Fabian Kislat

Research Assistant Professor of Physics
PHD, HUMBOLDT UNIVERSITY - BERLIN
MSC, HUMBOLDT UNIVERSITY - BERLIN
research interests:
  • Astroparticle Physics
  • Cosmic Rays
  • X-ray Polarimetry
  • Gamma-ray Polarimetry
  • Monte Carlo Simulations

contact info:

mailing address:

  • WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
  • DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS
  • CB 1105
  • ONE BROOKINGS DR.
  • ST. LOUIS, MO 63130

Fabian Kislat develops detectors for x-ray and gamma-ray polarimetry in the field of experimental astroparticle physics.

Kislat continues to make major contributions to the development of the balloon-borne x-ray polarimeter X-Calibur. The instrument is scheduled for launch in the 2018/19 Antarctic summer season for a long-duration flight from McMurdo, Antarctica. X-ray polarimetry promises to provide geometrical information about objects that are too small to be spatially resolved.

Kislat uses astrophysical observations to test fundamental laws of physics, such as Lorentz and CPT invariance. Signatures of Lorentz violation include an energy and polarization dependence of the speed of light in vacuum. The energy dependence can be constrained by measurements of the arrival time of high-energy photons in instruments such as the Fermi Large Area Telescope, and polarization measurements, not only of x-rays, but also in the optical band can be used to constrain vacuum birefringence. Vacuum birefringence may also occur in very strong magnetic fields, an effect that is predicted by quantum electrodynamics. Broadband x-ray polarization measurements of accretion-powered pulsars provide a very clear signature of this effect due to an interplay of plasma and vacuum effects in the emission region. X-Calibur or a follow-up space-based mission would be ideally suited to provide the first test of this prediction of QED.

Selected Recent Publications

Planck-scale constraints on anisotropic Lorentz and CPT invariance violations from optical polarization measurements, Kislat, F. and Krawczynski, H., 2017, Phys. Rev. D 95, 083013.

Design of the Telescope Truss and Gondola for the Balloon-Borne X-ray Polarimeter X-Calibur, Kislat, F. et al., 2017, J. Astron. Instrum. 6, 1740003.

X-ray polarimetry with the Polarization Spectroscopic Telescope Array (PolSTAR), Krawczynski, H. et al., 2016, Astropart. Phys. 75, 8.

Search for anisotropic Lorentz invariance violation with γ-rays, Kislat, F. and Krawczynski, H., 2015, Phys. Rev. D 92, 045016.

Analyzing the Data from X-ray Polarimeters with Stokes Parameters, Kislat, F., Clark, B., Beilicke, M., Krawczynski, H., 2015, Astroparticle Physics, Volume 68, 45.

All-particle cosmic ray energy spectrum measured with 26 IceTop stations, Abbasi, R. et al. (IceCube Collaboration), 2013, Astropart. Phys. 44, 40.

IceTop: The Surface Component of IceCube, Abbasi, R. et al. (IceCube Collaboration), 2013, NIM A700, 188.

Complete publications list