Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Oxford University Press  

We present data preprocessing based on an artificial neural network to estimate the parameters of the X-ray emission spectra of a single-temperature thermal plasma. The method finds appropriate parameters close to the global optimum. The neural network is designed to learn the parameters of the thermal plasma (temperature, abundance, normalization and redshift) of the input spectra. After training using 9000 simulated X-ray spectra, the network has grown to predict all the unknown parameters with uncertainties of about a fewper cent. The performance dependence on the network structure has been studied. We applied the neural network to an actual high-resolution spectrum obtained with Hitomi. The predicted plasma parameters agree with the known best-fitting parameters of the Perseus cluster within uncertainties of ≲10 per cent. The result shows that neural networks trained by simulated data might possibly be used to extract a feature built in the data. This would reduce human-intensive preprocessing costs before detailed spectral analysis, and would help us make the best use of the large quantities of spectral data that will be available in the coming decades.

DOI： 10.1093/mnras/sty161

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Springer New York LLC  

The X-ray Astronomy Recovery Mission (XARM) is a recovery mission of ASTRO-H/Hitomi, which is expected to be launched in Japanese Fiscal Year of 2020 at the earliest. The Resolve instrument on XARM consists of an array of 6 × 6 silicon-thermistor microcalorimeters cooled down to 50 mK and a high-throughput X-ray mirror assembly with the focal length of 5.6 m. Hitomi was launched into orbit in February 2016 and observed several celestial objects, although the operation of Hitomi was terminated in April 2016. The soft X-ray spectrometer (SXS) on Hitomi demonstrated high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy of ~ 5 eV FWHM in orbit for most of the pixels. The Resolve instrument is planned to mostly be a copy of the Hitomi SXS and soft X-ray telescope designs, though several changes are planned based on the lessons learned from Hitomi. We report a brief summary of the SXS performance and the status of the Resolve instrument.

DOI： 10.1007/s10909-018-1913-4

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

© The Authors. The Hitomi (ASTRO-H) mission is the sixth Japanese x-ray astronomy satellite developed by a large international collaboration, including Japan, USA, Canada, and Europe. The mission aimed to provide the highest energy resolution ever achieved at E > 2 keV, using a microcalorimeter instrument, and to cover a wide energy range spanning four decades in energy from soft x-rays to gamma rays. After a successful launch on February 17, 2016, the spacecraft lost its function on March 26, 2016, but the commissioning phase for about a month provided valuable information on the onboard instruments and the spacecraft system, including astrophysical results obtained from first light observations. The paper describes the Hitomi (ASTRO-H) mission, its capabilities, the initial operation, and the instruments/spacecraft performances confirmed during the commissioning operations for about a month.

DOI： 10.1117/1.JATIS.4.2.021402

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：SPIE  

Hitomi (ASTRO-H) was the sixth Japanese X-ray satellite that carried instruments with exquisite energy resolution of &lt
7 eV and broad energy coverage of 0.3 to 600 keV. The Soft Gamma-ray Detector (SGD) was the Hitomi instrument that observed the highest energy band (60 to 600 keV). The SGD design achieves a low background level by combining active shields and Compton cameras where Compton kinematics is utilized to reject backgrounds coming from outside of the field of view. A compact and highly efficient Compton camera is realized using a combination of silicon and cadmium telluride semiconductor sensors with a good energy resolution. Compton kinematics also carries information for gamma-ray polarization, making the SGD an excellent polarimeter. Following several years of development, the satellite was successfully launched on February 17, 2016. After proper functionality of the SGD components were verified, the nominal observation mode was initiated on March 24, 2016. The SGD observed the Crab Nebula for approximately two hours before the spacecraft ceased to function on March 26, 2016. We present concepts of the SGD design followed by detailed description of the instrument and its performance measured on ground and in orbit.

DOI： 10.1117/1.JATIS.4.2.021411

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Oxford University Press (OUP)  

DOI： 10.1093/pasj/psx154

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Oxford University Press (OUP)  

