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
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Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan 70(2) 2017年11月21日We report a Hitomi observation of IGR J16318-4848, a high-mass X-ray binary system with an extremely strong absorption of N_H~10^{24} cm^{-2}. Previous X-ray studies revealed that its spectrum is dominated by strong fluorescence lines of Fe as well as continuum emission. For physical and geometrical insight into the nature of the reprocessing material, we utilize the high spectroscopic resolving power of the X-ray microcalorimeter (the soft X-ray spectrometer; SXS) and the wide-band sensitivity by the soft and hard X-ray imager (SXI and HXI) aboard Hitomi. Even though photon counts are limited due to unintended off-axis pointing, the SXS spectrum resolves Fe K{\alpha_1} and K{\alpha_2} lines and puts strong constraints on the line centroid and width. The line width corresponds to the velocity of 160^{+300}_{-70} km s^{-1}. This represents the most accurate, and smallest, width measurement of this line made so far from any X-ray binary, much less than the Doppler broadening and shift expected from speeds which are characteristic of similar systems. Combined with the K-shell edge energy measured by the SXI and HXI spectra, the ionization state of Fe is estimated to be in the range of Fe I--IV. Considering the estimated ionization parameter and the distance between the X-ray source and the absorber, the density and thickness of the materials are estimated. The extraordinarily strong absorption and the absence of a Compton shoulder component is confirmed. These characteristics suggest reprocessing materials which are distributed in a narrow solid angle or scattering primarily with warm free electrons or neutral hydrogen.
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Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan 70(2) 2017年11月16日The origin of the narrow Fe-K{\alpha} fluorescence line at 6.4 keV from active galactic nuclei has long been under debate; some of the possible sites are the outer accretion disk, the broad line region, a molecular torus, or interstellar/intracluster media. In February-March 2016, we performed the first X-ray microcalorimeter spectroscopy with the Soft X-ray Spectrometer (SXS) onboard the Hitomi satellite of the Fanaroff-Riley type I radio galaxy NGC 1275 at the center of the Perseus cluster of galaxies. With the high energy resolution of ~5 eV at 6 keV achieved by Hitomi/SXS, we detected the Fe-K{\alpha} line with ~5.4 {\sigma} significance. The velocity width is constrained to be 500-1600 km s$^{-1}$ (FWHM for Gaussian models) at 90% confidence. The SXS also constrains the continuum level from the NGC 1275 nucleus up to ~20 keV, giving an equivalent width ~20 eV of the 6.4 keV line. Because the velocity width is narrower than that of broad H{\alpha} line of ~2750 km s$^{-1}$, we can exclude a large contribution to the line flux from the accretion disk and the broad line region. Furthermore, we performed pixel map analyses on the Hitomi/SXS data and image analyses on the Chandra archival data, and revealed that the Fe-K{\alpha} line comes from a region within ~1.6 kpc from the NGC 1275 core, where an active galactic nucleus emission dominates, rather than that from intracluster media. Therefore, we suggest that the source of the Fe-K{\alpha} line from NGC 1275 is likely a low-covering fraction molecular torus or a rotating molecular disk which probably extends from a pc to hundreds pc scale in the active galactic nucleus system.
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Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment 912 140-143 2017年11月16日A CdTe double-sided strip detector (CdTe-DSD) is an ideal device for imaging and spectroscopic measure- ments in the hard X-ray range above 10 keV. Recent development enables us to realize an imager with a detection area of ~10 cm${^2}$. An energy resolution of 1-2 keV (FWHM) and a position resolution of a few hundred {\mu}m are available from the detector. This type of imager has been long awaited for non-destructive elemental analysis, especially by using negative muons, because energies of characteristic X-rays from muonic atoms are about 200 time higher than those from normal atoms. With the method that uses negative muons, hard X-ray information gives the spatial distribution of elements in samples at a certain depth defined by the initial momentum of the muon beam. In order to study three-dimensional imaging capability of the method, we have developed a compact imaging system based on CdTe-DSD and a {\phi}3 mm pinhole collimator as the first prototype. We conducted experiments with samples which consist of layers of Al, BN and LiF irradiated by negative muon beams in MUSE/J-PARC and successfully reconstruct hard X-ray images of muonic X-rays from B, N and F at various depths.
