研究者業績
基本情報
経歴
1論文
24-
Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems 4(2) 2018年4月1日 査読有り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.
-
Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems 4(2) 2018年4月 査読有り© 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.
-
PUBLICATIONS OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF JAPAN 70(2) 2018年3月 査読有り
-
PUBLICATIONS OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF JAPAN 70(2) 2018年3月 査読有り
-
PUBLICATIONS OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF JAPAN 70(2) 2018年3月 査読有り
-
Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems 4(1) 2018年1月1日 査読有りHitomi (ASTRO-H) carries two Hard X-ray Telescopes (HXTs), which can focus x-rays up to 80 keV. Combined with the hard x-ray imagers (HXIs) that detect the focused x-rays, imaging spectroscopy in the high-energy band from 5 to 80 keV is made possible. We studied characteristics of HXTs after the launch, such as the encircled energy function (EEF) and the effective area using the data of a Crab observation. The half power diameters (HPDs) in the 5- to 80-keV band evaluated from the EEFs are 1.59 arcmin for HXT-1 and 1.65 arcmin for HXT-2. Those are consistent with the HPDs measured with ground experiments when uncertainties are taken into account. We can conclude that there is no significant change in the characteristics of the HXTs before and after the launch. The off-axis angle of the aim point from the optical axis is evaluated to be < 0.5 arcmin for both HXT-1 and HXT-2. The best-fit parameters for the Crab spectrum obtained with the HXT-HXI system are consistent with the canonical values.
-
Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems 4(1) 2018年1月1日 査読有りWe designed depth-graded multilayers, so-called supermirrors, with platinum/carbon (Pt/C) layer pairs for the Hard X-Ray Telescope (HXT) that was on-board the sixth Japanese X-Ray Astronomy Satellite Hitomi (ASTRO-H). The HXT has multinested thin foil optics, and the grazing angles of the X-ray mirrors are 0.07 to 0.27 deg. Supermirrors for HXTs are designed to provide a broad energy response (up to 80 keV) for astronomical requests. Under practical boundary conditions, we establish a block method applying empirical rules to maximize the integrated reflectivity. We fabricated Pt/C supermirrors using a DC magnetron sputtering system. The reflectivity of the mirrors was measured in a synchrotron radiation facility, SPring-8. We describe the design method for the supermirrors and our results.
-
Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems 4(1) 2018年1月1日 査読有り© 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.
-
OPTICS FOR EUV, X-RAY, AND GAMMA-RAY ASTRONOMY VIII 10399 2017年 査読有りThe Japanese X-ray Astronomy Satellite, Hitomi (ASTRO-H) carried two hard X-ray telescopes (HXT), covering the energy band from 5 keV to 80 keV. In the initial functional verification phase of the onboard instruments, G21.5-0.9 and Crab nebula were observed with HXT. The data of G21.5-0.9 observation indicated that the hard X-ray imaging system worked well. Detail calibration of the Hitomi HXTs was performed with the observation data of Crab nebula. We extracted X-ray images of the Crab pulsar excluding the nebular emission, and continued that the imaging perfounance in orbit was satisfied with the requirement of the HXT. The 8-80 keV Crab spectrum was well fitted with a power-law model with the absorbed column of N-H=3 x 10(21) cm(-2). The estimated photon index of 2.122 0.003 was consistent with previous results of Crab observation, while the observed 2-10 keV flux of 2.3x10-8 erg s(-1) cm(-2) was slightly larger than the previous observation. We note that there was discrepancy between the simulated and the measured effective area on ground. Thus, we introduced a fudge factor to reproduce the effective area obtained in the ground calibration. The fudge factor of HXTs are included in the latest calibration database of Hitomi.