DOI： 10.1093/pasj/psx151

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

© The Author(s) 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Astronomical Society of Japan. To search for giant X-ray pulses correlated with the giant radio pulses (GRPs) from the Crab pulsar, we performed a simultaneous observation of the Crab pulsar with the X-ray satellite Hitomi in the 2-300 keV band and the Kashima NICT radio telescope in the 1.4-1.7 GHz band with a net exposure of about 2 ks on 2016 March 25, just before the loss of the Hitomi mission. The timing performance of the Hitomi instruments was confirmed to meet the timing requirement and about 1000 and 100 GRPs were simultaneously observed at the main pulse and inter-pulse phases, respectively, and we found no apparent correlation between the giant radio pulses and the X-ray emission in either the main pulse or inter-pulse phase. All variations are within the 2 σ fluctuations of the X-ray fluxes at the pulse peaks, and the 3 σ upper limits of variations of main pulse or inter-pulse GRPs are 22% or 80% of the peak flux in a 0.20 phase width, respectively, in the 2-300 keV band. The values for main pulse or inter-pulse GRPs become 25% or 110%, respectively, when the phase width is restricted to the 0.03 phase. Among the upper limits from the Hitomi satellite, those in the 4.5-10 keV and 70-300 keV bands are obtained for the first time, and those in other bands are consistent with previous reports. Numerically, the upper limits of the main pulse and inter-pulse GRPs in the 0.20 phase width are about (2.4 and 9.3) × 10−11 erg cm−2, respectively. No significant variability in pulse profiles implies that the GRPs originated from a local place within the magnetosphere. Although the number of photon-emitting particles should temporarily increase to account for the brightening of the radio emission, the results do not statistically rule out variations correlated with the GRPs, because the possible X-ray enhancement may appear due to a >0.02% brightening of the pulse-peak flux under such conditions.

DOI： 10.1093/pasj/psx083

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Oxford University Press (OUP)  

DOI： 10.1093/pasj/psx072

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Oxford University Press (OUP)  

DOI： 10.1093/pasj/psx147

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Oxford University Press (OUP)  

DOI： 10.1093/pasj/psx156

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Oxford University Press (OUP)  

DOI： 10.1093/pasj/psy004

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Oxford University Press (OUP)  

DOI： 10.1093/pasj/psx127

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Oxford University Press (OUP)  

DOI： 10.1093/pasj/psx138

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DOI： 10.1016/j.nima.2018.08.039

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Oxford University Press  

We present a joint X-ray, optical, and weak-lensing analysis for X-ray luminous galaxy clusters selected from the MCXC (Meta-Catalog of X-Ray Detected Clusters of Galaxies) cluster catalog in the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program (HSC-SSP) survey field with S16A data. As a pilot study for a series of papers, we measure hydrostatic equilibrium (HE) masses using XMM-Newton data for four clusters in the current coverage area out of a sample of 22 MCXC clusters. We additionally analyze a non-MCXC cluster associated with one MCXC cluster. We show that HE masses for the MCXC clusters are correlated with cluster richness from the CAMIRA catalog, while that for the non-MCXC cluster deviates from the scaling relation. The mass normalization of the relationship between cluster richness and HE mass is compatible with one inferred by matching CAMIRA cluster abundance with a theoretical halo mass function. The mean gas mass fraction based on HE masses for the MCXC clusters is (fgas) = 0.125 ± 0.012 at spherical overdensity Δ = 500, which is ∼80%-90% of the cosmic mean baryon fraction, Ωb/Ωm,measured by cosmicmicrowave background experiments. We find that themean baryon fraction estimated from X-ray and HSC-SSP optical data is comparable to Ωb/Ωm. A weak-lensing shear catalog of background galaxies, combined with photometric redshifts, is currently available only for three clusters in our sample. Hydrostatic equilibrium masses roughly agree with weak-lensing masses, albeit with large uncertainty. This study demonstrates that further multi wave length study for a large sample of clusters using X-ray, HSC-SSP optical, and weak-lensing data will enable us to understand cluster physics and utilize cluster-based cosmology.

DOI： 10.1093/pasj/psx132

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：SPIE-INT SOC OPTICAL ENGINEERING  

The ASTRO-H mission was designed and developed through an international collaboration of JAXA, NASA, ESA, and the CSA. It was successfully launched on February 17, 2016, and then named Hitomi. During the in-orbit verification phase, the on-board observational instruments functioned as expected. The intricate coolant and refrigeration systems for soft X-ray spectrometer (SXS, a quantum micro-calorimeter) and soft X-ray imager (SXI, an X-ray CCD) also functioned as expected. However, on March 26, 2016, operations were prematurely terminated by a series of abnormal events and mishaps triggered by the attitude control system. These errors led to a fatal event: the loss of the solar panels on the Hitomi mission. The X-ray Astronomy Recovery Mission (or, XARM) is proposed to regain the key scientific advances anticipated by the international collaboration behind Hitomi. XARM will recover this science in the shortest time possible by focusing on one of the main science goals of Hitomi, "Resolving astrophysical problems by precise high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy".(1) This decision was reached after evaluating the performance of the instruments aboard Hitomi and the mission's initial scientific results, and considering the landscape of planned international X-ray astrophysics missions in 2020's and 2030's.Hitomi opened the door to high-resolution spectroscopy in the X-ray universe. It revealed a number of discrepancies between new observational results and prior theoretical predictions. Yet, the resolution pioneered by Hitomi is also the key to answering these and other fundamental questions. The high spectral resolution realized by XARM will not offer mere refinements; rather, it will enable qualitative leaps in astrophysics and plasma physics. XARM has therefore been given a broad scientific charge: "Revealing material circulation and energy transfer in cosmic plasmas and elucidating evolution of cosmic structures and objects". To fulfill this charge, four categories of science objectives that were defined for Hitomi will also be pursued by XARM; these include (1) Structure formation of the Universe and evolution of clusters of galaxies; (2) Circulation history of baryonic matters in the Universe; (3) Transport and circulation of energy in the Universe; (4) New science with unprecedented high resolution X-ray spectroscopy. In order to achieve these scientific objectives, XARM will carry a 6 x 6 pixelized X-ray micro-calorimeter on the focal plane of an X-ray mirror assembly, and an aligned X-ray CCD camera covering the same energy band and a wider field of view. This paper introduces the science objectives, mission concept, and observing plan of XARM.

