_version_ 1866909816382816256
author De Angelis, Nicolas
Alimenti, Andrea
Albanesi, Davide
Baffo, Ilaria
Brienza, Daniele
Campana, Riccardo
Campamaggiore, Valerio
Centrone, Mauro
Costa, Enrico
Cucinella, Giovanni
Curatolo, Andrea
De Cesare, Giovanni
de Iulis, Giulia
Del Monte, Ettore
Del Re, Andrea
Di Cosimo, Sergio
Di Filippo, Simone
Di Persio, Giuseppe
Donnarumma, Immacolata
Fabiani, Sergio
Fanelli, Pierluigi
Gagliardi, Nicolas
Kumar, Abhay
Lacerenza, Alessandro
Leonetti, Paolo
Loffredo, Pasqualino
Lombardi, Giovanni
Mergè, Matteo
Minervini, Gabriele
Modenini, Dario
Muleri, Fabio
Negri, Andrea
Pecorella, Daniele
Perelli, Massimo
Ponti, Alice
Romano, Paolo
Rubini, Alda
Scalise, Emanuele
Silva, Enrico
Soffitta, Paolo
Tortora, Paolo
Turchi, Alessandro
Vagelli, Valerio
Zaccagnino, Emanuele
Zambardi, Alessandro
Zazza, Costantino
author_facet De Angelis, Nicolas
Alimenti, Andrea
Albanesi, Davide
Baffo, Ilaria
Brienza, Daniele
Campana, Riccardo
Campamaggiore, Valerio
Centrone, Mauro
Costa, Enrico
Cucinella, Giovanni
Curatolo, Andrea
De Cesare, Giovanni
de Iulis, Giulia
Del Monte, Ettore
Del Re, Andrea
Di Cosimo, Sergio
Di Filippo, Simone
Di Persio, Giuseppe
Donnarumma, Immacolata
Fabiani, Sergio
Fanelli, Pierluigi
Gagliardi, Nicolas
Kumar, Abhay
Lacerenza, Alessandro
Leonetti, Paolo
Loffredo, Pasqualino
Lombardi, Giovanni
Mergè, Matteo
Minervini, Gabriele
Modenini, Dario
Muleri, Fabio
Negri, Andrea
Pecorella, Daniele
Perelli, Massimo
Ponti, Alice
Romano, Paolo
Rubini, Alda
Scalise, Emanuele
Silva, Enrico
Soffitta, Paolo
Tortora, Paolo
Turchi, Alessandro
Vagelli, Valerio
Zaccagnino, Emanuele
Zambardi, Alessandro
Zazza, Costantino
contents The CUbesat Solar Polarimeter (CUSP) project is a CubeSat mission planned for a launch in low-Earth orbit and aimed to measure the linear polarization of solar flares in the hard X-ray band by means of a Compton scattering polarimeter. CUSP will allow us to study the magnetic reconnection and particle acceleration in the flaring magnetic structures of our star. CUSP is a project in the framework of the Alcor Program of the Italian Space Agency aimed at developing new CubeSat missions. It is undergoing a 12-month Phase B that started in December 2024. The Compton polarimeter on board CUSP is composed of two acquisition chains based on plastic scintillators read out by Multi-Anode PhotoMultiplier Tubes for the scatterer part and GAGG crystals coupled to Avalanche PhotoDiodes for the absorbers. An event coincident between the two readout schemes will lead to a measurement of the incoming X-ray's azimuthal scattering angle, linked to the polarization of the solar flare in a statistical manner. The current status of the CUSP mission design, mission analysis, and payload scientific performance will be reported. The latter will be discussed based on preliminary laboratory results obtained in parallel with Geant4 simulations.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_13104
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Solar Flare Hard X-ray Polarimetry with the CUbesat Solar Polarimeter (CUSP) mission
De Angelis, Nicolas
Alimenti, Andrea
Albanesi, Davide
Baffo, Ilaria
Brienza, Daniele
Campana, Riccardo
Campamaggiore, Valerio
Centrone, Mauro
Costa, Enrico
Cucinella, Giovanni
Curatolo, Andrea
De Cesare, Giovanni
de Iulis, Giulia
Del Monte, Ettore
Del Re, Andrea
Di Cosimo, Sergio
Di Filippo, Simone
Di Persio, Giuseppe
Donnarumma, Immacolata
Fabiani, Sergio
Fanelli, Pierluigi
Gagliardi, Nicolas
Kumar, Abhay
Lacerenza, Alessandro
Leonetti, Paolo
Loffredo, Pasqualino
Lombardi, Giovanni
Mergè, Matteo
Minervini, Gabriele
Modenini, Dario
Muleri, Fabio
Negri, Andrea
Pecorella, Daniele
Perelli, Massimo
Ponti, Alice
Romano, Paolo
Rubini, Alda
Scalise, Emanuele
Silva, Enrico
Soffitta, Paolo
Tortora, Paolo
Turchi, Alessandro
Vagelli, Valerio
Zaccagnino, Emanuele
Zambardi, Alessandro
Zazza, Costantino
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Space Physics
The CUbesat Solar Polarimeter (CUSP) project is a CubeSat mission planned for a launch in low-Earth orbit and aimed to measure the linear polarization of solar flares in the hard X-ray band by means of a Compton scattering polarimeter. CUSP will allow us to study the magnetic reconnection and particle acceleration in the flaring magnetic structures of our star. CUSP is a project in the framework of the Alcor Program of the Italian Space Agency aimed at developing new CubeSat missions. It is undergoing a 12-month Phase B that started in December 2024. The Compton polarimeter on board CUSP is composed of two acquisition chains based on plastic scintillators read out by Multi-Anode PhotoMultiplier Tubes for the scatterer part and GAGG crystals coupled to Avalanche PhotoDiodes for the absorbers. An event coincident between the two readout schemes will lead to a measurement of the incoming X-ray's azimuthal scattering angle, linked to the polarization of the solar flare in a statistical manner. The current status of the CUSP mission design, mission analysis, and payload scientific performance will be reported. The latter will be discussed based on preliminary laboratory results obtained in parallel with Geant4 simulations.
title Solar Flare Hard X-ray Polarimetry with the CUbesat Solar Polarimeter (CUSP) mission
topic Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Space Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.13104