-
NATURE 535(7610) 117-+ 2016年7月 査読有りClusters of galaxies are the most massive gravitationally bound objects in the Universe and are still forming. They are thus important probes(1) of cosmological parameters and many astrophysical processes. However, knowledge of the dynamics of the pervasive hot gas, the mass of which is much larger than the combined mass of all the stars in the cluster, is lacking. Such knowledge would enable insights into the injection of mechanical energy by the central supermassive black hole and the use of hydrostatic equilibrium for determining cluster masses. X-rays from the core of the Perseus cluster are emitted by the 50-million-kelvin diffuse hot plasma filling its gravitational potential well. The active galactic nucleus of the central galaxy NGC 1275 is pumping jetted energy into the surrounding intracluster medium, creating buoyant bubbles filled with relativistic plasma. These bubbles probably induce motions in the intracluster medium and heat the inner gas, preventing runaway radiative cooling-a process known as active galactic nucleus feedback(2-6). Here we report X-ray observations of the core of the Perseus cluster, which reveal a remarkably quiescent atmosphere in which the gas has a line-of-sight velocity dispersion of 164 +/- 10 kilometres per second in the region 30-60 kiloparsecs from the central nucleus. A gradient in the line-of-sight velocity of 150 +/- 70 kilometres per second is found across the 60-kiloparsec image of the cluster core. Turbulent pressure support in the gas is four per cent of the thermodynamic pressure, with large-scale shear at most doubling this estimate. We infer that a total cluster mass determined from hydrostatic equilibrium in a central region would require little correction for turbulent pressure.
-
SPACE TELESCOPES AND INSTRUMENTATION 2016: ULTRAVIOLET TO GAMMA RAY 9905 2016年 査読有り
-
SPACE TELESCOPES AND INSTRUMENTATION 2016: ULTRAVIOLET TO GAMMA RAY 9905 2016年 査読有り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 cm(2) 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 cm(2) 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 3x3 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 cm(2)/kg, among ASTRO-H, Chandra, and XMM-Newton mirrors. The aluminum foil mirror is a still compelling technology depending on the mission science goal.
-
SPACE TELESCOPES AND INSTRUMENTATION 2016: ULTRAVIOLET TO GAMMA RAY 9905 2016年 査読有りThe X-ray astronomy satellite ASTRO-H are equipped with two equivalent soft X-ray telescopes (SXT-I and SXT-S) which cover the energy band 0.3-12 keV. The X-ray reflectors of the SXTs are coated with a gold monolayer by means of the replication technique (Okajima et al. in this volume). A series of gold M absorption edges in the 2-4 keV band causes complex structures in the energy response of the SXTs. In the same band, there are astrophysically important emission lines from Si, Ar and S. Since the SXS has unprecedentedly high spectral resolution, we have measured the reflectivity around the gold M-edges in an extremely fine energy pitch at the synchrotron radiation facility KEK PF BL11-B, with the 2 eV pitch in 2100 eV to 4100 eV band that covers the entire series of the absorption edges (M-I through M-V) at grazing incident angles to the reflectors of 0.5, 0.8, 1.0, 1.2, 1.4 degree, and with a finer pitch of 0.25 eV in the 2200 eV to 2350 eV band where the two deepest M-IV and M-V edges are included. In the resultant reflectivity curves, we have clearly identified the fine structures associated with all the M-edges. Using these data, we calculated atomic scattering factor f1 as a function of X-ray energy, with which we have built the mirror response function which can be applied to the Suzaku spectra. As a result, we have found that discrepancy of the spectral model to the Suzaku data of 4U1630-472 (a black hole transient) and the Crab nebula around the M-edges are significantly reduced from those with the official Suzaku response.
-
SPACE TELESCOPES AND INSTRUMENTATION 2016: ULTRAVIOLET TO GAMMA RAY 9905 2016年 査読有り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.
-
SPACE TELESCOPES AND INSTRUMENTATION 2016: ULTRAVIOLET TO GAMMA RAY 9905 2016年 査読有り
-
Applied Optics 53(32) 7664-7676 2014年11月10日 査読有り© 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.
