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

Chandra X-ray observations of Kepler's supernova remnant indicate the existence of a high-speed Fe-rich ejecta structure in the southwestern region. We report strong K-shell emission from Fe-peak elements (Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni), as well as Ca, in this Fe-rich structure, implying that those elements could be produced in the inner area of the exploding white dwarf. We found Ca/Fe, Cr/Fe, Mn/Fe, and Ni/Fe mass ratios of 1.0%-4.1%, 1.0%-4.6%, 1%-11%, and 2%-30%, respectively. In order to constrain the burning regime that could produce this structure, we compared these observed mass ratios with those in 18 one-dimensional Type Ia nucleosynthesis models (including both near-MCh and sub-MCh explosion models). The observed mass ratios agree well with those around the middle layer of incomplete Si burning in Type Ia nucleosynthesis models with a peak temperature of similar to(5.0-5.3) x 10(9) K and a high metallicity, Z > 0.0225. Based on our results, we infer the necessity for some mechanism to produce protruding Fe-rich clumps dominated by incomplete Si-burning products during the explosion. We also discuss the future perspectives of X-ray observations of Fe-rich structures in other Type Ia supernova remnants.

DOI： 10.3847/1538-4357/ab6aa2

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Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

© 2019 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Astronomical Society of Japan. We present a concept for an X-ray imaging system with a high angular resolution and moderate sensitivity. In this concept, a two-dimensional detector, i.e., an imager, is put at a slightly out-of-focus position of the focusing mirror, rather than just at the mirror focus, as in the standard optics, to capture miniature images of objects. In addition, a set of multi-grid masks (or a modulation collimator) is installed in front of the telescope. We find that the masks work as a coded aperture camera and that they boost the angular resolution of the focusing optics. The major advantage of this concept is that a much better angular resolution, having an order of 2-3 or more than in the conventional optics, is achievable, while a high throughput (large effective area) is maintained, which is crucial in photon-limited high-energy astronomy, because any type of mirrors, including lightweight reflective mirrors, can be employed in our concept. If the signal-to-noise ratio is sufficiently high, we estimate that angular resolutions at the diffraction limit of 4″ and 0.″4 at ∼7 keV can be achieved with a pair of masks at distances of 1 m and 100 m, respectively.

DOI： 10.1093/pasj/psz081

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

Clumpy structures are a common feature in X-ray images of young Type Ia supernova remnants (SNRs). Although the precise origin of such clumps remains unclear, there are three generic possibilities: dumpiness imposed during the explosion, hydrodynamic instabilities that act during the remnant's evolution, and preexisting structures in the ambient medium. In this article we focus on discriminating between clumping distributions that arise from the explosion and those from the remnant's evolution using existing 3D hydrodynamical simulations. We utilize the genus statistic for this discrimination, applying it to the simulations and to Chandra X-ray observations of the wellknown SN Ia remnant of SN 1572 (Tycho's SNR). The genus curve of Tycho's SNR strongly indicates a skewed non-Gaussian distribution of the ejecta clumps and is similar to the genus curve for the simulation with initially clumped ejecta. In contrast, the simulation of perfectly smooth ejecta where clumping arises from the action of hydrodynamic instabilities produced a genus curve that is similar to a random Gaussian field, but disagrees strongly with the genus curve of the observed image. Our results support a scenario in which the observed structure of SN Ia remnants arises from initial dumpiness in the explosion.

DOI： 10.3847/1538-4357/ab24db

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

<jats:title>ABSTRACT</jats:title>
<jats:p>We present a concept for an X-ray imaging system with a high angular resolution and moderate sensitivity. In this concept, a two-dimensional detector, i.e., an imager, is put at a slightly out-of-focus position of the focusing mirror, rather than just at the mirror focus, as in the standard optics, to capture miniature images of objects. In addition, a set of multi-grid masks (or a modulation collimator) is installed in front of the telescope. We find that the masks work as a coded aperture camera and that they boost the angular resolution of the focusing optics. The major advantage of this concept is that a much better angular resolution, having an order of 2–3 or more than in the conventional optics, is achievable, while a high throughput (large effective area) is maintained, which is crucial in photon-limited high-energy astronomy, because any type of mirrors, including lightweight reflective mirrors, can be employed in our concept. If the signal-to-noise ratio is sufficiently high, we estimate that angular resolutions at the diffraction limit of 4″ and 0.″4 at ∼7 keV can be achieved with a pair of masks at distances of 1 m and 100 m, respectively.</jats:p>

DOI： 10.1093/pasj/psz081

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

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：American Physical Society  

We present an interpretation of the time variability of the x-ray flux recently reported from a multiepoch campaign of 15 years of observations of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A by Chandra. We show for the first time quantitatively that the [4.2-6] keV nonthermal flux increase up to 50% traces the growth of the magnetic field due to a vortical amplification mechanism at a reflection inward shock colliding with inner overdensities. The fast synchrotron cooling as compared with shock-acceleration time scale qualitatively supports the flux decrease.

