研究者業績
基本情報
- 所属
- 国立研究開発法人宇宙航空研究開発機構 宇宙科学研究所 宇宙物理学研究系 准教授
- 学位
- 博士(理学)(2004年3月 東京大学)
- 研究者番号
- 60446599
- ORCID ID
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0441-7404- J-GLOBAL ID
- 202001021434500706
- researchmap会員ID
- R000012970
研究キーワード
6経歴
2-
2022年3月 - 現在
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2006年7月 - 2022年2月
学歴
3-
2001年4月 - 2004年3月
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1999年4月 - 2001年3月
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1995年4月 - 1999年3月
受賞
2論文
223-
Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan 2025年4月11日 査読有りAbstract The X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) is a joint mission between the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA). In addition to the three space agencies, universities and research institutes from Japan, North America, and Europe have joined to contribute to developing satellite and onboard instruments, data-processing software, and the scientific observation program. XRISM is the successor to the ASTRO-H (Hitomi) mission, which ended prematurely in 2016. Its primary science goal is to examine astrophysical problems with precise, high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy. XRISM promises to discover new horizons in X-ray astronomy. It carries a 6 × 6 pixelized X-ray microcalorimeter on the focal plane of an X-ray mirror assembly (Resolve) and a co-aligned X-ray CCD camera (Xtend) that covers the same energy band over a large field of view. XRISM utilizes the Hitomi heritage, but all designs were reviewed. The attitude and orbit control system was improved in hardware and software. The spacecraft was launched from the JAXA Tanegashima Space Center on 2023 September 6 (UTC). During the in-orbit commissioning phase, the onboard components were activated. Although the gate valve protecting the Resolve sensor with a thin beryllium X-ray entrance window was not yet opened, scientific observation started in 2024 February with the planned performance verification observation program. The nominal observation program commenced with the following guest observation program beginning in 2024 September.
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The Astrophysical Journal Letters 982(1) L5-L5 2025年3月12日 査読有りAbstract We present XRISM Resolve observations of the core of the hot, relaxed galaxy cluster Abell 2029 (A2029). We find that the line-of-sight bulk velocity of the intracluster medium (ICM) within the central 180 kpc is at rest with respect to the brightest cluster galaxy, with a 3σ upper limit of ∣v bulk∣ < 100 km s−1. We robustly measure the field-integrated ICM velocity dispersion to be σ v = 169 ± 10 km s−1, obtaining similar results for both single-temperature and two-temperature plasma models to account for the cluster cool core. This result, if ascribed to isotropic turbulence, implies a subsonic ICM with Mach number and a nonthermal pressure fraction of 2.6 ± 0.3%. The turbulent velocity is similar to what was measured in the core of the Perseus cluster by Hitomi, but here in a more massive cluster with an ICM temperature of 7 keV, the limit on the nonthermal pressure fraction is even more stringent. Our result is consistent with expectations from simulations of relaxed clusters, but it is on the low end of the predicted distribution, indicating that A2029 is an exceptionally relaxed cluster with no significant impacts from either a recent minor merger or active galactic nucleus activity.
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Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment 170362-170362 2025年3月 査読有り
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Nature 638(8050) 365-369 2025年2月12日 査読有り
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Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan 77(1) L1-L8 2024年12月26日 査読有りAbstract Sagittarius A East is a supernova remnant with a unique surrounding environment, as it is located in the immediate vicinity of the supermassive black hole at the Galactic center, Sagittarius A$^{*}$. The X-ray emission of the remnant is suspected to show features of overionized plasma, which would require peculiar evolutionary paths. We report on the first observation of Sagittarius A East with the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM). Equipped with a combination of a high-resolution microcalorimeter spectrometer and a large field-of-view CCD imager, we for the first time resolved the Fe xxv K-shell lines into fine structure lines and measured the forbidden-to-resonance intensity ratio to be $1.39 \pm 0.12$, which strongly suggests the presence of overionized plasma. We obtained a reliable constraint on the ionization temperature just before the transition into the overionization state, of $\gt\! 4\:$keV. The recombination timescale was constrained to be $\lt\! 8 \times 10^{11} \:$cm$^{-3}\:$s. The small velocity dispersion of $109 \pm 6\:$km$\:$s$^{-1}$ indicates a low Fe ion temperature $\lt\! 8\:$keV and a small expansion velocity $\lt\! 200\:$km$\:$s$^{-1}$. The high initial ionization temperature and small recombination timescale suggest that either rapid cooling of the plasma via adiabatic expansion from dense circumstellar material or intense photoionization by Sagittarius A$^{*}$ in the past may have triggered the overionization.