DOI： 10.1117/12.2309455

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP  

The metal abundance of the hot plasma that permeates galaxy clusters represents the accumulation of heavy elements produced by billions of supernovae(1). Therefore, X-ray spectroscopy of the intracluster medium provides an opportunity to investigate the nature of supernova explosions integrated over cosmic time. In particular, the abundance of the iron-peak elements (chromium, manganese, iron and nickel) is key to understanding how the progenitors of typical type Ia supernovae evolve and explode(2-6). Recent X-ray studies of the intracluster medium found that the abundance ratios of these elements differ substantially from those seen in the Sun(7-11), suggesting differences between the nature of type Ia supernovae in the clusters and in the Milky Way. However, because the K-shell transition lines of chromium and manganese are weak and those of iron and nickel are very close in photon energy, highresolution spectroscopy is required for an accurate determination of the abundances of these elements. Here we report observations of the Perseus cluster, with statistically significant detections of the resonance emission from chromium, manganese and nickel. Our measurements, combined with the latest atomic models, reveal that these elements have near-solar abundance ratios with respect to iron, in contrast to previous claims. Comparison between our results and modern nucleosynthesis calculations(12-14) disfavours the hypothesis that type Ia supernova progenitors are exclusively white dwarfs with masses well below the Chandrasekhar limit (about 1.4 times the mass of the Sun). The observed abundance pattern of the iron-peak elements can be explained by taking into account a combination of near-and sub-Chandrasekhar-mass type Ia supernova systems, adding to the mounting evidence that both progenitor types make a substantial contribution to cosmic chemical enrichment(5,15,16).

DOI： 10.1038/nature24301

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：OXFORD UNIV PRESS  

The microphysical properties, such as effective viscosity and conductivity, of the weakly magnetized intergalactic plasma are not yet well known. We investigate the constraints that can be placed by an azimuthally resolved study of the cold front in Abell 3667 using similar to 500 ks archival Chandra data. We find that the radius of the interface fluctuates with position angle and the morphology of the interface is strikingly similar to recent numerical simulations of inviscid gas-stripping. We find multiple edges in the surface brightness profiles across the cold front as well as azimuthal variations, which are consistent with the presence of Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities (KHIs) developing along the cold front. They indicate that the characteristic length-scale of KHI rolls is around 20-80 kpc. This is the first observational indication of developing KHIs along a merger cold front in a galaxy cluster. Based on the KHI scenario, we estimated the upper limit of the intracluster medium effective viscosity. The estimated value of mu less than or similar to 200 g cm(-1) s(-1) is at most 5 per cent of the isotropic Spitzer-like viscosity. The observed apparent mixing towards the outer edges away from the tip of the front provides an additional evidence for suppressed viscosity.

DOI： 10.1093/mnras/stx280

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：IOP PUBLISHING LTD  

X-ray spectroscopy with Hitomi was expected to resolve the origin of the faint unidentified E approximate to 3.5 keV emission line reported in several low-resolution studies of various massive systems, such as galaxies and clusters, including the Perseus cluster. We have analyzed the Hitomi first-light observation of the Perseus cluster. The emission line expected for Perseus based on the XMM-Newton signal from the large cluster sample under the dark matter decay scenario is too faint to be detectable in the Hitomi data. However, the previously reported 3.5 keV flux from Perseus was anomalously high compared to the sample-based prediction. We find no unidentified line at the reported high flux level. Taking into account the XMM measurement uncertainties for this region, the inconsistency with Hitomi is at a 99% significance for a broad dark matter line and at 99.7% for a narrow line from the gas. We do not find anomalously high fluxes of the nearby faint K line or the Ar satellite line that were proposed as explanations for the earlier 3.5 keV detections. We do find a hint of a broad excess near the energies of high-n transitions of S XVI (E similar or equal to 3.44 keV rest-frame)-a possible signature of charge exchange in the molecular nebula and another proposed explanation for the unidentified line. While its energy is consistent with XMM pn detections, it is unlikely to explain the MOS signal. A confirmation of this interesting feature has to wait for a more sensitive observation with a future calorimeter experiment.