DOI： 10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.251101

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

The Soft X-ray Spectrometer onboard the Astro-H (Hitomi) orbiting x-ray observatory featured an array of 36 silicon thermistor x-ray calorimeters optimized to perform high spectral resolution x-ray imaging spectroscopy of astrophysical sources in the 0.3-To 12-keV band. Extensive preflight calibration measurements are the basis for our modeling of the pulse height-energy relation and energy resolution for each pixel and event grade, telescope collecting area, detector efficiency, and pulse arrival time. Because of the early termination of mission operations, we needed to extract the maximum information from observations performed only days into the mission when the onboard calibration sources had not yet been commissioned and the dewar was still coming into thermal equilibrium, so our technique for reconstructing the per-pixel time-dependent pulse height-energy relation had to be modified. The gain scale was reconstructed using a combination of an absolute energy scale calibration at a single time using a fiducial from an onboard radioactive source and calibration of a dominant time-dependent gain drift component using a dedicated calibration pixel, as well as a residual time-dependent variation using spectra from the Perseus cluster of galaxies. The energy resolution was also measured using the onboard radioactive sources. It is consistent with instrument-level measurements accounting for the modest increase in noise due to spacecraft systems interference. We use observations of two pulsar wind nebulae to validate our models of the telescope area and detector efficiency and to derive a more accurate value for the thickness of the gate-valve Be window, which had not been opened by the time mission operations ceased. We use observations of the Crab nebula to refine the pixel-To-pixel timing and validate the absolute timing.

DOI： 10.1117/1.JATIS.4.2.021407

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

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Authorship：Corresponding author   Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

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

We present the result of the in-flight calibration of the effective area of the Soft X-ray Spectrometer (SXS) on board the Hitomi X-ray satellite using an observation of the Crab nebula. We corrected for artifacts when observing high count rate sources with the Xray microcalorimeter. We then constructed a spectrum in the 0.5-20 keV band, which we modeled with a single power-law continuum attenuated by interstellar extinction. We evaluated the systematic uncertainty of the spectral parameters by various calibration items. In the 2-12 keV band, the SXS result is consistent with the literature values in flux (2.20 +/- 0.08 x 10(-8) erg s(-1) cm(-2) with a 1 sigma statistical uncertainty) but is softer in the power-law index (2.19 +/- 0.11). The discrepancy is attributable to the systematic uncertainty of about +6%/-7% and +2%/-5% respectively for the flux and the power-law index. The softer spectrum is affected primarily by the systematic uncertainty of the Dewar gate valve transmission and the event screening.

DOI： 10.1093/pasj/psy008

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We describe the in-orbit performance of the soft X-ray imaging system consisting of the Soft X-ray Telescope and the Soft X-ray Imager aboard Hitomi. Verification and calibration of imaging and spectroscopic performance are carried out, making the best use of the limited data of less than three weeks. Basic performance, including a large field of view of 38′<br />
38<br />
′<br />
× 38′<br />
38<br />
′<br />
⁠, is verified with the first-light image of the Perseus cluster of galaxies. Amongst the small number of observed targets, the on-minus-off pulse image for the out-of-time events of the Crab pulsar enables us to measure the half-power diameter of the telescope as ∼1′.3<br />
1<br />
.<br />
′<br />
3<br />
⁠. The average energy resolution measured with the onboard calibration source events at 5.89 keV is 179 ± 3 eV in full width at half maximum. Light leak and crosstalk issues affected the effective exposure time and the effective area, respectively, because all the observations were performed before optimizing an observation schedule and the parameters for the dark-level calculation. Screening the data affected by these two issues, we measure the background level to be 5.6 × 10−6 counts s−1 arcmin−2 cm−2 in the energy band of 5–12 keV, which is seven times lower than that of the Suzaku XIS-BI.

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

We present the summary of the on-ground calibration of two soft x-ray telescopes (SXT-I and SXT-S), developed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), onboard Astro-H/Hitomi. After the initial x-ray measurements with a diverging beam at the GSFC 100-m beamline, we performed the full calibration of the x-ray performance, using the 30-m x-ray beamline facility at the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency in Japan. We adopted a raster scan method with a narrow x-ray pencil beam with a divergence of ∼15″. The on-axis effective area (EA), half-power diameter, and vignetting function were measured at several energies between 1.5 and 17.5 keV. The detailed results appear in tables and figures in this paper. We measured and evaluated the performance of the SXT-S and the SXT-I with regard to the detector-limited field-of-view and the pixel size of the paired flight detector, i.e., SXS and the SXI, respectively. The primary items measured are the EA, image quality, and stray light for on-axis and off-axis sources. The accurate measurement of these parameters is vital to make the precise response function of the ASTRO-H SXTs. This paper presents the definitive results of the ground-based calibration of the ASTRO-H SXTs.