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The Astrophysical Journal Letters 977(2) L34-L34 2024年12月11日 査読有りAbstract The X-ray binary system Cygnus X-3 (4U 2030+40, V1521 Cyg) is luminous but enigmatic owing to the high intervening absorption. High-resolution X-ray spectroscopy uniquely probes the dynamics of the photoionized gas in the system. In this Letter, we report on an observation of Cyg X-3 with the XRISM/Resolve spectrometer, which provides unprecedented spectral resolution and sensitivity in the 2–10 keV band. We detect multiple kinematic and ionization components in absorption and emission whose superposition leads to complex line profiles, including strong P Cygni profiles on resonance lines. The prominent Fe xxv Heα and Fe xxvi Lyα emission complexes are clearly resolved into their characteristic fine-structure transitions. Self-consistent photoionization modeling allows us to disentangle the absorption and emission components and measure the Doppler velocity of these components as a function of binary orbital phase. We find a significantly higher velocity amplitude for the emission lines than for the absorption lines. The absorption lines generally appear blueshifted by ∼−500–600 km s−1. We show that the wind decomposes naturally into a relatively smooth and large-scale component, perhaps associated with the background wind itself, plus a turbulent, denser structure located close to the compact object in its orbit.
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Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan 76(6) 1186-1201 2024年10月10日 査読有りAbstract We present an initial analysis of the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) first-light observation of the supernova remnant (SNR) N 132D in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The Resolve microcalorimeter has obtained the first high-resolution spectrum in the 1.6–10 keV band, which contains K-shell emission lines of Si, S, Ar, Ca, and Fe. We find that the Si and S lines are relatively narrow, with a broadening represented by a Gaussian-like velocity dispersion of $\sigma _v \sim 450$ km s$^{-1}$. However, the Fe He$\alpha$ lines are substantially broadened with $\sigma _v \sim 1670$ km s$^{-1}$. This broadening can be explained by a combination of the thermal Doppler effect due to the high ion temperature and the kinematic Doppler effect due to the SNR expansion. Assuming that the Fe He$\alpha$ emission originates predominantly from the supernova ejecta, we estimate the reverse shock velocity at the time when the bulk of the Fe ejecta were shock heated to be $-1000 \lesssim V_{\rm rs}$ (km s$^{-1}$) $\lesssim 3300$ (in the observer frame). We also find that Fe Ly$\alpha$ emission is redshifted with a bulk velocity of $\sim 890$ km s$^{-1}$, substantially larger than the radial velocity of the local interstellar medium surrounding N 132D. These results demonstrate that high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy is capable of providing constraints on the evolutionary stage, geometry, and velocity distribution of SNRs.
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The Astrophysical Journal Letters 973(1) L25-L25 2024年9月 査読有りAbstract We present an analysis of the first two XRISM/Resolve spectra of the well-known Seyfert-1.5 active galactic nucleus (AGN) in NGC 4151, obtained in 2023 December. Our work focuses on the nature of the narrow Fe K α emission line at 6.4 keV, the strongest and most common X-ray line observed in AGN. The total line is found to consist of three components. Even the narrowest component of the line is resolved with evident Fe K α,1 (6.404 keV) and K α,2 (6.391 keV) contributions in a 2:1 flux ratio, fully consistent with neutral gas with negligible bulk velocity. Subject to the limitations of our models, the narrowest and intermediate-width components are consistent with emission from optically thin gas, suggesting that they arise in a disk atmosphere and/or wind. Modeling the three line components in terms of Keplerian broadening, they are readily associated with (1) the inner wall of the “torus,” (2) the innermost optical “broad-line region” (or “X-ray BLR”), and (3) a region with a radius of r ≃ 100 GM/c 2 that may signal a warp in the accretion disk. Viable alternative explanations of the broadest component include a fast-wind component and/or scattering; however, we find evidence of variability in the narrow Fe K α line complex on timescales consistent with small radii. The best-fit models are statistically superior to simple Voigt functions, but when fit with Voigt profiles the time-averaged lines are consistent with a projected velocity broadening of FWHM . Overall, the resolution and sensitivity of XRISM show that the narrow Fe K line in AGN is an effective probe of all key parts of the accretion flow, as it is currently understood. We discuss the implications of these findings for our understanding of AGN accretion, future studies with XRISM, and X-ray-based black hole mass measurements.
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Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2024: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray 85-85 2024年8月21日
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Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2024: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray 224-224 2024年8月21日
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Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2024: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray 235-235 2024年8月21日
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Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2024: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray 92-92 2024年8月21日
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Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2024: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray 52-52 2024年8月21日
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Scientific Reports 14(1) 2024年2月9日 査読有りAbstract To detect and track structural changes in atomic nuclei, the systematic study of nuclear levels with firm spin-parity assignments is important. While linear polarization measurements have been applied to determine the electromagnetic character of gamma-ray transitions, the applicable range is strongly limited due to the low efficiency of the detection system. The multi-layer Cadmium-Telluride (CdTe) Compton camera can be a state-of-the-art gamma-ray polarimeter for nuclear spectroscopy with the high position sensitivity and the detection efficiency. We demonstrated the capability to operate this detector as a reliable gamma-ray polarimeter by using polarized 847-keV gamma rays produced by the $$^{56}\textrm{Fe}$$($${ p},{ p'}\gamma $$) reaction. By combining the experimental data and simulated calculations, the modulation curve for the gamma ray was successfully obtained. A remarkably high polarization sensitivity was achieved, compatible with a reasonable detection efficiency. Based on the obtained results, a possible future gamma-ray polarimetery is discussed.