DOI： 10.3847/2041-8213/aa61fa

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

DOI： 10.1109/TASC.2016.2646374

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV  

Gamma-ray polarization offers a unique probe into the geometry of the y-ray emission process in celestial objects. The Soft Gamma-ray Detector (SGD) onboard the X-ray observatory Hitomi is a SVCdTe Compton camera and is expected to be an excellent polarimeter, as well as a highly sensitive spectrometer due to its good angular coverage and resolution for Compton scattering. A beam test of the final-prototype for the SGD Compton camera was conducted to demonstrate its polarimetric capability and to verify and calibrate the Monte Carlo simulation of the instrument. The modulation factor of the SGD prototype camera, evaluated for the inner and outer parts of the CdTe sensors as absorbers, was measured to be 0.649-0.701 (inner part) and 0.637-0.653 (outer part) at 122.2 keV and 0.610-0.651 (inner part) and 0.564-0.592 (outer part) at 194.5 keV at varying polarization angles with respect to the detector. This indicates that the relative systematic uncertainty of the modulation factor is as small as similar to 3%.

DOI： 10.1016/j.nima.2016.09.057

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV  

The hard X-ray Imager and Soft Gamma-ray Detector onboard ASTRO-H demonstrate high sensitivity to hard X-ray (5-80 keV) and soft gamma-rays (60-600 keV), respectively. To reduce the background, both instruments are actively shielded by large, thick Bismuth Germanate scintillators. We have developed the signal processing system of the avalanche photodiode in the BGO active shields and have demonstrated its effectiveness after assembly in the flight model of the HXI/SGD sensor and after integration into the satellite. The energy threshold achieved is about 150 keV and anti-coincidence efficiency for cosmic -ray events is almost 100%. Installed in the BGO active shield, the developed signal processing system successfully reduces the room background level of the main detector. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

DOI： 10.1016/j.nima.2016.04.063

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：OXFORD UNIV PRESS  

We present the results of new Suzaku observations of the Coma Cluster, the X-ray brightest, nearby, merging system hosting a well-studied, typical giant radio halo. It has been previously shown that, on the western side of the cluster, the radio brightness shows a much steeper gradient compared to other azimuths. XMM-Newton and Planck revealed a shock front along the southern half of the region associated with this steep radio gradient, suggesting that the radio emission is enhanced by particle acceleration associated with the shock passage. Suzaku demonstrates for the first time that this shock front extends northwards, tracing the entire length of the western edge of the Coma radio halo. The shock is detected both in the temperature and X-ray surface brightness distributions and has a Mach number of around M similar to 1.5. The locations of the surface brightness edges align well with the edge of the radio emission, while the obtained temperature profiles seem to suggest shocks located 125-185 kpc further out in radius. In addition, the shock strengths derived from the temperature and density jumps are in agreement when using extraction regions parallel to the radio halo edge, but become inconsistent with each other when derived from radial profiles centered on the Coma Cluster core. It is likely that, beyond mere projection effects, the geometry of the shock is more complex than a front with a single, uniform Mach number and an approximately spherically symmetric shape.

DOI： 10.1093/pasj/psv126

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Language：English   Publishing type：Doctoral thesis  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：OXFORD UNIV PRESS  

We present the results of a very deep (500 ks) Chandra observation, along with tailored numerical simulations, of the nearest, best resolved cluster cold front in the sky, which lies 90 kpc (19 arcmin) to the north-west of M87. The northern part of the front appears the sharpest, with a width smaller than 2.5 kpc (1.5 Coulomb mean free paths; at 99 per cent confidence). Everywhere along the front, the temperature discontinuity is narrower than 4-8 kpc and the metallicity gradient is narrower than 6 kpc, indicating that diffusion, conduction and mixing are suppressed across the interface. Such transport processes can be naturally suppressed by magnetic fields aligned with the cold front. Interestingly, comparison to magnetohydrodynamic simulations indicates that in order to maintain the observed sharp density and temperature discontinuities, conduction must also be suppressed along the magnetic field lines. However, the northwestern part of the cold front is observed to have a non-zero width. While other explanations are possible, the broadening is consistent with the presence of Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities (KHI) on length-scales of a few kpc. Based on comparison with simulations, the presence of KHI would imply that the effective viscosity of the intracluster medium is suppressed by more than an order of magnitude with respect to the isotropic Spitzer-like temperature dependent viscosity. Underneath the cold front, we observe quasi-linear features that are similar to 10 per cent brighter than the surrounding gas and are separated by similar to 15 kpc from each other in projection. Comparison to tailored numerical simulations suggests that the observed phenomena may be due to the amplification of magnetic fields by gas sloshing in wide layers below the cold front, where the magnetic pressure reaches similar to 5-10 per cent of the thermal pressure, reducing the gas density between the bright features.