DOI： 10.1117/1.JATIS.4.1.011213

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

© 2018 The Authors. We present x-ray characteristics of the Hard X-ray Telescopes (HXTs) on board the Hitomi (ASTRO-H) satellite. Measurements were conducted at the SPring-8 BL20B2 beamline and the ISAS/JAXA 27-m beamline. The angular resolution defined by a half-power diameter was 1.9′ (HXT-1) and 2.1′ (HXT-2) at 8 keV, 1.9′ at 30 keV, and 1.8′ at 50 keV. The effective area was found to be 620cm2 at 8 keV, 178cm2 at 30 keV, and 82cm2 at 50 keV per mirror module. Although the angular resolutions were slightly worse than the requirement (1.7′), the effective areas sufficiently exceeded the requirements of 150cm2 at 30 keV and 55cm2 at 50 keV. The off-axis measurements of the effective areas resulted in the field of view being 6.1′ at 50 keV, 7.7′ at 30 keV, and 9.7′ at 8 keV in diameter. We confirmed that the main component of the stray x-ray light was significantly reduced by mounting the precollimator as designed. Detailed analysis of the data revealed that the angular resolution was degraded mainly by figure errors of mirror foils, and the angular resolution is completely explained by the figure errors, positioning errors of the foils, and conical approximation of the foil shape. We found that the effective areas were ∼80% of the designed values below 40 keV, whereas they steeply decline above 40 keV and become only ∼50%. We investigated this abrupt decline and found that neither the error of the multilayer design nor the errors of the incident angles induced by the positioning errors of the foils can be the cause. The reflection profile of each foil pair from the defocused image strongly suggests that the figure errors of the foils probably bring about the reduction in the effective areas at higher energies.

DOI： 10.1117/1.JATIS.4.1.011210

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

We present new evidence that the bright nonthermal X-ray emission features in the interior of the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant are caused by inward-moving shocks, based on Chandra and NuSTAR observations. Several bright inward-moving filaments were identified using monitoring data taken by Chandra in 2000-2014. These inward-moving shock locations are nearly coincident with hard X-ray (15-40 keV) hot spots seen by NuSTAR. From proper-motion measurements, the transverse velocities were estimated to be in the range of similar to 2100-3800 km s(-1) for a distance of 3.4 kpc. The shock velocities in the frame of the expanding ejecta reach values of similar to 5100-8700 km s(-1), which is slightly higher than the typical speed of the forward shock. Additionally, we find flux variations (both increasing and decreasing) on timescales of a few years in some of the inward-moving shock filaments. The rapid variability timescales are consistent with an amplified magnetic field of B similar to 0.5-1 mG. The high speed and low photon cut-off energy of the inward-moving shocks are shown to imply a particle diffusion coefficient that departs from the Bohm regime (k(0) = D-0/D-0,D-Bohm similar to 3-8) for the few simple physical configurations we consider in this study. The maximum electron energy at these shocks is estimated to be similar to 8-11 TeV, which is smaller than the values of similar to 15-34 TeV that were inferred for the forward shock. Cassiopeia A is dynamically too young for its reverse shock to appear to be moving inward in the observer frame. We propose instead that the inward-moving shocks are a consequence of the forward shock encountering a density jump of 5-8 in the surrounding material.

DOI： 10.3847/1538-4357/aaa021

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

We report measurements of proper motion, radial velocity, and elemental composition for 14 compact X-ray-bright knots in Kepler's supernova remnant (SNR) using archival Chandra data. The knots with the highest speed show both large proper motions (mu similar to 0.'' 11- 0,'' 14 yr(-1)) and high radial velocities (v similar to 8700-10,020 km s(-1)). For these knots the estimated space velocities (9100 km s(-1)less than or similar to v(3D)less than or similar to 10,400 km s(-1)) are similar to the typical Si velocity seen in supernovae (SNe) Ia near maximum light. High-speed ejecta knots appear only in specific locations and are morphologically and kinematically distinct from the rest of the ejecta. The proper motions of five knots extrapolate back over the age of Kepler's SNR to a consistent central position. This new kinematic center agrees well with previous determinations, but is less subject to systematic errors and denotes a location about which several prominent structures in the remnant display a high degree of symmetry. These five knots are expanding at close to the free expansion rate (expansion indices of 0.75 less than or similar to m less than or similar to 1.0), which we argue indicates either that they were formed in the explosion with a high density contrast (more than 100 times the ambient density) or that they have propagated through regions of relatively low density (n(H) < 0.1 cm(-3)) in the ambient medium. X-ray spectral analysis shows that the undecelerated knots have high Si and S abundances, a lower Fe abundance, and very low O abundance, pointing to an origin in the partial Si-burning zone, which occurs in the outer layer of the exploding white dwarf for models of SNe Ia. Other knots show lower speeds and expansion indices consistent with decelerated ejecta knots or features in the ambient medium overrun by the forward shock. Our new accurate location for the explosion site has well-defined positional uncertainties, allowing for a great reduction in the area to be searched for faint surviving donor stars under non-traditional single-degenerate SNe Ia scenarios; because of the lack of bright stars in the search area the traditional scenario remains ruled out.

