5-sigma level in a 10 ks exposure. Taking advantage of its host spacecraft orbit and its own agility, NICER can observe any non-sun-constrained target multiple times a day. Thus, NICER is the most versatile soft X-ray instrument in operation today capable of providing spectro-temporal data for a wide range of scientific investigations.

IXPE is a NASA Small Explorer Mission resulting from the collaboration of NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, the Italian Space Agency, and other partners. IXPE has been successfully performing science operations since January 2022, with a General Observer program that started in 2024. IXPE provides unique and powerful X-ray polarization capabilities and has been providing crucial insights into our understanding of X-ray production and the geometry of multiple classes of objects such as neutron stars and pulsar wind nebulae, as well as stellar and supermassive black holes, among others. Overall, IXPE provides simultaneous imaging, spectral, timing, and polarization data for 2-8 keV X-rays.

The complimentary aspects of NICER and IXPE are nicely demonstrated through the many simultaneous observing campaigns of different source classes; NICER provides the count statistics and soft spectral coverage throughout any IXPE observing run, to help disentangle the, sometimes time-varying, contribution from the different emission components, while IXPE provides their unique polarization properties. Hence, the combination of the two telescopes yields an unprecedented spectral-timing-polarization view of the cosmos.

Abstract Submission and Registration

Registration is open for everyone at the Registration Page. The meeting link will be sent via e-mail before the start of the meeting to all registered participants. Registration is free for both in-person and remote attendees.

Abstract submission is open for everyone at the Abstract Submission Page. We strongly encourage those with a contributed talk or poster presentation to attend the workshop in-person.

Deadlines

Meeting Program

Coming soon!

Local Information

Coming soon!

Organizing Committee

The Organizing Committee consists of: George Younes, Kavitha Arur, Zaven Arzoumanian, Elizabeth Ferrara, Jeremy Hare, Yannis Liodakis, Michela Negro, Rachael Stewart and Douglas Swartz