DOI： 10.1093/mnras/stv2358

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：IOP PUBLISHING LTD  

A recent Chandra observation of the nearby galaxy cluster Abell 585 has led to the discovery of an extended X-ray jet associated with the high-redshift background quasar B3 0727+ 409, a luminous radio source at redshift z = 2.5. This is one of only few examples of high-redshift X-ray jets known to date. It has a clear extension of about 12", corresponding to a projected length of similar to 100 kpc, with a possible hot spot located 35" from the quasar. The archival high resolution Very Large Array maps surprisingly reveal no extended jet emission, except for one knot about 1"4 from the quasar. The high X-ray to radio luminosity ratio for this source appears consistent with the alpha(1 + z)(4) amplification expected from the inverse Compton radiative model. This serendipitous discovery may signal the existence of an entire population of similar systems with bright X-ray and faint radio jets at high redshift, a selection bias that must be accounted for when drawing any conclusions about the redshift evolution of jet properties and indeed about the cosmological evolution of supermassive black holes and active galactic nuclei in general.

DOI： 10.3847/2041-8205/816/1/L15

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV  

The Soft Gamma-ray Detector (SGD), to be deployed on board the ASTRO-H satellite, has been developed to provide the highest sensitivity observations of celestial sources in the energy band of 60-600 keV by employing a detector concept which uses a Compton camera whose field-of-view is restricted by a EGO shield to a few degree (narrow-FOV Compton camera). In this concept, the background from outside the FOV can be heavily suppressed by constraining the incident direction of the gamma ray reconstructed by the Compton camera to be consistent with the narrow FOV. We, for the first time, demonstrate the validity of the concept using background data taken during the thermal vacuum test and the low-temperature environment test of the flight model of SGD on ground. We show that the measured background level is suppressed to less than 10% by combining the event rejection using the anti-coincidence trigger of the active EGO shield and by using Compton event reconstruction techniques. More than 75% of the signals from the field-of-view are retained against the background rejection, which clearly demonstrates the improvement of signal-to-noise ratio. The estimated effective area of 22.8 cm(2) meets the mission requirement even though not all of the operational parameters of the instrument have been fully optimized yet. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

DOI： 10.1016/j.nima.2015.09.081

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：SPIE-INT SOC OPTICAL ENGINEERING  

The Soft Gamma-ray Detector (SGD) is one of science instruments onboard ASTRO-H (Hitomi) and features a wide energy band of 60-600 keV with low backgrounds. SGD is an instrument with a novel concept of "Narrow field-of-view" Compton camera where Compton kinematics is utilized to reject backgrounds which are inconsistent with the field-of-view defined by the active shield. After several years of developments, the flight hardware was fabricated and subjected to subsystem tests and satellite system tests. After a successful ASTRO-H (Hitomi) launch on February 17, 2016 and a critical phase operation of satellite and SGD in-orbit commissioning, the SGD operation was moved to the nominal observation mode on March 24, 2016. The Compton cameras and BGO-APD shields of SGD worked properly as designed. On March 25, 2016, the Crab nebula observation was performed, and, the observation data was successfully obtained.

DOI： 10.1117/12.2231962

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)  

© 2016 SPIE. The Hitomi (ASTRO-H) mission is the sixth Japanese X-ray astronomy satellite developed by a large international collaboration, including Japan, USA, Canada, and Europe. The mission aimed to provide the highest energy resolution ever achieved at E > 2 keV, using a microcalorimeter instrument, and to cover a wide energy range spanning four decades in energy from soft X-rays to gamma-rays. After a successful launch on 2016 February 17, the spacecraft lost its function on 2016 March 26, but the commissioning phase for about a month provided valuable information on the on-board instruments and the spacecraft system, including astrophysical results obtained from first light observations. The paper describes the Hitomi (ASTRO-H) mission, its capabilities, the initial operation, and the instruments/spacecraft performances confirmed during the commissioning operations for about a month.