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Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment 1059 169024-169024 2024年2月 査読有り
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Meteoritics and Planetary Science 2024年 査読有りSamples from asteroid Ryugu, brought back by asteroid explorer Hayabusa2, are important for investigating the origin and evolution of the solar system. Here, we report the elemental compositions of a 123-mg Ryugu sample determined with a nondestructive muon elemental analysis method. This method is a powerful tool for determining bulk chemical composition, including light elements such as C, N, and O. From the muonic x-ray spectra with three carbonaceous chondrites, the relationship between the elemental composition and muonic x-ray intensity was determined for each element. Calibration curves showed linearity, and the elemental composition of Ryugu was quantitatively determined. The results reflect the average bulk elemental composition of asteroid Ryugu owing to the large amount of samples. Ryugu has an elemental composition similar to that of Orgueil (CI1) and should be classified as CI1. However, the O/Si ratio of Ryugu is 25% lower than that of Orgueil, indicating that Orgueil may have been seriously contaminated by terrestrial materials after its fall to Earth. These results indicate that the Ryugu sample is more representative than the CI chondrites as a solid material of the solar system.
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IEEE Transactions on Radiation and Plasma Medical Sciences 7(8) 860-870 2023年11月 査読有り
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Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment 1050 168175-168175 2023年5月 査読有り
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Physical Review Letters 130(17) 2023年4月27日 査読有り
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Physical Review Letters 130(11) 2023年3月15日 査読有り
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ACS Earth and Space Chemistry 7(4) 699-711 2023年3月9日 査読有り
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Journal of Instrumentation 18(01) P01030-P01030 2023年1月1日 査読有りAbstract We have developed a γ-ray computed tomography system using a CdTe double-sided strip detector. Owing to a 250 μm fine strip pitch and high energy resolution with photon-counting capability, the system provides highly accurate images, with which the materials and their distributions inside the target can be determined according to the photon transmittances. We evaluated the key performance of the system, conducting transmission measurements for Al, Cu, and Pb plates and also for Al, Fe, Cu, and Pb rod-phantoms, both using X-rays (∼30 keV) and γ-rays (∼80 keV) from a 133Ba source. The measured transmittances agreed well with the calculated values from simulations. We successfully reconstructed the three-dimensional structure of the rod-phantom and distinguished the elements inside the phantom. Compared with the simulated photon transmittances, we found that material identification based on tomographic images obtained with the system is efficient as long as the target object does not contain thick high-Z elements.
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Science 379(6634) 2022年9月22日 査読有りSamples of the carbonaceous asteroid Ryugu were brought to Earth by the Hayabusa2 spacecraft. We analyzed seventeen Ryugu samples measuring 1-8 mm. CO 2 -bearing water inclusions are present within a pyrrhotite crystal, indicating that Ryugu’s parent asteroid formed in the outer Solar System. The samples contain low abundances of materials that formed at high temperatures, such as chondrules and Ca, Al-rich inclusions. The samples are rich in phyllosilicates and carbonates, which formed by aqueous alteration reactions at low temperature, high pH, and water/rock ratios < 1 (by mass). Less altered fragments contain olivine, pyroxene, amorphous silicates, calcite, and phosphide. Numerical simulations, based on the mineralogical and physical properties of the samples, indicate Ryugu’s parent body formed ~ 2 million years after the beginning of Solar System formation.