DOI： 10.3847/1538-4357/aa8305

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

We present the first direct ejecta velocity measurements of Tycho's supernova remnant (SNR). Chandra's high angular resolution images reveal a patchy structure of radial velocities in the ejecta that can be separated into distinct redshifted, blueshifted, and low velocity ejecta clumps or blobs. The typical velocities of the redshifted and blueshifted blobs are less than or similar to 7800 and less than or similar to 5000 km s(-1), respectively. The highest velocity blobs are located near the center, while the low velocity ones appear near the edge as expected for a generally spherical expansion. Systematic uncertainty on the velocity measurements from gain calibration was assessed by carrying out joint fits of individual blobs with both the ACIS-I and ACIS-S detectors. We determine the three-dimensional kinematics of the Si-and Fe-rich clumps in the southeastern (SE) quadrant and show that these knots form a distinct, compact, and kinematically connected structure, possibly even a chain of knots strung along the remnant's edge. By examining the viewing geometries, we conclude that the knots in the SE region are unlikely to be responsible for the high velocity Ca II absorption features seen in the light-echo spectrum of SN. 1572, the originating event for Tycho's SNR.

DOI： 10.3847/1538-4357/aa6f60

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

We found a simultaneous decrease of the Fe-K line and 4.2-6 keV continuum of Cassiopeia A with the monitoring data taken by the Chandra X-ray Observatory in 2000-2013. The flux change rates in the whole remnant are -0.65 +/- 0.02% yr(-1) in the 4.2-6.0 keV continuum and -0.6 +/- 0.1% yr(-1) in the Fe-K line. In the eastern region where the thermal emission is considered to dominate, the variations show the largest values: -1.03 +/- 0.05% yr(-1) (4.2-6 keV band) and -0.6 +/- 0.1% yr(-1) (Fe-K line). In this region, the time evolution of the emission measure and the temperature have a decreasing trend. This could be interpreted as adiabatic cooling with the expansion of m = 0.66. On the other hand, in the non-thermal emission dominated regions, variations of the 4.2-6 keV continuum show smaller rates: -0.60 +/- 0.04% yr(-1) in the southwestern region, -0.46 +/- 0.05% yr(-1) in the inner region, and + 0.00 +/- 0.07% yr(-1) in the forward shock region. In particular, flux does not show significant change in the forward shock region. These results imply that strong braking in shock velocity has not been occurring in Cassiopeia A (< 5 km s(-1) yr(-1)). All of our results support the idea that X-ray flux decay in the remnant is mainly caused by thermal components.

DOI： 10.3847/1538-4357/836/2/225

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

We present a design of the broad band telescope with the angular resolution booster. A concept of the Xray imaging system with high angular-resolution and moderate sensitivity was presented by Maeda et al. (submitted). In the concept, a two-dimensional detector, i.e., imager, is put at a slightly defocused position of the focusing mirror, rather than right at the mirror focus as in the standard optics. The detector at the off-focus captures the microcosm of front mask-slits that are placed on the front of the mirror. The masks work as a modulation collimator and boost the angular resolution of the focusing telescope. The major advantage of this concept is that a much better angular resolution by an order of 2-3 or more than in the conventional optics is achievable, while a high throughput (large effective area) is maintained. We therefore present an example of a booster for a broad-band telescope. Using the technique of the Pt/C depth-graded supermirror, the broadband coverage up to 80 keV is discussed.

DOI： 10.1117/12.2273466

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

We report the atomic scattering factor in the 11.2-15.4 keV for the ASTRO-H Soft X-ray Telescope (SXT)2 obtained in the ground based measurements. The large effective area of the SXT covers above 10 keV. In fact, the flight data show the spectra of the celestical objects in the hard X-ray band. In order to model the area, the reflectivity measurements in the 11.2-15.4 keV band with the energy pitch of 0.4 0.7 eV were made in the synchrotron beamline Spring-8 BL01B1. We obtained atomic scattering factors fl and f2 by the curve fitting to the reflectivities of our witness sample. The edges associated with the gold's L-I, II, and III transitions are identified, of which the depths are found to be roughly 60% shallower than those expected from the Henke's atomic scattering factor.

DOI： 10.1117/12.2275605

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：OPTICAL SOC AMER  

The atomic scattering factor in the energy range of 11.2-15.4 keV for the ASTROH Soft X-ray Telescope (SXT) is reported. The large effective area of the SXT makes use of photon spectra above 10 keV viable, unlike most other X-ray satellites with total-reflection mirror optics. Presence of gold's L-edges in the energy band is a major issue, as it complicates the function of the effective area. In order to model the area, the reflectivity measurements in the 11.2-15.4 keV band with the energy pitch of 0.4-0.7 eV were made in the synchrotron beamline Spring-8 BL01B1. We obtained atomic scattering factors f1 and f2 by the curve fitting to the reflectivities of our witness sample. The edges associated with the L-I, II, and III transitions are identified, of which the depths are found to be roughly 60% shallower than those expected from the Henke's atomic scattering factor. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America

DOI： 10.1364/OE.24.025548

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Authorship：Lead author   Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：SPIE-SOC PHOTO-OPTICAL INSTRUMENTATION ENGINEERS  