-
Proceedings of the 12th Asia Pacific Physics Conference (APPC12) 2 17012 2014年4月 査読有り
-
Proceedings of the 12th Asia Pacific Physics Conference (APPC12) 2 17037 2014年4月 査読有り
-
SPACE TELESCOPES AND INSTRUMENTATION 2014: ULTRAVIOLET TO GAMMA RAY 9144 91440K 2014年PolariS (Polarimetry Satellite) is a Japanese small satellite mission dedicated to polarimetry of X-ray and gamma-ray sources. The primary aim of the mission is to perform hard X-ray (10-80 keV) polarimetry of sources brighter than 10 mCrab. For this purpose, PolariS employs three hard X-ray telescopes and scattering type imaging polarimeters. PolariS will measure the X-ray polarization for tens of sources including extragalactic ones mostly for the first time. The second purpose of the mission is gamma-ray polarimetry of transient sources, such as gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Wide field polarimeters based on similar concept as that used in the IKAROS/GAP but with higher sensitivity will be used, and polarization measurement of 10 GRBs per year is expected.
-
Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering 9144 914425 2014年© 2014 SPIE. The joint JAXA/NASA ASTRO-H mission is the sixth in a series of highly successful X-ray missions developed by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), with a planned launch in 2015. The ASTRO-H mission is equipped with a suite of sensitive instruments with the highest energy resolution ever achieved at E > 3 keV and a wide energy range spanning four decades in energy from soft X-rays to gamma-rays. The simultaneous broad band pass, coupled with the high spectral resolution of ΔE ≤ 7 eV of the micro-calorimeter, will enable a wide variety of important science themes to be pursued. ASTRO-H is expected to provide breakthrough results in scientific areas as diverse as the large-scale structure of the Universe and its evolution, the behavior of matter in the gravitational strong field regime, the physical conditions in sites of cosmic-ray acceleration, and the distribution of dark matter in galaxy clusters at different redshifts.
-
Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering 9144 914426 2014年© 2014 SPIE. The new Japanese X-ray Astronomy satellite, ASTRO-H will carry two identical hard X-ray telescopes (HXTs), which cover 5 to 80 keV, in order to provide new insights into frontier of X-ray astronomy. The HXT mirror surfaces are coated with Pt/C depth-graded multilayers to enhance hard X-ray effective area by means of Bragg reflection, and 213 mirror reflectors with a thickness of 0.22 mm are tightly nested confocally in a telescope. The production of FM HXT-1 and HXT-2 were completed in 2012 and 2013, respectively. The X-ray performance of HXTs were measured at the synchrotron radiation facility SPring-8/ BL20B2 Japan. The total effective area of two HXTs is about 350 cm2 at 30 keV and the angular resolution of HXT is about 1.'9 in half power diameter at 30 keV. The HXTs are in the clean room at ISAS for waiting the final integration test.
-
SPACE TELESCOPES AND INSTRUMENTATION 2014: ULTRAVIOLET TO GAMMA RAY 9144 914428 2014年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.
-
SPACE TELESCOPES AND INSTRUMENTATION 2014: ULTRAVIOLET TO GAMMA RAY 9144 914457 2014年The 6th Japanese X-ray satellite, ASTRO-H, equips two Hard X-ray Telescopes (HXTs) to perform imaging spectroscopy up to 70 keV. The 2nd flight module (HXT-2) had been completed in July, 2013. After some environmental tests were passed, the X-ray performance of the HXT-2 was measured at the SPring-8 BL20B2, 3rd generation synchrotron facility. The angular resolution defined with a Half Power Diameter (HPD) was 1'.9 at 30 keV and 1'.8 at 50 keV. This small energy dependence is considered to be caused by the difference in image quality of each foil; the inner mirror shells have better quality than outer ones. The effective area was found to be 178 cm(2) at 30 keV and 82 cm(2) at 50 keV, both of which exceed the requirement. Furthermore, the detailed energy dependence of the effective area was examined for a limited aperture in the 30-70 keV band with a pitch of 1 keV. We also measured the off-axis dependence of the effective area at 50 keV, and then determined the optical axis. The field of view of the HXT-2 was found to be 5'.6 (FWHM of the vignetting function), consistent with the simulation. In this paper, we also report the detailed analysis of the ground calibration data, which will be used for image reconstruction by a ray-tracing simulator.
担当経験のある科目(授業)
1-
物理学 (藤田保健衛生大学)