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ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS 665 2022年9月Context. Solar nanoflares are small impulsive events releasing magnetic energy in the corona. If nanoflares follow the same physics as their larger counterparts, they should emit hard X-rays (HXRs) but with a rather faint intensity. A copious and continuous presence of nanoflares would result in a sustained HXR emission. These nanoflares could deliver enormous amounts of energy into the solar corona, possibly accounting for its high temperatures. To date, there has not been any direct observation of such persistent HXRs from the quiescent Sun. However, the quiet-Sun HXR emission was constrained in 2010 using almost 12 days of quiescent solar off-pointing observations by the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI). These observations set 2 sigma upper limits at 3.4 x 10(-2) photons s(-1) cm(-2) keV(-1) and 9.5 x 10(-4) photons s(-1) cm(-2) keV(-1) for the 3-6 keV and 6-12 keV energy ranges, respectively. Aims. Observing faint HXR emission is challenging because it demands high sensitivity and dynamic range instruments. The Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager (FOXSI) sounding rocket experiment excels in these two attributes when compared with RHESSI. FOXSI completed its second and third successful flights (FOXSI-2 and -3) on December 11, 2014, and September 7, 2018, respectively. This paper aims to constrain the quiet-Sun emission in the 5-10 keV energy range using FOXSI-2 and -3 observations. Methods. To fully characterize the sensitivity of FOXSI, we assessed ghost ray backgrounds generated by sources outside of the field of view via a ray-tracing algorithm. We used a Bayesian approach to provide upper thresholds of quiet-Sun HXR emission and probability distributions for the expected flux when a quiet-Sun HXR source is assumed to exist. Results. We found a FOXSI-2 upper limit of 4.5 x 10(-2) photons s(-1) cm(-2) keV(-1) with a 2 sigma confidence level in the 5-10 keV energy range. This limit is the first-ever quiet-Sun upper threshold in HXR reported using similar to 1 min observations during a period of high solar activity. RHESSI was unable to measure the quiet-Sun emission during active times due to its limited dynamic range. During the FOXSI-3 flight, the Sun exhibited a fairly quiet configuration, displaying only one aged nonflaring active region. Using the entire similar to 6.5 min of FOXSI-3 data, we report a 2 sigma upper limit of similar to 10(-4) photons s(-1) cm(-2) keV(-1) for the 5-10 keV energy range. Conclusions. The FOXSI-3 upper limits on quiet-Sun emission are similar to that previously reported, but FOXSI-3 achieved these results with only 5 min of observations or about 1/2600 less time than RHESSI. A possible future spacecraft using hard X-ray focusing optics like those in the FOXSI concept would allow enough observation time to constrain the current HXR quiet-Sun limits further, or perhaps even make direct detections. This is the first report of quiet-Sun HXR limits from FOXSI and the first science paper using FOXSI-3 observations.
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RADIOISOTOPES 71(2) 141-151 2022年7月15日 査読有り
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IEEE Transactions on Radiation and Plasma Medical Sciences 6(5) 592-600 2022年5月 査読有り
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Nature Biomedical Engineering 6(5) 640-647 2022年4月4日 査読有り
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Scientific Reports 12(1) 2022年3月28日 査読有りAbstract Elemental analysis based on muonic X-rays resulting from muon irradiation provides information about bulk material composition without causing damage, which is essential in the case of precious or otherwise unreachable samples, such as in archeology and planetary science. We developed a three-dimensional (3D) elemental analysis technique by combining the elemental analysis method based on negative muons with an imaging cadmium telluride double-sided strip detector (CdTe-DSD) designed for the hard X-ray and soft $$\gamma$$-ray observation. A muon irradiation experiment using spherical plastic samples was conducted at the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC); a set of projection images was taken by the CdTe-DSD, equipped with a pinhole collimator, for different sample rotation angles. The projection images measured by the CdTe-DSD were utilized to obtain a 3D volumetric phantom by using the maximum likelihood expectation maximization algorithm. The reconstructed phantom successfully revealed the 3D distribution of carbon in the bulk samples and the stopping depth of the muons. This result demonstrated the feasibility of the proposed non-destructive 3D elemental analysis method for bulk material analysis based on muonic X-rays.
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Physical Review A 105(2) 2022年2月17日 査読有り
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IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science 68(8) 2279-2285 2021年8月 査読有り
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IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity 31(5) 2021年8月 査読有りA superconducting transition-edge sensor (TES) microcalorimeter is an ideal X-ray detector for experiments at accelerator facilities because of good energy resolution and high efficiency. To study the performance of the TES detector with a high-intensity pulsed charged-particle beam, we measured X-ray spectra with a pulsed muon beam at the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC) in Japan. We found substantial temporal shifts of the X-ray energy correlated with the arrival time of the pulsed muon beam, which was reasonably explained by pulse pileup due to the incidence of energetic particles from the initial pulsed beam.
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Deexcitation Dynamics of Muonic Atoms Revealed by High-Precision Spectroscopy of Electronic K X RaysPhysical Review Letters 127(5) 2021年7月27日 査読有りWe observed electronic K x rays emitted from muonic iron atoms using superconducting transition-edge sensor microcalorimeters. The energy resolution of 5.2 eV in FWHM allowed us to observe the asymmetric broad profile of the electronic characteristic Kα and Kβ x rays together with the hypersatellite Khα x rays around 6 keV. This signature reflects the time-dependent screening of the nuclear charge by the negative muon and the L-shell electrons, accompanied by electron side feeding. Assisted by a simulation, these data clearly reveal the electronic K- and L-shell hole production and their temporal evolution on the 10-20 fs scale during the muon cascade process.