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Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan 70(2) 2017年11月1日Extending the earlier measurements reported in Hitomi collaboration (2016, Nature, 535, 117), we examine the atmospheric gas motions within the central 100~kpc of the Perseus cluster using observations obtained with the Hitomi satellite. After correcting for the point spread function of the telescope and using optically thin emission lines, we find that the line-of-sight velocity dispersion of the hot gas is remarkably low and mostly uniform. The velocity dispersion reaches maxima of approximately 200~km~s$^{-1}$ toward the central active galactic nucleus (AGN) and toward the AGN inflated north-western `ghost' bubble. Elsewhere within the observed region, the velocity dispersion appears constant around 100~km~s$^{-1}$. We also detect a velocity gradient with a 100~km~s$^{-1}$ amplitude across the cluster core, consistent with large-scale sloshing of the core gas. If the observed gas motions are isotropic, the kinetic pressure support is less than 10\% of the thermal pressure support in the cluster core. The well-resolved optically thin emission lines have Gaussian shapes, indicating that the turbulent driving scale is likely below 100~kpc, which is consistent with the size of the AGN jet inflated bubbles. We also report the first measurement of the ion temperature in the intracluster medium, which we find to be consistent with the electron temperature. In addition, we present a new measurement of the redshift to the brightest cluster galaxy NGC~1275.
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Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan 70(2) 2017年10月12日Thanks to its high spectral resolution (~5 eV at 6 keV), the Soft X-ray Spectrometer (SXS) on board Hitomi enables us to measure the detailed structure of spatially resolved emission lines from highly ionized ions in galaxy clusters for the first time. In this series of papers, using the SXS we have measured the velocities of gas motions, metallicities and the multi-temperature structure of the gas in the core of the Perseus cluster. Here, we show that when inferring physical properties from line emissivities in systems like Perseus, the resonant scattering (RS) effect should be taken into account. In the Hitomi waveband, RS mostly affects the FeXXV He$\alpha$ line ($w$) - the strongest line in the spectrum. The flux measured by Hitomi in this line is suppressed by a factor ~1.3 in the inner ~30 kpc, compared to predictions for an optically thin plasma; the suppression decreases with the distance from the center. The $w$ line also appears slightly broader than other lines from the same ion. The observed distortions of the $w$ line flux, shape and distance dependence are all consistent with the expected effect of the resonant scattering in the Perseus core. By measuring the ratio of fluxes in optically thick ($w$) and thin (FeXXV forbidden, He$\beta$, Ly$\alpha$) lines, and comparing these ratios with predictions from Monte Carlo radiative transfer simulations, the velocities of gas motions have been obtained. The results are consistent with the direct measurements of gas velocities from line broadening described elsewhere in this series, although the systematic and statistical uncertainties remain significant. Further improvements in the predictions of line emissivities in plasma models, and deeper observations with future X-ray missions will enable RS measurements to provide powerful constraints on the amplitude and anisotropy of clusters gas motions.