DOI： 10.1117/12.2232379

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：IOP PUBLISHING LTD  

We present the first measurements of the abundances of a-elements (Mg, Si, and S) extending out beyond the virial radius of a cluster of galaxies. Our results, based on Suzaku Key Project observations of the Virgo Cluster, show that the chemical composition of the intracluster medium is consistent with being constant on large scales, with a flat distribution of the Si/Fe, S/Fe, and Mg/Fe ratios as a function of radius and azimuth out to 1.4 Mpc (1.3 r(200)). Chemical enrichment of the intergalactic medium due solely to core-collapse supernovae (SNcc) is excluded with very high significance; instead, the measured metal abundance ratios are generally consistent with the solar value. The uniform metal abundance ratios observed today are likely the result of an early phase of enrichment and mixing, with both SNcc and SNe Ia contributing to the metal budget during the period of peak star formation activity at redshifts of 2-3. We estimate the ratio between the number of SNe Ia and the total number of supernovae enriching the intergalactic medium to be between 12% and 37%, broadly consistent with the metal abundance patterns in our own Galaxy or with the SN Ia contribution estimated for the cluster cores.

DOI： 10.1088/2041-8205/811/2/L25

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：OXFORD UNIV PRESS  

While the X-ray, GeV gamma-ray, and TeV gamma-ray skies have been extensively studied, the MeV gamma-ray sky has not yet been well investigated since the Imaging Compton Telescope (COMPTEL) scanned the sky about two decades ago. In this paper, we investigate the prospects for active galactic nuclei population studies with future MeV gamma-ray missions using recent spectral models and luminosity functions of Seyferts and flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs). Both of them are plausible candidates for the origins of the cosmic MeV gamma-ray background. If the cosmic MeV gamma-ray background radiation is dominated by non-thermal emission from Seyferts, a sensitivity of 10(-12) erg cm(-2) s(-1) is required to detect several hundred Seyferts in the entire sky. If FSRQs make up the cosmic MeV gamma-ray background, a sensitivity of similar to 4x10(-12) erg cm(-2) s(-1) is required to detect several hundred FSRQs following the recent FSRQ X-ray luminosity function. However, based on the latest FSRQ gamma-ray luminosity function, with which FSRQs can explain up to similar to 30% of the MeV background, we can expect several hundred FSRQs even with a sensitivity of 10(-11) erg cm(-2) s(-1), which is almost the same as the sensitivity goal of the next-generation MeV telescopes.

DOI： 10.1093/pasj/psv043

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV  

Gamma-ray imagers with the potential for visualizing the distribution of radioactive materials are required in the fields of astrophysics, medicine, nuclear applications, and homeland security. Based on the technology of the Si/CdTe Compton camera, we have manufactured the first commercial Compton camera for practical use Through field tests in Fukushima, we demonstrated that the camera is capable of hot spot detection and the evaluation of radioactive decontamination. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

DOI： 10.1016/j.nima.2014.11.119

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：OXFORD UNIV PRESS  

We present the results of deep Chandra, XMM-Newton and Suzaku observations of the nearby galaxy cluster Abell 85, which is currently undergoing at least two mergers, and in addition shows evidence for gas sloshing which extends out to r approximate to 600 kpc. One of the two infalling subclusters, to the south of the main cluster centre, has a dense, X-ray bright cool core and a tail extending to the south-east. The northern edge of this tail is strikingly smooth and sharp (narrower than the Coulomb mean free path of the ambient gas) over a length of 200 kpc, while towards the south-west the boundary of the tail is blurred and bent, indicating a difference in the plasma transport properties between these two edges. The thermodynamic structure of the tail strongly supports an overall north-westward motion. We propose, that a sloshing-induced tangential, ambient, coherent gas flow is bending the tail eastwards. The brightest galaxy of this subcluster is at the leading edge of the dense core, and is trailed by the tail of stripped gas, suggesting that the cool core of the subcluster has been almost completely destroyed by the time it reached its current radius of r approximate to 500 kpc. The surface-brightness excess, likely associated with gas stripped from the infalling southern subcluster, extends towards the south-east out to at least r(500) of the main cluster, indicating that the stripping of infalling subclusters may seed gas inhomogeneities. The second merging subcluster appears to be a diffuse non-cool-core system. Its merger is likely supersonic with a Mach number of approximate to 1.4.