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Review of Scientific Instruments 92(6) 2021年6月1日 査読有りMethods to measure the polarization of x rays from highly charged heavy ions with a significantly higher accuracy than that of the existing technology are needed to explore relativistic and quantum electrodynamics effects, including the Breit interaction. We developed an Electron Beam Ion Trap Compton Camera (EBIT-CC), a new Compton polarimeter with pixelated multi-layer silicon, and cadmium telluride counters. The EBIT-CC detects the three-dimensional position of Compton scattering and photoelectric absorption, and thus, the degree of polarization of incoming x rays can be evaluated. We attached the EBIT-CC on the Tokyo Electron Beam Ion Trap (Tokyo-EBIT) in the University of Electro-Communications. An experiment was performed to evaluate its polarimetric capability through an observation of radiative recombination x rays emitted from highly charged krypton ions, which were generated by the Tokyo-EBIT. The CC of the EBIT-CC was calibrated for the ∼75 keV x rays. We developed event reconstruction and selection procedures and applied them to every registered event. As a result, we successfully obtained the polarization degree with an absolute uncertainty of 0.02. This uncertainty is small enough to probe the difference between the zero-frequency approximation and full-frequency-dependent calculation for the Breit interaction, which is expected for dielectronic recombination x rays of highly charged heavy ions.
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Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering 11821 2021年The FOXSI-4 sounding rocket will fly a significantly upgraded instrument in NASAs first solar are campaign. It will deploy direct X-ray focusing optics which have revolutionized our understanding of astrophysical phenomena. For example, they have allowed NuSTAR to provide X-ray imaging and IXPE (scheduled for launch in 2021) to provide X-ray polarization observations with detectors with higher photon rate capability and greater sensitivity than their predecessors. The FOXSI sounding rocket is the first solar dedicated mission using this method and has demonstrated high sensitivity and improved imaging dynamic range with its three successful flights. Although the building blocks are already in place for a FOXSI satellite instrument, further advances are needed to equip the next generation of solar X-ray explorers. FOXSI-4 will develop and implement higher angular resolution optics/detector pairs to investigate fine spatial structures (both bright and faint) in a solar are. FOXSI-4 will use highly polished electroformed Wolter-I mirrors fabricated at the NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), together with finely pixelated Si CMOS sensors and fine-pitch CdTe strip detectors provided by a collaboration with institutes in Japan. FOXSI-4 will also implement a set of novel perforated attenuators that will enable both the low and high energy spectral components to be observed simultaneously in each pixel, even at the high rates expected from a medium (or large) size solar are. The campaign will take place during one of the Parker Solar Probe (PSP) perihelia, allowing coordination between this spacecraft and other instruments which observe the Sun at different wavelengths.
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Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment 982 2020年12月1日 査読有りWe present our latest ASIC, which is used for the readout of Cadmium Telluride double-sided strip detectors (CdTe DSDs) and high spectroscopic imaging. It is implemented in a 0.35 μm CMOS technology (X-Fab XH035), consists of 64 readout channels and has a function that performs simultaneous AD conversion for each channel. The equivalent noise charge of 54.9e− ± 11.3e− (rms) is measured without connecting the ASIC to any detectors. From the spectroscopy measurements using a CdTe single-sided strip detector, the energy resolution of 1.12 keV (FWHM) is obtained at 13.9 keV, and photons within the energy from 6.4 keV to 122.1 keV are detected. Based on the experimental results, we propose a new low-noise readout architecture making use of a slew-rate limited mode at the shaper followed by a peak detector circuit.
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Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment 978 2020年10月21日 査読有りWe have evaluated the performance of a fine pitch CdTe Double-sided Strip Detector (CdTe-DSD), which was originally developed for the focal plane detector of a hard X-ray telescope to observe the Sun. The detector has a thickness of 750 μm and has 128 strip electrodes with a 60 μm strip pitch orthogonally placed on both sides of the detector and covers an energy range 4 keV to 80 keV. The study of the depth of photon interaction and charge sharing effects are of importance in order to provide good spectroscopic and imaging performance. We study the tail structure observed in the spectra caused by charge trapping and develop a new method to reconstruct the spectra based on induced charge information from both anode and cathode strips. By applying this method, energy resolutions (FWHM) of 0.76 keV and 1.0 keV can be obtained at photon energies of 14 keV and 60 keV, respectively, if the energy difference between the anode and cathode is within 1 keV. Furthermore, the tail component at 60 keV is reduced, and the energy resolution of the 60 keV peak is improved from 2.4 keV to 1.5 keV (FWHM) if the energy difference is greater than 1 keV. In order to study the imaging performance, we constructed a simple imaging system using a 5 mm thick tungsten plate that has a pinhole with a diameter of 100 μm. We utilize a 133Ba radioisotope of 1 mm in diameter as a target source in combination with a 100 μm slit made from 0.5 mm thickness tungsten. We imaged the 133Ba source behind the 100 μm slit using a 30 keV peak, with a 100 μm pinhole placed at the center of the source-detector distance. By applying a charge sharing correction between strips, we have succeeded in obtaining a position resolution better than the strip pitch of 60 μm.