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Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan 70(2) 2017年7月27日To search for giant X-ray pulses correlated with the giant radio pulses (GRPs) from the Crab pulsar, we performed a simultaneous observation of the Crab pulsar with the X-ray satellite Hitomi in the 2 -- 300 keV band and the Kashima NICT radio observatory in the 1.4 -- 1.7 GHz band with a net exposure of about 2 ks on 25 March 2016, just before the loss of the Hitomi mission.The timing performance of the Hitomi instruments was confirmed to meet the timing requirement and about 1,000 and 100 GRPs were simultaneously observed at the main and inter-pulse phases, respectively, and we found no apparent correlation between the giant radio pulses and the X-ray emission in either the main or inter-pulse phases.All variations are within the 2 sigma fluctuations of the X-ray fluxes at the pulse peaks, and the 3 sigma upper limits of variations of main- or inter- pulse GRPs are 22\% or 80\% of the peak flux in a 0.20 phase width, respectively, in the 2 -- 300 keV band.The values become 25\% or 110\% for main or inter-pulse GRPs, respectively, when the phase width is restricted into the 0.03 phase.Among the upper limits from the Hitomi satellite, those in the 4.5-10 keV and the 70-300 keV are obtained for the first time, and those in other bands are consistent with previous reports.Numerically, the upper limits of main- and inter-pulse GRPs in the 0.20 phase width are about (2.4 and 9.3) $\times 10^{-11}$ erg cm$^{-2}$, respectively. No significant variability in pulse profiles implies that the GRPs originated from a local place within the magnetosphere and the number of photon-emitting particles temporally increases.However, the results do not statistically rule out variations correlated with the GRPs, because the possible X-ray enhancement may appear due to a $>0.02$\% brightening of the pulse-peak flux under such conditions.
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Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan 70(2) 2017年6月30日The Crab nebula originated from a core-collapse supernova (SN) explosion observed in 1054 A.D. When viewed as a supernova remnant (SNR), it has an anomalously low observed ejecta mass and kinetic energy for an Fe-core collapse SN. Intensive searches were made for a massive shell that solves this discrepancy, but none has been detected. An alternative idea is that the SN1054 is an electron-capture (EC) explosion with a lower explosion energy by an order of magnitude than Fe-core collapse SNe. In the X-rays, imaging searches were performed for the plasma emission from the shell in the Crab outskirts to set a stringent upper limit to the X-ray emitting mass. However, the extreme brightness of the source hampers access to its vicinity. We thus employed spectroscopic technique using the X-ray micro-calorimeter onboard the Hitomi satellite. By exploiting its superb energy resolution, we set an upper limit for emission or absorption features from yet undetected thermal plasma in the 2-12 keV range. We also re-evaluated the existing Chandra and XMM-Newton data. By assembling these results, a new upper limit was obtained for the X-ray plasma mass of <~ 1Mo for a wide range of assumed shell radius, size, and plasma temperature both in and out of the collisional equilibrium. To compare with the observation, we further performed hydrodynamic simulations of the Crab SNR for two SN models (Fe-core versus EC) under two SN environments (uniform ISM versus progenitor wind). We found that the observed mass limit can be compatible with both SN models if the SN environment has a low density of <~ 0.03 cm-3 (Fe core) or <~ 0.1 cm-3 (EC) for the uniform density, or a progenitor wind density somewhat less than that provided by a mass loss rate of 10-5 Mo yr-1 at 20 km s-1 for the wind environment.
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Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering 10397 2017年© COPYRIGHT SPIE. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only. The Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager (FOXSI) sounding rocket experiment conducts direct imaging and spectral observation of the Sun in hard X-rays, in the energy range 4 to 20 keV. These high-sensitivity observations are used to study particle acceleration and coronal heating. FOXSI is designed with seven grazing incidence optics modules that focus X-rays onto seven focal plane detectors kept at a 2m distance. FOXSI-1 was flown with seven Double-sided Si Strip Detectors (DSSD), and two of them were replaced with CdTe detectors for FOXSI-2. The upcoming FOXSI-3 flight will carry DSSD and CdTe detectors with upgraded optics for enhanced sensitivity. The detectors are calibrated using various radioactive sources. The detector's spectral response matrix was constructed with diagonal elements using a Gaussian approximation with a spread (sigma) that accounts for the energy resolution of the detector. Spectroscopic studies of past FOXSI flight data suggest that the inclusion of lower energy X-rays could better constrain the spectral modeling to yield a more precise temperature estimation of the hot plasma. This motivates us to carry out an improved calibration to better understand the finer-order effects on the spectral response, especially at lower energies. Here we report our improved calibration of FOXSI detectors using experiments and Monte-Carlo simulations.