The international x-ray observatory ASTRO-H was renamed "Hitomi" after launch. It covers a wide energy range from a few hundred eV to 600 keV. It is equipped with two soft x-ray telescopes (SXTs: SXT-I and SXT-S) for imaging the soft x-ray sky up to similar to 12 keV, which focus an image onto the respective focal-plane detectors: CCD camera (SXI) and a calorimeter (SXS). The SXTs are fabricated in a quadrant unit. The angular resolution in half-power diameter (HPD) of each quadrant of the SXTs ranges between 1.1 and 1.4 arc min at 4.51 keV. It was also found that one quadrant has an energy dependence on the HPD. We examine the angular resolution with "spot scan" measurements. In order to understand the cause of imaging capability deterioration and to reflect it to the future telescope development, we carried out spot scan measurements, in which we illuminate all over the aperture of each quadrant with a square beam 8 mm on a side. Based on the scan results, we made "maps" of image blurring and a focus position. The former and the latter reflect figure error and positioning error, respectively, of the foils that are within the incident 8 mm x 8 mm beam. As a result, we estimated those errors in a quadrant to be similar to 0.9 to 1.0 and similar to 0.6 to 0.9 arc min, respectively. We found that the larger the positioning error in a quadrant is, the larger its HPD is. The HPD map, which manifests the local image blurring, is very similar from quadrant to quadrant, but the map of the focus position is different from location to location in each telescope. It is also found that the difference in local performance causes energy dependence of the HPD. (C) 2016 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)

DOI： 10.1117/1.JATIS.2.4.044001

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

ASTRO-H (Hitomi) is a Japanese X-ray astrophysics satellite just launched in February, 2016, from Tanegashima, Japan by a JAXA's H-IIA launch vehicle. It has two Soft X-ray Telescopes (SXTs), among other instruments, that were developed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in collaboration with ISAS/JAXA and Nagoya University. One is for an X-ray micro-calorimeter instrument (Soft X-ray Spectrometer, SXS) and the other for an X-ray CCD camera (Soft X-ray Imager, SXI), both covering the X-ray energy band up to 15 keV. The two SXTs were fully characterized at the 30-m X-ray beamline at ISAS/JAXA. The combined SXT+SXS system effective area is about 250 and 300 cm2 at 1 and 6 keV, respectively, although observations were performed with the gate valve at the dewar entrance closed, which blocks most of low energy X-rays and some of high energy ones. The angular resolution for SXS is 1.2 arcmin (Half Power Diameter, HPD). The combined SXT+SXI system effective area is about 370 and 350 cm2 at 1 and 6 keV, respectively. The angular resolution for SXI is 1.3 arcmin (HPD). The both SXTs have a field of view of about 16 arcmin (FWHM of their vignetting functions). The SXT+SXS field of view is limited to 3 × 3 arcmin by the SXS array size. In-flight data available to the SXT team was limited at the time of this conference and a point-like source data is not available for the SXT+SXS. Although due to lack of attitude information we were unable to reconstruct a point spread function of SXT+SXI, according to RXJ1856.5-3754 data, the SXT seems to be working as expected in terms of imaging capability. As for the overall effective area response for both SXT+SXS and SXT+SXI, consistent spectral model fitting parameters with the previous measurements were obtained for Crab and G21.5-0.9 data. On the other hand, their 2-10 keV fluxes differ by about 20% at this point. Calibration work is still under progress. The SXT is the latest version of the aluminum foil X-ray mirror, which is extremely light-weight and very low cost, yet produces large effective area over a wide energy-band. Its area-mass ratio is the largest, 16 cm2/kg, among ASTRO-H, Chandra, and XMM-Newton mirrors. The aluminum foil mirror is a still compelling technology depending on the mission science goal.

DOI： 10.1117/12.2231705

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

The Soft X-ray Spectrometer (SXS) onboard the Astro-H (Hitomi) orbiting x-ray observatory featured an array of 36 silicon thermistor x-ray calorimeters optimized to perform high spectral resolution x-ray imaging spectroscopy of astrophysical sources in the 0.3-12 keV band. Extensive pre-flight calibration measurements are the basis for our modeling of the pulse-height-energy relation and energy resolution for each pixel and event grade, telescope collecting area, detector efficiency, and pulse arrival time. Because of the early termination of mission operations, we needed to extract the maximum information from observations performed only days into the mission when the onboard calibration sources had not yet been commissioned and the dewar was still coming into thermal equilibrium, so our technique for reconstructing the per-pixel time-dependent pulse-height-energy relation had to be modified. The gain scale was reconstructed using a combination of an absolute energy scale calibration at a single time using a fiducial from an onboard radioactive source, and calibration of a dominant time-dependent gain drift component using a dedicated calibration pixel, as well as a residual time-dependent variation using spectra from the Perseus cluster of galaxies. The energy resolution was also measured using the onboard radioactive sources. It is consistent with instrument-level measurements accounting for the modest increase in noise due to spacecraft systems interference. We use observations of two pulsars to validate our models of the telescope area and detector efficiency, and to derive a more accurate value for the thickness of the gate valve Be window, which had not been opened by the time mission operations ceased. We use observations of the Crab pulsar to refine the pixel-to-pixel timing and validate the absolute timing.