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Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems 6(4) 2020年10月1日 査読有りUnderstanding and reducing in-orbit instrumental backgrounds are essential to achieving high sensitivity in hard x-ray astronomical observations. The observational data of the Hard X-ray Imager (HXI) onboard the Hitomi satellite provide useful information on the background components due to its multilayer configuration with different atomic numbers: The HXI consists of a stack of four layers of Si (Z = 14) detectors and one layer of cadmium telluride (CdTe) (Z = 48, 52) detector surrounded by well-Type Bi4Ge3O12 active shields. Based on the observational data, the backgrounds of the top Si layer, the three underlying Si layers, and the CdTe layer are inferred to be dominated by different components, namely, low-energy electrons, albedo neutrons, and proton-induced radioactivation, respectively. Monte Carlo simulations of the in-orbit background of the HXI reproduce the observed background spectrum of each layer well, thereby quantitatively verifying the above hypothesis. In addition, we suggest the inclusion of an electron shield to reduce the background.
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Journal of Low Temperature Physics 200(5-6) 445-451 2020年9月1日 査読有り© 2020, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature. High-resolution X-ray spectroscopy of the highly charged muonic atoms/ions isolated in vacuum is an ideal probe to explore quantum electrodynamics under extremely strong electric fields, which is one of the major topic in fundamental atomic physics. A feasibility test measurement with a low-density neon gas target was performed by observing X-rays emitted by muonic neon via the 5 → 4 transition, ∼ 6.3 keV, using a multi-pixel array of superconducting transition-edge-sensor (TES) microcalorimeters at the J-PARC muon facility. We successfully demonstrated the feasibility of muonic atom X-ray spectroscopy with a gas target at a pressure as low as 0.1 atom using TES array under an intense pulsed muon beam.
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Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment 954 2020年2月21日 査読有り© 2018 Elsevier B.V. Compton imaging is a promising gamma-ray imaging method based on the Compton scattering kinematics due to high Compton scattering probability for sub-MeV to MeV gamma-rays. A conventional Compton camera has a disadvantage of low signal-to-background ratio (SBR), which is caused by drawing of multiple Compton cones. A method to solve this fundamental problem is the double-photon emission computed tomography (DPECT), which uses the coincidence detection for cascade gamma-rays and significantly increases the SBR using intersections of two Compton cones. In this study, we demonstrated the DPECT method by using 134Cs radio isotope, which is one of important radioisotopes for the imaging of fuel debris, with two Ce:Gd3(Al,Ga)5O12 (GAGG) scintillator Compton cameras.
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Physics in Medicine and Biology 65(5) 2020年 査読有り© 2020 Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine. The Compton camera can simultaneously acquire images of multiple isotopes injected in a body; therefore, it has the potential to introduce a new subfield in the field of biomedical imaging applications. The objective of this study is to assess the ability of a prototype semiconductor-based silicon/cadmium telluride (Si/CdTe) Compton camera to simultaneously image the distributions of technetium (99mTc)-dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA) (141 keV emission) and 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) (511 keV emission) injected into a human volunteer. 99mTc-DMSA and 18F-FDG were injected intravenously into a 25-year-old male volunteer. The distributions of 99mTc-DMSA and 18F-FDG were simultaneously made visible by setting a specified energy window for each radioisotope. The images of these radiopharmaceuticals acquired using the prototype Compton camera were superimposed onto computed tomography images for reference. The reconstructed image showed that 99mTc-DMSA had accumulated in both kidneys, which is consistent with the well-known diagnostic distribution determined by clinical imaging via single-photon emission computed tomography. In the 18F-FDG image, there is broad distribution around the liver and kidneys, which was expected based on routine clinical positron emission tomography imaging. The current study demonstrated for the first time that the Si/CdTe Compton camera was capable of simultaneously imaging the distributions of two radiopharmaceuticals, 99mTc-DMSA and 18F-FDG, in a human body. These results suggest that the Si/CdTe Compton camera has the potential to become a novel modality for nuclear medical diagnoses enabling multi-probe simultaneous tracking.
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Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment 924 327-331 2019年4月 査読有り© 2018 Elsevier B.V. The soft gamma-ray detector (SGD) onboard Hitomi, which has a unique design concept, based on the combination of a ”narrow-field multi-layer semi-conductor Compton camera” and an active shielding, realizes astronomical observations in the 60−600 keV energy band with a high sensitivity. Development of optimum event selection criteria is essential for deriving the best observational performance of the SGD, but it is challenging because many parameters such as the detected photon energy, the Compton-scattering angle, and distance of each hit, among others, are non-linearly correlated. In this study, we propose a new method for distinguishing the signal from the background in the multi-parameter space utilizing a machine-learning approach. Our preliminary result, which uses both on-ground experimental data with good photon statistics and flight data with real in-orbit background and signal information, suggests that this approach might a good guide for an optimal event selection by the Compton camera.