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Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 468(2) 1442-1452 2016年11月2日The gravitationally lensed quasar APM 08279+5255 has the fastest claimed wind from any AGN, with velocities of 0.6-0.7c, requiring magnetic acceleration as special relativisitic effects limit all radiatively driven winds to v<0.3-0.5c. However, this extreme velocity derives from interpreting both the narrow and broad absorption features in the X-ray spectrum as iron absorption lines. The classic ultrafast outflow source PDS 456 also shows similar absorption systems, but here the higher energy, broader feature is generally interpreted as an absorption edge. We reanalyse all the spectra from APM 08279+5255 using a full 3-dimensional Monte Carlo radiative transfer disc wind model for the ionised wind at 0.1-0.2c, together with complex absorption from lower ionisation material, and find that this is a better description of the data. Thus there is no strong requirement for outflow velocities beyond 0.2c, which can be powered by radiation driving. We show that UV line driving is especially likely given the spectral energy distribution of this source which is intrinsically UV bright and X-ray weak. While the peak of this emission is unobservable, it must be luminous enough to power the observed hot dust, favouring at least moderate black hole spin.
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Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment 840 51-58 2016年10月18日Gamma-ray polarization offers a unique probes into the geometry of the gamma-ray emission process in celestial objects. The Soft Gamma-ray Detector (SGD) onboard the X-ray observatory Hitomi is a Si/CdTe Compton camera and is expected to be an excellent polarimeter, as well as a highly sensitive spectrometer due to its good angular coverage and resolution for Compton scattering. A beam test of the final-prototype for the SGD Compton camera was conducted to demonstrate its polarimetric capability and to verify and calibrate the Monte Carlo simulation of the instrument. The modulation factor of the SGD prototype camera, evaluated for the inner and outer parts of the CdTe sensors as absorbers, was measured to be 0.649--0.701 (inner part) and 0.637--0.653 (outer part) at 122.2 keV and 0.610--0.651 (inner part) and 0.564--0.592 (outer part) at 194.5 keV at varying polarization angles with respect to the detector. This indicates that the relative systematic uncertainty of the modulation factor is as small as ~3%.
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Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment 831 410-414 2016年9月21日© 2016 Elsevier B.V. The hard X-ray Imager and Soft Gamma-ray Detector onboard ASTRO-H demonstrate high sensitivity to hard X-ray (5–80 keV) and soft gamma-rays (60–600 keV), respectively. To reduce the background, both instruments are actively shielded by large, thick Bismuth Germanate scintillators. We have developed the signal processing system of the avalanche photodiode in the BGO active shields and have demonstrated its effectiveness after assembly in the flight model of the HXI/SGD sensor and after integration into the satellite. The energy threshold achieved is about 150 keV and anti-coincidence efficiency for cosmic-ray events is almost 100%. Installed in the BGO active shield, the developed signal processing system successfully reduces the room background level of the main detector.
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Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment 831 235-241 2016年9月21日© 2016 Elsevier B.V. The Hard X-ray Imager (HXI) is one of the instruments onboard the ASTRO-H mission [1–4] to be launched in early 2016. The HXI is the focal plane detector of the hard X-ray reflecting telescope that covers an energy range from 5 to 80 keV. It will execute observations of astronomical objects with a sensitivity for point sources as faint as 1/100,000 of the Crab nebula at >10keV. The HXI camera – the imaging part of the HXI – is realized by a hybrid semiconductor detector system that consists of silicon (Si) and cadmium telluride (CdTe) semiconductor detectors. Here, we present the final design of the HXI camera and report on the development of the flight model. The camera is composed of four layers of Double-sided Silicon Strip Detectors (DSSDs) and one layer of CdTe Double-sided Strip Detector (CdTe-DSD), each with an imaging area of 32 mm×32 mm. The strip pitch of the Si and CdTe sensors is 250 μm, and the signals from all 1280 strips are processed by 40 Application Specified Integrated Circuits (ASICs) developed for the HXI. The five layers of sensors are vertically stacked with a 4 mm spacing to increase the detection efficiency. The thickness of the sensors is 0.5 mm for the Si, and 0.75 mm for the CdTe. In this configuration, soft X-ray photons will be absorbed in the Si part, while hard X-ray photons will go through the Si part and will be detected in the CdTe part. The design of the sensor trays, peripheral circuits, power connections, and readout schemes are also described. The flight models of the HXI camera have been manufactured, tested and installed in the HXI instrument and then on the satellite.