DOI： 10.1117/12.2234230

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

ASTRO-H (Hitomi) satellite equips two Soft X-ray Telescopes (SXTs), one of which (SXT-S) is coupled to Soft X-ray Spectrometer (SXS) while the other (SXT-I) is coupled to Soft X-ray Imager (SXI). Although SXTs are lightweight of similar to 42 kg module(-1) and have large on-axis effective area (EA) of similar to 450cm(2) at 4.5 keV module(-1) by themselves, their angular resolutions are moderate similar to 1.2 arcmin in half power diameter. The amount of contamination into the SXS FOV (3.05 x 3.05 arcmin(2)) from nearby sources was measured in the ground-based calibration at the beamline in Institute of Space and Astronautical Science. The contamination at 4.5 keV were measured with sources distant from the SXS center by one width of the FOV in perpendicular and diagonal directions, that is, 3 and 4.5 arcmin-off, respectively. The average EA of the contamination in the four directions with the 3 and 4.5 arcmin-off were measured to be 2 and 0.6% of the on-axis EA of 412 cm(2) for the SXS FOV, respectively. The contamination from a source distant by two FOV widths in a diagonal direction, that is, 8.6 arcmin-off was measured to be 0.1% of the on-axis at 4.5 keV. The contamination amounts were also measured at 1.5 keV and 8.0 keV which indicated that the ratio of the contamination EA to that of on-axis hardly depended on the source energy. The off-axis SXT-I images from -4.5 to 27 arcmin were acquired at intervals of 4.5 arcmin for the SXI FOV of 38 x 38 arcmin(2). The image shrinked as the off-axis angle increased. Above 13.5 arcmin of off-angle, a stray appeared around the image center in the off-axis direction. As for the on-axis image, a ring-shaped stray appeared at the edge of SXI of similar to 18 arcmin distant from the image center.

DOI： 10.1117/12.2232007

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

We report the atomic scattering factor in the 11.2{15.4 keV for the ASTRO-H Soft X-ray Telescope (SXT)9 obtained in the ground based measurements. The large effective area of the SXT covers above 10 keV. In fact, the flight data show the spectra of the celestical objects in the hard X-ray band. In order to model the area, the reflectivity measurements in the 11.2-15.4 keV band with the energy pitch of 0.4 - 0.7 eV were made in the synchrotron beamline Spring-8 BL01B1. We obtained atomic scattering factors f1 and f2 by the curve fitting to the reflectivities of our witness sample. The edges associated with the gold's L-I, II, and III transitions are identified, of which the depths are found to be roughly 60% shallower than those expected from the Henke's atomic scattering factor.

DOI： 10.1117/12.2232727

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

The X-ray astronomy satellite ASTRO-H, which is the 6th Japanese X-ray astronomy satellite and is renamed Hitomi after launch, is designed to observe celestial X-ray objects in a wide energy band from a few hundred eV to 600 keV. The Soft X-ray Telescopes (SXTs) onboard ASTRO-H play a role of collecting and imaging X-rays up to similar to 12 keV. Although the field of view of the SXT is similar to 15' (FWHM), due to the thin-foil-nested Wolter-I type optics adopted in the SXTs, X-rays out of the field of view can reach the focal plane without experiencing a normal double reflection. This component is referred to as "stray light". Owing to investigation of the stray light so far, "secondary reflection" is now identified as the main component of the stray light, which is composed of X-rays reflected only by secondary reflectors. In order to cut the secondary reflections, a "pre-collimator" is equipped on top of the SXTs. However, we cannot cut all the stray lights with the pre-collimator in some off-axis angle domain. In this study, we measure the brightness of the stray light of the SXTs at some representative off-axis angles by using the ISAS X-ray beam line.ASTRO-H is equipped with two modules of the SXT; one is for the Soft X-ray Spectrometer (SXS), an X-ray calorimeter, and the other is for the Soft X-ray Imager (SXI), an X-ray CCD camera. These SXT modules are called SXT-S and SXT-I, respectively. Of the two detector systems, the SXI has a large field of view, a square with 38' on a side. To cope with this, we have made a mosaic mapping of the stray light at a representative off-axis angle of 30' in the X-ray beam line at the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science. The effective area of the brightest secondary reflection is found of order similar to 0.1% of the on-axis effective area at the energy of 1.49 keV. The other components are not so bright (<5x10(-4) times smaller than the on-axis effective area). On the other hand, we have found that the effective area of the stray light in the SXS field of view (similar to 3'x3') at large off-axis angles (>15') are similar to 10(-4) times smaller than the on-axis effective area (similar to 590 cm(2) at 1.49 keV).