DOI： 10.1093/mnras/stv217

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV  

The Soft Gamma-ray Detector (SGD) is one of the instrument payloads onboard ASTRO-H, and will cover a wide energy band (60-600 key) at a background level 10 times better than instruments currently in orbit. The SGD achieves low background by combining a Compton camera scheme with a narrow field-of-view active shield. The Compton camera in the SGD is realized as a hybrid semiconductor detector system which consists of silicon and cadmium telluride (CcITe) sensors. The design of the SGD Compton camera has been finalized and the final prototype, which has the same configuration as the flight model, has been fabricated for performance evaluation. The Compton camera has overall dimensions of 12 cm x 12 cm x 12 cm, consisting of 32 layers of Si pixel sensors and 8 layers of CdTe pixel sensors surrounded by 2 layers of CcITe pixel sensors. The detection efficiency of the Compton camera reaches about 15% and 3% for 100 keV and 511 keV gamma rays, respectively. The pixel pitch of the Si and CdTe sensors is 3.2 mm, and the signals from all 13,312 pixels are processed by 208 ASlCs developed for the SGD. Good energy resolution is afforded by semiconductor sensors and low noise ASlCs, and the obtained energy resolutions with the prototype Si and CciTe pixel sensors are 1020 keV (RNHM) at 60 keV and 1.6-2.5 keY (RNHN1) at 122 keV, respectively. This results in good background rejection capability due to better constraints on Compton kinematics. Compton camera energy resolutions achieved with the final prototype are 6.3 keY (RNHN1) at 356 keV and 10.5 keV (ENVHM) at 662 keV, which satisfy the instrument requirements for the SGD Compton camera (better than 2%) Moreover, a low intrinsic background has been confirmed by the background measurement with the final prototype. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

DOI： 10.1016/j.nima.2014.05.127

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Language：English  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：SPIE-INT SOC OPTICAL ENGINEERING  

The Soft Gamma-ray Detector (SGD) is a Si/CdTe Compton telescope surrounded by a thick BGO active shield and is scheduled to be onboard the ASTRO-H satellite when it is launched in 2015. The SGD covers the energy range from 40 to 600 keV with high sensitivity, which allows us to study nonthermal phenomena in the universe. The SGD uses a Compton camera with the narrow field-of-view (FOV) concept to reduce the non-Xray background (NXB) and improve the sensitivity. Since the SGD is essentially a nonimaging instrument, it also has to cope with the cosmic X-ray background (CXB) within the FOV. The SGD adopts passive shields called "fine collimators" (FCs) to restrict the FOV to <= 0.6 degrees for low-energy photons (<= 100 keV), which reduces contamination from CXB to less than what is expected due to NXB. Although the FC concept was already adopted by the Hard X-ray Detector onboard Suzaku, FCs for the SGD are about four times larger in size and are technically more difficult to operate. We developed FCs for the SGD and confirmed that the prototypes function as required by subjecting them to an X-ray test and environmental tests, such as vibration tests. We also developed an autocollimator system, which uses visible light to determine the transmittance and the optical axis, and calibrated it against data from the X-ray test. The acceptance tests of flight models started in December 2013: five out of six FCs were deemed acceptable, and one more unit is currently being produced. The activation properties were studied based on a proton-beam test and the results were used to estimate the in-orbit NXB.

DOI： 10.1117/12.2054649

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：SPIE-INT SOC OPTICAL ENGINEERING  

Recent progress in wide field of view or all-sky observations such as Swift/BAT hard X-ray monitor and Fermi GeV gamma-ray observatory has opened up a new era of time-domain high energy astro-physics addressing new insight in, e.g., particle acceleration in the universe. MeV coverage with comparable sensitivity, i.e. 1 similar to 10 mCrab is missing and a new MeV all-sky observatory is needed. These new MeV mission tend to be large, power-consuming and hence expensive, and its realization is yet to come. A compact sub-MeV (0.2-2 MeV) all-sky mission is proposed as a path finder for such mission. It is based on a Si/CdTe semiconductor Compton telescope technology employed in the soft gamma-ray detector onboard ASTRO-H, to be launched in to orbit on late 2015. The mission is kept as small as 0.5 x 0.5 x 0.4 m(3), 150 kg in weight and 200 W in power in place of the band coverage above a few MeV, in favor of early realization as a sub-payload to other large platforms, such as the international space station.

DOI： 10.1117/12.2055422

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Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Master’s thesis  

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)  

DOI： 10.1109/NSSMIC.2013.6829409

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV  

We have developed a new Compton camera based on silicon (Si) and cadmium telluride (CdTe) semiconductor double-sided strip detectors (DSDs). The camera consists of a 500-mu m-thick Si-DSD and four layers of 750-mu m-thick CdTe-DSDs all of which have common electrode configuration segmented into 128 strips on each side with pitches of 250 mu m. In order to realize high angular resolution and to reduce size of the detector system, a stack of DSDs with short stack pitches of 4 mm is utilized to make the camera. Taking advantage of the excellent energy and position resolutions of the semiconductor devices, the camera achieves high angular resolutions of 4.5 degrees at 356 key and 3.5 degrees at 662 keV. To obtain such high resolutions together with an acceptable detection efficiency, we demonstrate data reduction methods including energy calibration using Compton scattering continuum and depth sensing in the CdTe-DSD. We also discuss imaging capability of the camera and show simultaneous multi-energy imaging. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