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Astrophysical Journal Letters 837(1) 2016年7月25日High-resolution X-ray spectroscopy with Hitomi was expected to resolve the origin of the faint unidentified E=3.5 keV emission line reported in several low-resolution studies of various massive systems, such as galaxies and clusters, including the Perseus cluster. We have analyzed the Hitomi first-light observation of the Perseus cluster. The emission line expected for Perseus based on the XMM-Newton signal from the large cluster sample under the dark matter decay scenario is too faint to be detectable in the Hitomi data. However, the previously reported 3.5 keV flux from Perseus was anomalously high compared to the sample-based prediction. We find no unidentified line at the reported high flux level. Taking into account the XMM measurement uncertainties for this region, the inconsistency with Hitomi is at a 99% significance for a broad dark-matter line and at 99.7% for a narrow line from the gas. We do not find anomalously high fluxes of the nearby faint K line or the Ar satellite line that were proposed as explanations for the earlier 3.5 keV detections. We do find a hint of a broad excess near the energies of high-n transitions of Sxvi (E=3.44 keV rest-frame) -- a possible signature of charge exchange in the molecular nebula and another proposed explanation for the unidentified line. While its energy is consistent with XMM pn detections, it is unlikely to explain the MOS signal. A confirmation of this interesting feature has to wait for a more sensitive observation with a future calorimeter experiment.
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Nature 535(7610) 117-121 2016年7月15日Clusters of galaxies are the most massive gravitationally-bound objects in the Universe and are still forming. They are thus important probes of cosmological parameters and a host of astrophysical processes. Knowledge of the dynamics of the pervasive hot gas, which dominates in mass over stars in a cluster, is a crucial missing ingredient. It can enable new insights into mechanical energy injection by the central supermassive black hole and the use of hydrostatic equilibrium for the determination of cluster masses. X-rays from the core of the Perseus cluster are emitted by the 50 million K diffuse hot plasma filling its gravitational potential well. The Active Galactic Nucleus of the central galaxy NGC1275 is pumping jetted energy into the surrounding intracluster medium, creating buoyant bubbles filled with relativistic plasma. These likely induce motions in the intracluster medium and heat the inner gas preventing runaway radiative cooling; a process known as Active Galactic Nucleus Feedback. Here we report on Hitomi X-ray observations of the Perseus cluster core, which reveal a remarkably quiescent atmosphere where the gas has a line-of-sight velocity dispersion of 164+/-10 km/s in a region 30-60 kpc from the central nucleus. A gradient in the line-of-sight velocity of 150+/-70 km/s is found across the 60 kpc image of the cluster core. Turbulent pressure support in the gas is 4% or less of the thermodynamic pressure, with large scale shear at most doubling that estimate. We infer that total cluster masses determined from hydrostatic equilibrium in the central regions need little correction for turbulent pressure.
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Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics 121(7) 6009-6016 2016年7月1日©2016. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. We have developed a fine-pitch hard X-ray (HXR) detector using a cadmium telluride (CdTe) semiconductor for imaging and spectroscopy for the second launch of the Focusing Optics Solar X-ray Imager (FOXSI). FOXSI is a rocket experiment to perform high sensitivity HXR observations from 4 to 15 keV using the new technique of HXR focusing optics. The focal plane detector requires <100μm position resolution (to take advantage of the angular resolution of the optics) and ≈1 keV energy resolution (full width at half maximum (FWHM)) for spectroscopy down to 4 keV, with moderate cooling (>−30°C). Double-sided silicon strip detectors were used for the first FOXSI flight in 2012 to meet these criteria. To improve the detectors' efficiency (66% at 15 keV for the silicon detectors) and position resolution of 75 μm for the second launch, we fabricated double-sided CdTe strip detectors with a position resolution of 60 μm and almost 100% efficiency for the FOXSI energy range. The sensitive area is 7.67 mm × 7.67 mm, corresponding to the field of view of 791′′ × 791′′. An energy resolution of 1 keV (FWHM) and low-energy threshold of ≈4 keV were achieved in laboratory calibrations. The second launch of FOXSI was performed on 11 December 2014, and images from the Sun were successfully obtained with the CdTe detector. Therefore, we successfully demonstrated the detector concept and the usefulness of this technique for future HXR observations of the Sun.