DOI： 10.1117/12.2232175

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：SPIE-SOC PHOTO-OPTICAL INSTRUMENTATION ENGINEERS  

The 30-m x-ray pencil beam line at the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science has been upgraded. The vacuum chamber has been replaced by a new cylindrical chamber of diameter 1.8 m and length 11.3 m. Stages on which a telescope and detectors had been mounted were also replaced. At the same time, a new charge-coupled device consisting of 1240 x 1152 pixels of size 22.5 x 22.5 mu m(2) was introduced. The detector stage can be moved along the x-ray beam in the vacuum chamber, which enables us to vary the distance between the sample and the detectors from 0.7 to 9 m. The two stages can be moved in a square region 500 x 500 mm(2) in the plane normal to the x-ray beam. The pitching of moving axes of Y direction (horizontal and normal to the beam) of the sample and the detector stages is somewhat large, but does not exceed 60 arc sec. The pitching of the other axes and the yawing of all the axes are less than 30 arc sec. As for rolling, we could obtain only the upper limits because of the difficulty in measuring them. The upper limit of the Z direction (vertical and normal to the beam) of the detector stage moving axis is somewhat large and is about 60 arc sec, and those of the other axes are less than 30 arc sec. A summary of the beam line performance is presented. Soon after the upgrade, the ASTRO-H Soft X-ray telescopes were calibrated in this beam line. (C) The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.

DOI： 10.1117/1.JATIS.1.4.044004

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

The ASTRO-H hard x-ray telescope (HXT) is designed to reflect hard x-rays with energies up to 80 keV. It will make use of thin-foil, multinested conical optics with depth-graded platinum/carbon (Pt/C) multilayers. We report on thermal stress tests of the HXT reflectors. The reflectors were fabricated on a heat-formed aluminum substrate of thickness gauged at 200 μm of the alloy 5052. This was followed by an epoxy replication on Pt/C-sputtered smooth Pyrex cylindrical mandrels to acquire the x-ray reflective surface. For the thermal tests, the reflectors were maintained at three different temperatures: -5, 50, and 60°C, respectively, for a week. We found that the surface of the reflectors were significantly changed at temperatures of 60°C or higher. The change appears as wrinkles with a typical scale length of a few tens of microns. No changes on the surface were observed from the -5 and 50°C samples. There was also no change in the x-ray reflectivity for these two temperatures.

DOI： 10.1117/1.JATIS.1.3.034001

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Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

© 2014 Optical Society of America. The new Japanese x-ray astronomy satellite, ASTRO-H, will carry two identical hard x-ray telescopes (HXTs), which cover the energy range of 5 to 80 keV. The HXT mirrors employ tightly nested, conically approximated thin-foil Wolter-I optics, and the mirror surfaces are coated with Pt/C depth-graded multilayers to enhance the hard x-ray effective area by means of Bragg reflection. The HXT comprises foils 120-450 mm in diameter and 200 mm in length, with a focal length of 12 m. To obtain a large effective area, 213 aluminum foils 0.2 mm in thickness are tightly nested confocally. The requirements for HXT are a total effective area of >300 cm2 at 30 keV and an angular resolution of <1.70 in halfpower diameter (HPD). Fabrication of two HXTs has been completed, and the x-ray performance of each HXT was measured at a synchrotron radiation facility, SPring-8 BL20B2 in Japan. Angular resolutions (HPD) of 1.9′ and 1.8′ at 30 keV were obtained for the full telescopes of HXT-1 and HXT-2, respectively. The total effective area of the two HXTs at 30 keV is 349 cm2.

DOI： 10.1364/AO.53.007664

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

ASTRO-H is an astrophysics satellite dedicated for non-dispersive X-ray spectroscopic study on selective celestial X-ray sources. Among the onboard instruments there are four Wolter-I X-ray mirrors of their reflectors' figure in conical approximation. Two of the four are soft X-ray mirrors(1), of which the energy range is from a few hundred eV to 15 keV within the effective aperture being defined by the nested reflectors' radius ranging between 5.8 cm to 22.5 cm. The focal point instruments will be a calorimeter (SXS) and a CCD camera (SXI), respectively. The mirrors were in quadrant configuration with photons being reflected consecutively in the primary and secondary stage before converging on the focal plane of 5.6 m away from the interface between the two stages. The reflectors of the mirror are made of heat-formed aluminum substrate of the thickness gauged of 152 mu m, 229 mu m, and 305 mu m of the alloy 5052 H-19, followed by epoxy replication on gold-sputtered smooth Pyrex cylindrical mandrels to acquire the X-ray reflective surface. The epoxy layer is 10 mu m nominal and surface gold layer of 0.2 mu m. Improvements on angular response over its predecessors, e.g. Astro-E1/Suzaku mirrors, come from error reduction on the figure, the roundness, and the grazing angle/radius mismatching of the reflecting surface, and tighter specs and mechanical strength on supporting structure to reduce the reflector positioning and the assembly errors.Each soft x-ray telescope (SXT), SXT-1 or SXT-2, were integrated from four independent quadrants of mirrors. The stray-light baffles, in quadrant configuration, were mounted onto the integrated mirror. Thermal control units were attached to the perimeter of the integrated mirror to keep the mirror within operating temperature in space. The completed instrument went through a series of optical alignment, thus made the quadrant images confocal and their optical axes in parallel to achieve highest throughput possible. Environmental tests were carried out, and optical quality of the telescopes has been confirmed. SXT-1 and -2 were tested with the broad but slightly divergent beam, up to 8 arc-minutes, at Goddard. The full characterization were carried out in Japan which includes: angular resolution, effective area in the energy range of similar to 0.4 - 12keV, off-axis response at various energies, etc. We report the calibration results of the SXT-1 and -2 that were obtained at NASA/Goddard and JAXA/ISAS. The detailed calibration are reported in the two papers in this conference: 9144-206, "Ground-based x-ray calibration of the ASTRO-H soft x-ray telescopes" by R. Iizuka et al. and 9144-207, "Revealing a detailed performance of the soft x-ray telescopes of the ASTRO-H mission" by T. Sato, et al. Some small but significant discrepancies existed between ISAS and Goddard measurements that were attributed to the difference of the X-ray beams - pencil beam vs divergent beam.

