The Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) mission was launched on December 9, 2021 and has observed a number of galactic and extragalactic X-ray sources. I report here on the IXPE observations of the High Mass X-Ray Binary Cyg X-1. IXPE detected a strong 2-8 keV polarization signal constraining the origin of the X-ray emission and the configuration of matter close to the Cyg X-1 black hole. I will furthermore discuss the IXPE observations of the magnetar 4U 0142+61 and their interpretation.

BIO

Henric Krawczynski is the Wayman Crow Professor of Physics and the Chairperson of the Physics Department of Washington University in St. Louis.

He obtained his PhD in 1997 at the University of Hamburg. Following post-doctoral appointments at the Max Planck Institute of Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg (1997-2000), and at Yale University (2000-2002), he accepted a professorship at Washington University in St. Louis in 2002.