PolPy: A universal tool for X-ray/gamma-ray polarimetry using common data format standards
Abstract
X-ray/gamma-ray polarimetry has been a rapidly developing field in recent years. However, the lack of standardized analysis frameworks has hindered cross-instrument comparisons and joint multi-mission studies. To address this, we present PolPy, a universal tool designed for polarimetry of high-energy astrophysical transients. Built as a plugin for the Multi-Mission Maximum Likelihood (3ML) framework, PolPy introduces standardized data and response formats, common reference frames based on IAU conventions for defining polarization angles, and a robust likelihood-based template-matching algorithm. The article briefly describes these standards and presents tests and results performed to validate the software using simulated gamma-ray burst (GRB) injections across two different mission mass models: POLAR and Daksha. Our verification tests demonstrate that PolPy accurately recovers the injected polarization angles and fractions without systematic bias. Furthermore, we show that performing simultaneous joint fits across multiple detectors and instruments can significantly improve parameter constraints compared to single-instrument analyses. By unifying data formats and methodology, PolPy enables reliable joint polarimetric analysis for current and future high-energy polarimeters.
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BibTeX
@misc{mate2026polpy,
title = {{PolPy: A universal tool for X-ray/gamma-ray polarimetry using common data format standards}},
author = {Sujay Mate and Hancheng Li and Utkarsh Pathak and Yashowardhan Rai and Nicolas De Angelis and Varun Bhalerao and Merlin Kole},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2608.27775},
eprint = {2608.27775},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.27775},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - PolPy: A universal tool for X-ray/gamma-ray polarimetry using common data format standards
AU - Sujay Mate
AU - Hancheng Li
AU - Utkarsh Pathak
AU - Yashowardhan Rai
AU - Nicolas De Angelis
AU - Varun Bhalerao
AU - Merlin Kole
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/27
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2608.27775
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.27775
AB - X-ray/gamma-ray polarimetry has been a rapidly developing field in recent years. However, the lack of standardized analysis frameworks has hindered cross-instrument comparisons and joint multi-mission studies. To address this, we present PolPy, a universal tool designed for polarimetry of high-energy astrophysical transients. Built as a plugin for the Multi-Mission Maximum Likelihood (3ML) framework, PolPy introduces standardized data and response formats, common reference frames based on IAU conventions for defining polarization angles, and a robust likelihood-based template-matching algorithm. The article briefly describes these standards and presents tests and results performed to validate the software using simulated gamma-ray burst (GRB) injections across two different mission mass models: POLAR and Daksha. Our verification tests demonstrate that PolPy accurately recovers the injected polarization angles and fractions without systematic bias. Furthermore, we show that performing simultaneous joint fits across multiple detectors and instruments can significantly improve parameter constraints compared to single-instrument analyses. By unifying data formats and methodology, PolPy enables reliable joint polarimetric analysis for current and future high-energy polarimeters.
ER -