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Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment 924 321-326 2019年4月 査読有り© 2018 Elsevier B.V. FOXSI-3 (Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager) is an international sounding rocket experiment to observe hard X-rays from the Sun. The previous two flights successfully demonstrated the efficacy of the concept of direct solar imaging in hard X-ray band. For the third launch scheduled in the summer of 2018, we have fabricated a prototype of the CdTe Double-sided Strip Detector. To evaluate the basic performance, laboratory tests were conducted. Energy resolution (FWHM) of 0.8 keV at 13.9 keV and 1.3 keV at 59.5 keV are confirmed. Since the optic angular resolution is finer than the strip pitch of the detector at the focal plane, sub-strip position determination is important to make full use of the high precision of the optic. To test the possibility of sub-strip resolution, we developed a new method of investigating the detector strips with a fine multi-pinhole collimator. The results of the analysis were highly favorable and we confirmed the sub-strip resolution by making sub-strip images of multi-pinholes and flat-irradiation. The spectral uniformity over the detector is also confirmed using the sub-strip image of flat-irradiation.
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Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering 11118 2019年 査読有り© COPYRIGHT SPIE. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only. The Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager (FOXSI) sounding rocket experiment demonstrates the technique of focusing hard X-ray (HXR) optics for the study of fundamental questions about the high-energy Sun. Solar HXRs provide one of the most direct diagnostics of accelerated electrons and the impulsive heating of the solar corona. Previous solar missions have been limited in sensitivity and dynamic range by the use of indirect imaging, but technological advances now make direct focusing accessible in the HXR regime, and the FOXSI rocket experiment optimizes HXR focusing telescopes for the unique scientific requirements of the Sun. FOXSI has completed three successful flights between 2012 and 2018. This paper gives a brief overview of the experiment, focusing on the third flight of the instrument on 2018 Sept. 7. We present the telescope upgrades highlighting our work to understand and reduce the effects of singly reflected X-rays and show early science results obtained during FOXSI's third flight.
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Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment 912 57-60 2018年12月21日 査読有り© 2017 Elsevier B.V. High-resolution CdTe semiconductor detectors with both fine position resolution and high energy resolution hold great promise to improve measurement in various hard X-ray and gamma-ray imaging experiments. In the field of in-vivo molecular imaging, where the molecules labeled with radioisotopes are injected into a small animal and their distribution in a body is detected by gamma-ray imaging detectors externally, a large detection area is also required to obtain a number of projections from multiple pinholes. We have developed a prototype imaging system consisting of a 32 mm-wide CdTe double-sided strip detector equipped with multi-pinhole optics. We describe its imaging capability, as studied through experiments with radioisotopes for medical use (125I and 111In) and a 3D phantom.
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Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment 912 199-204 2018年12月21日 査読有り© 2017 Elsevier B.V. This work presents a long-term operation of two stacked CdTe double sided strip detectors that are comparable with the CdTe detectors onboard Hitomi's HXI. The goal of this test is to study the evolution of the spectroscopic performance of the detectors during a one year operation cycle which resembles the in-orbit operation cycle of Hitomi HXI. Crystal defects inside CdTe cause a degradation of the spectroscopic performance (polarization effect) of the crystal which is becoming worse during detector operation. In order to prevent crystal polarization, the detectors are reset (switch-off of the depletion voltage) once a day. Our main investigation was to study if a long-term degradation can occur as a result of incomplete depolarization during the reset. We present the hardware setup and the analytical steps that were used to investigate the detector stability during each day and over the whole testing period. For the anode signals our results show at 60 keV: a daily line drift of (−2.8±0.7) eV/ks while the long-term drift is (−1.5±1.2) eV/day. The degradation of the energy resolution is measured to be (+2.4±0.3) eV/ks FWHM and the loss of efficiency is (−0.29±0.02) %/ks.
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Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment 912 191-194 2018年12月21日 査読有り© 2017 Elsevier B.V. We have developed a system combining a back-illuminated Complementary-Metal–Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) imaging sensor and Xilinx Zynq System-on-Chip (SoC) device for a soft X-ray (0.5–10 keV) imaging spectroscopy observation of the Sun to investigate the dynamics of the solar corona. Because typical timescales of energy release phenomena in the corona span a few minutes at most, we aim to obtain the corresponding energy spectra and derive the physical parameters, i.e., temperature and emission measure, every few tens of seconds or less for future solar X-ray observations. An X-ray photon-counting technique, with a frame rate of a few hundred frames per second or more, can achieve such results. We used the Zynq SoC device to achieve the requirements. Zynq contains an ARM processor core, which is also known as the Processing System (PS) part, and a Programable Logic (PL) part in a single chip. We use the PL and PS to control the sensor and seamless recording of data to a storage system, respectively. We aim to use the system for the third flight of the Focusing Optics Solar X-ray Imager (FOXSI-3) sounding rocket experiment for the first photon-counting X-ray imaging and spectroscopy of the Sun.
