1. Origin of the in-orbit instrumental background of the Hard X-ray Imager onboard Hitomi
- Author
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Daniel Maier, Tadayuki Takahashi, Greg Madejski, Rie Sato, Masayuki Ohta, Yasunobu Uchiyama, Kunishiro Mori, Takaaki Tanaka, Shin'ichiro Takeda, Madoka Kawaharada, Kouichi Hagino, Kazutaka Yamaoka, Hirokazu Odaka, Shin Watanabe, Makoto Asai, Yoichi Yatsu, Toshio Nakano, Hiromitsu Takahashi, Shinya Saito, Francois Lebrun, Hiromasa Suzuki, Masanori Ohno, D. H. Wright, Hirofumi Noda, Katsuma Miyake, Yukikatsu Terada, Hideki Uchiyama, Motohide Kokubun, Olivier Limousin, Kazuhiro Nakazawa, Tsunefumi Mizuno, Takeshi Nakamori, Kazuo Makishima, Yasushi Fukazawa, Jun Kataoka, Tamotsu Sato, Hiroyasu Tajima, Tatsumi Koi, Shogo B. Kobayashi, Junichiro Katsuta, Teruaki Enoto, Takayuki Yuasa, Philippe Laurent, Hiroaki Murakami, Katsuhiro Hayashi, Goro Sato, Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA), AstroParticule et Cosmologie (APC (UMR_7164)), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules du CNRS (IN2P3)-Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Paris (UP), Astrophysique Interprétation Modélisation (AIM (UMR_7158 / UMR_E_9005 / UM_112)), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Paris Cité (UPCité), Astrophysique Interprétation Modélisation (AIM (UMR7158 / UMR_E_9005 / UM_112)), and Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
- Subjects
Monte Carlo method ,Shields ,FOS: Physical sciences ,01 natural sciences ,010309 optics ,Optics ,Stack (abstract data type) ,hard x-ray imager ,0103 physical sciences ,Neutron ,[PHYS.PHYS.PHYS-INS-DET]Physics [physics]/Physics [physics]/Instrumentation and Detectors [physics.ins-det] ,010303 astronomy & astrophysics ,Instrumentation ,Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM) ,ASTRO-H ,Physics ,business.industry ,background ,Mechanical Engineering ,Detector ,Astronomy and Astrophysics ,simulation ,Cadmium telluride photovoltaics ,Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials ,Hitomi ,Space and Planetary Science ,Control and Systems Engineering ,hard x-rays ,Satellite ,Atomic number ,Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics ,business - Abstract
Understanding and reducing the in-orbit instrumental backgrounds are essential to achieving high sensitivity in hard X-ray astronomical observations. The observational data of the Hard X-ray Imager (HXI) on board the Hitomi satellite provides useful information on the background components, owing to its multi-layer configuration with different atomic numbers: the HXI consists of a stack of four layers of Si (Z = 14) detectors and one layer of CdTe (Z = 48, 52) detector surrounded by well-type BGO (Bi4Ge3O12) active shields. Based on the observational data, the backgrounds of top Si layer, the three underlying Si layers, and the CdTe layer are inferred to be dominated by different components, namely, low-energy electrons, albedo neutrons, and proton-induced radioactivation, respectively. Monte Carlo simulations of the in-orbit background of the HXI reproduce the observed background spectrum of each layer well, thereby verifying the above hypothesis quantitatively. In addition, we suggest the inclusion of an electron shield to reduce the background., Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in JATIS
- Published
- 2020
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