An observation-simulation and analysis framework for the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE)

We present a new simulation framework, based on the Python programming language and specifically developed for the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) mission. Starting from an arbitrary source model (including morphological, temporal, spectral and polarimetric information), this framework uses the instrument response functions to produce fast and realistic observation-simulations. The generated event lists can be directly fed into the standard X-ray visualization and analysis tools, including XSPEC—which make this framework a useful tool not only for simulating observations of astronomical sources, but also to develop and test end-to-end analysis chains. We will give an overview of the basic architecture of the software and we will present a few physically interesting case studies in the context of the IXPE mission.