DOI： 10.1117/12.2056804

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

The X-ray astronomy satellite Astro-H, planed to be launched in 2015, will have several instruments for covering a wide energy band from a few hundreds eV to 600 keV. There are four X-ray telescopes, and two of them are soft X-ray telescopes (SXTs) covering up to about 15 keV. One is for an X-ray micro-calorimeter detector (SXS) and the other is for an X-ray CCD detector (SXI). The design of the SXTs is a conical approximation of the Wolter Type-I optics, which is also adopted for the telescopes on the previous mission Suzaku launched in 2005. It consists 203 thin-foil reflectors coated with gold monolayer (2000 angstrom) on the aluminum substrate (101.6 mm length) with the thickness of 0.15, 0.23 and 0.31 mm. These are nested confocally within the radius of 58 to 225 mm. The focal length of SXTs is 5.6 m. The weight is as light as similar to 43 kg per telescope.
We present the current status of the calibration activity of two SXTs (SXT-1 and SXT-2). The developments of two SXTs were completed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). First X-ray measurements with a diverging beam at the GSFC 100m beamline found an angular resolution at 8.0 keV to be 1.1 and 1.0 arcmin (HPD) for SXT-1 and SXT-2, respectively. The full characterization of the X-ray performance has been now continuously calibrated with the 30m X-ray beamline facility at the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) of Japan Aerospace eXploration Agency (JAXA) in Japan. We adopted a raster scan method with a narrow X-ray pencil beam with the divergence of similar to 15". X-ray characterization of the two SXTs has been measured from May and December 2013, respectively.
In the case of SXT-1, the on-axis effective area was approximately 580, 445, 370, 270, 185 and 90 cm(2) at energies of 1.5, 4.5, 8.0, 9.4, 11.1 and 12.9 keV respectively. The effective area of SXT-2 is 2% larger than that of SXT-1 irrespective to X-ray energy. The on-axis angular resolution of SXT-1 was evaluated as 1.3 - 1.5 arcmin (HPD) in the 1.5 13 keV band. The resolution was slightly got worse at higher energies by similar to 0.3 arcmin. Otherwise, the resolution of SXT-2 is 1.2 arcmin, almost irrespective to X-ray energy. The field of view (FOV) was similar to 16 arcmin at 1.5 keV, decreasing with increasing X-ray energy, and became 8 arcmin at 13 keV. The FOV is defined here as the full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of the vignetting curve.
The X-ray performance of SXT-1 and SXT-2 meets the system requirements. Because all the parameters of the SXT-2 is slightly better that of SXT-1, we adopted the SXT-2 telescope for the SXS detector of the Astro-H primary instrument with the narrow FOV.

DOI： 10.1117/12.2054626

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

The thirty-meter X-ray pencil beam line at the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) was utilized for ground-based calibrations of X-ray telescopes (XRTs) onboard the ASTRO-D, the ASTRO-E and the ASTRO-E2 satellites. Recent upsizing or downsizing of XRT required upgrade of the ISAS beam line. We replaced a vacuum chamber in which the stages had been installed by a new cylindrical chamber whose diameter and length are 1.8 m and 11.3 m, respectively. Stages on which a telescope and detectors had been mounted were also replaced. At same time, a new CCD consists of 1240 x 1152 pixels whose size are 22.5 x 22.5 mu m was introduced. The detector stage can be moved along the X-ray beam in the vacuum chamber, which allows us to change the distance between the sample and the detectors from 0.7 m to 9 m. The two stages can move in at least 500 x 500 mm(2) of square in the plane normal to the X-ray beam. The pitching of some moving axes are measured at 60 arcsec at most. The others are no more than about 30 arcsec. From April 2013, the ASTRO-H Soft X-ray telescopes (SXTs) have been calibrated at the new ISAS beam line.

DOI： 10.1117/12.2055741

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

We have been developing original MEMS-based X-ray optics toward future astronomical missions such as a planetary exploration mission. In this paper, we report results on the first X-ray irradiation test for a 2-stage MEMS-based optic. The obtained FWHM of the focusing image is 13±2 arcmin. However, an occultation effect and a deformation accuracy possibly affect a reduction of effective area. © 2013 IEEE.

DOI： 10.1109/OMN.2013.6659086

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