DOI： 10.1016/j.nima.2011.12.061

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV  

By using a new Compton camera consisting of a silicon double-sided strip detector (Si-DSD) and a CdTe double-sided strip detector (CdTe-DSD), originally developed for the ASTRO-H satellite mission, an experiment involving imaging radioisotopes was conducted to study their feasibility for hotspot monitoring. In addition to the hotspot imaging already provided by commercial imaging systems, identification of various radioisotopes is possible thanks to the good energy resolution obtained by the semiconductor detectors. Three radioisotopes of Ba-133 (356 keV), Na-22 (511 keV) and Cs-137 (662 keV) were individually imaged by applying event selection in the energy window and the gamma-ray images were correctly overlapped by an optical picture. Detection efficiency of 1.68 x10(-4) (effective area : 1.7 x10(-3) cm(2)) and angular resolution of 3.8 degrees were obtained by stacking five detector modules for a 662 keV gamma ray. The higher detection efficiency required in specific use can be achieved by stacking more detector modules. (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier B.V. Selection and/or peer review under responsibility of the organizing committee for TIPP 11.

DOI： 10.1016/j.phpro.2012.04.096

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：SPIE-INT SOC OPTICAL ENGINEERING  

The imaging and spectral performance of CdTe double-sided strip detectors (CdTe-DSDs) was evaluated for the ASTRO-H mission. The charcterized CdTe-DSDs have a strip pitch of 0.25 mm, an imaging area of 3.2 cm x 3.2 cm and a thickness of 0.75 mm. The detector was successfully operated at a temperature of -20 degrees C and with an applied bias voltage of 250 V. By using two-strip events as well as one-strip events for the event reconstruction, a good energy resolution of 2.0 keV at 59.5 keV and a sub-strip spatial resolution was achieved. The hard X-ray and gamma-ray response of CdTe-DSDs is complex due to the properties of CdTe and the small pixel effect. Therefore, one of the issues to investigate is the response of the CdTe-DSD. In order to investigate the spatial dependence of the detector response, we performed fine beam scan experiments at SPring-8, a synchrotron radiation facility. From these experiments, the depth structure of the electric field was determined as well as properties of carriers in the detector and successfully reproduced the experimental data with simulated spectra.

DOI： 10.1117/12.926052

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (international conference proceedings)   Publisher：SPIE-INT SOC OPTICAL ENGINEERING  

MeV and sub-MeV energy band from similar to 200 keV to similar to 2 MeV contains rich information of high-energy phenomena in the universe. The CAST (Compton Telescope for Astro and Solar Terrestrial) mission is planned to be launched at the end of 2010s, and aims at providing all-sky map in this energy-band for the first time. It is made of a semiconductor Compton telescope utilizing Si as a scatterer and CdTe as an absorber. CAST provides all-sky sub-MeV polarization map for the first time, as well. The Compton telescope technology is based on the design used in the Soft Gamma-ray Detector (SGD) onboard ASTRO-H, characterized by its tightly stacked semiconductor layers to obtain high Compton reconstruction efficiency. The CAST mission is currently planned as a candidate for the small scientific satellite series in ISAS/JAXA, weighting about 500 kg in total. Scalable detector design enables us to consider other options as well. Scientific outcome of CAST is wide. It will provide new information from high-energy sources, such as AGN and/or its jets, supernova remnants, magnetors, black-hole and neutron-star binaries and others. Polarization map will tell us about activities of jets and reflections in these sources, as well. In addition, CAST will simultaneously observe the Sun, and depending on its attitude, the Earth.

DOI： 10.1117/12.926164

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Language：English   Presentation type：Oral presentation (general)  

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Language：Japanese   Presentation type：Poster presentation  

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Language：English   Presentation type：Oral presentation (general)  

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Language：Japanese   Presentation type：Oral presentation (general)  

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Language：English   Presentation type：Oral presentation (general)  

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Language：English   Presentation type：Oral presentation (general)  

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Language：English   Presentation type：Oral presentation (general)  

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Language：English   Presentation type：Public lecture, seminar, tutorial, course, or other speech  

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Language：English   Presentation type：Oral presentation (general)  

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Language：Japanese   Presentation type：Oral presentation (invited, special)  

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Language：English   Presentation type：Poster presentation  

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Language：Japanese   Presentation type：Oral presentation (general)  

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Language：English   Presentation type：Oral presentation (invited, special)  

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Language：English   Presentation type：Poster presentation  

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Language：Japanese   Presentation type：Oral presentation (general)  

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Language：English   Presentation type：Poster presentation  

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