  Polarization measurements in X-rays can provide unique opportunity to study
the behavior of matter and radiation under extreme magnetic fields and extreme
gravitational fields. Unfortunately, over past two decades, when X-ray
astronomy witnessed multiple order of magnitude improvement in temporal,
spatial and spectral sensitivities, there is no (or very little) progress in
the field of polarization measurements of astrophysical X-rays. Recently, a
proposal has been submitted to ISRO for a dedicated small satellite based
experiment to carry out X-ray polarization measurement, which aims to provide
the first X-ray polarization measurements since 1976. This experiment will be
based on the well known principle of polarization measurement by Thomson
scattering and employs the baseline design of a central low Z scatterer
surrounded by X-ray detectors to measure the angular intensity distribution of
the scattered X-rays. The sensitivity of such experiment is determined by the
collecting area, scattering and detection efficiency, X-ray detector
background, and the modulation factor. Therefore, it is necessary to carefully
select the scattering geometry which can provide the highest modulation factor
and thus highest sensitivity within the specified experimental constraints. The
effective way to determine optimum scattering geometry is by studying various
possible scattering geometries by means of Monte Carlo simulations. Here we
present results of our detailed comparative study based on Geant4 simulations
of five different scattering geometries which can be considered within the
weight and size constraints of the proposed small satellite based X-ray
polarization measurement experiment.