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Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment 912 269-273 2018年12月21日 査読有り© 2017 Elsevier B.V. Electron tracking based Compton imaging is a key technique to improve the sensitivity of Compton cameras by measuring the initial direction of recoiled electrons. To realize this technique in semiconductor Compton cameras, we propose a new detector concept, Si-CMOS hybrid detector. It is a Si detector bump-bonded to a CMOS readout integrated circuit to obtain electron trajectory images. To acquire the energy and the event timing, signals from N-side are also read out in this concept. By using an ASIC for the N-side readout, the timing resolution of few μs is achieved. In this paper, we present the results of two prototypes with 20 μm pitch pixels. The images of the recoiled electron trajectories are obtained with them successfully. The energy resolutions (FWHM) are 4.1keV (CMOS) and 1.4keV (N-side) at 59.5 keV. In addition, we confirmed that the initial direction of the electron is determined using the reconstruction algorithm based on the graph theory approach. These results show that Si-CMOS hybrid detectors can be used for electron tracking based Compton imaging.
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Physics in Medicine and Biology 63(20) 2018年10月16日 査読有り© 2018 Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine. We have been developing a medical imaging technique using a Compton camera. This study evaluates the feasibility of clear imaging with 99mTc and 18F simultaneously, and demonstrates in vivo imaging with 99mTc and/or 18F. We used a Compton camera with silicon and cadmium telluride (Si/CdTe) semiconductors. We estimated the imaging performance of the Compton camera for 141 keV and 511 keV gamma rays from 99mTc and 22Na, respectively. Next, we simultaneously imaged 99mTc and 18F point sources to evaluate the cross-talk artifacts produced by a higher energy gamma-ray background. Then, in the in vivo experiments, three rats were injected with 99mTc-dimercaptosuccinic acid and/or 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose and imaged. The Compton images were compared with PET images. The rats were euthanized, and the activities in their organs were measured using a well counter. The energy resolution and spatial resolution were measured for the sources. No apparent cross-talk artifacts were observed in the practical-activity ratio (99mTc:18F = 1:16). We succeeded in imaging the distributions of 99mTc and 18F simultaneously, and the results were consistent with the PET images and well counter measurements. Our Si/CdTe Compton camera can thus work as a multi-tracer imager, covering various SPECT and PET probes, with less cross-talk artifacts in comparison to the conventional Anger cameras using a collimator. Our findings suggest the possibility of human trials.
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Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan 70(6) 2018年10月1日 査読有り責任著者We present the results from the Hitomi Soft Gamma-ray Detector (SGD) observation of the Crab nebula. The main part of SGD is a Compton camera, which in addition to being a spectrometer, is capable of measuring polarization of gamma-ray photons. The Crab nebula is one of the brightest X-ray / gamma-ray sources on the sky, and, the only source from which polarized X-ray photons have been detected. SGD observed the Crab nebula during the initial test observation phase of Hitomi. We performed the data analysis of the SGD observation, the SGD background estimation and the SGD Monte Carlo simulations, and, successfully detected polarized gamma-ray emission from the Crab nebula with only about 5 ks exposure time. The obtained polarization fraction of the phase-integrated Crab emission (sum of pulsar and nebula emissions) is (22.1 $\pm$ 10.6)% and, the polarization angle is 110.7$^o$ + 13.2 / $-$13.0$^o$ in the energy range of 60--160 keV (The errors correspond to the 1 sigma deviation). The confidence level of the polarization detection was 99.3%. The polarization angle measured by SGD is about one sigma deviation with the projected spin axis of the pulsar, 124.0$^o$ $\pm$0.1$^o$.
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IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science 65(7) 1408-1415 2018年7月 査読有り© 1963-2012 IEEE. This paper describes a 16 × 16 pixels CdTe-based X-ray detector named dimension 2 revision 1 (D2R1) with a pixel size of 300 μ m × 300 μ m. An application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) is interconnected to a CdTe detector by means of an indium gold stud bonding process. This ASIC has a mean equivalent noise charge of 29 el.rms (at 0 pF). The combination of a low capacitance interconnection and low-dark-current detector (0.5 pA) with an optimized ASIC results in a spectral resolution of 584-eV full-width at half-maximum at 60 keV, an energy threshold of 2 keV with a dynamic range of 250 keV. A filtering stage made of a multicorrelated double sampling allows the system to measure X-ray photons at a frequency of 10 kcounts/s typically suited for low photon flux less than 3000 photons cm-2 s-1. The energy range, resolution, and timing capability of D2R1 can suite a variety of different applications such as X-ray astrophysics, nuclear safety, or medical applications.
MISC
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Proceedings of 38th International Cosmic Ray Conference — PoS(ICRC2023) 2023年8月18日
講演・口頭発表等
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日本天文学会2025年春季年会 2025年3月19日
共同研究・競争的資金等の研究課題
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