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Physics in Medicine and Biology 61(9) 3638-3644 2016年4月
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Journal of Astronomical Instrumentation 5(1) 2016年3月1日© 2016 World Scientific Publishing Company. The Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager (FOXSI) sounding rocket payload flew for the second time on 2014 December 11. To enable direct Hard X-Ray (HXR) imaging spectroscopy, FOXSI makes use of grazing-incidence replicated focusing optics combined with fine-pitch solid-state detectors. FOXSI's first flight provided the first HXR focused images of the Sun. For FOXSI's second flight several updates were made to the instrument including updating the optics and detectors as well as adding a new Solar Aspect and Alignment System (SAAS). This paper provides an overview of these updates as well as a discussion of their measured performance.
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NUCLEAR INSTRUMENTS & METHODS IN PHYSICS RESEARCH SECTION A-ACCELERATORS SPECTROMETERS DETECTORS AND ASSOCIATED EQUIPMENT 806 5-13 2016年1月The Soft Gamma-ray Detector (SGD), to be deployed on board the ASTRO-H satellite, has been developed to provide the highest sensitivity observations of celestial sources in the energy band of 60-600 keV by employing a detector concept which uses a Compton camera whose field-of-view is restricted by a EGO shield to a few degree (narrow-FOV Compton camera). In this concept, the background from outside the FOV can be heavily suppressed by constraining the incident direction of the gamma ray reconstructed by the Compton camera to be consistent with the narrow FOV. We, for the first time, demonstrate the validity of the concept using background data taken during the thermal vacuum test and the low-temperature environment test of the flight model of SGD on ground. We show that the measured background level is suppressed to less than 10% by combining the event rejection using the anti-coincidence trigger of the active EGO shield and by using Compton event reconstruction techniques. More than 75% of the signals from the field-of-view are retained against the background rejection, which clearly demonstrates the improvement of signal-to-noise ratio. The estimated effective area of 22.8 cm(2) meets the mission requirement even though not all of the operational parameters of the instrument have been fully optimized yet. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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2015年9月18日The Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager (FOXSI) is a NASA sounding rocket mission which will study particle acceleration and coronal heating on the Sun through high sensitivity observations in the hard X-ray energy band (5-15 keV). Combining high-resolution focusing X-ray optics and fine-pitch imaging sensors, FOXSI will achieve superior sensitivity; two orders of magnitude better than that of the RHESSI satellite. As the focal plane detector, a Double-sided Si Strip Detector (DSSD) with a front-end ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) will fulfill the scientific requirements of spatial and energy resolution, low energy threshold and time resolution. We have designed and fabricated a DSSD with a thickness of 500 {\mu}m and a dimension of 9.6 mm x 9.6 mm, containing 128 strips with a pitch of 75 {\mu}m, which corresponds to 8 arcsec at the focal length of 2 m. We also developed a low-noise ASIC specified to FOXSI. The detector was successfully operated in the laboratory at a temperature of -20 C and with an applied bias voltage of 300 V, and the energy resolution of 430 eV at a 14 keV line was achieved. We also demonstrated fine-pitch imaging successfully by obtaining a shadow image, hence the implementation of scientific requirements was confirmed.
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Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 461(4) 3954-3963 2015年9月18日1H 0707-495 is the most convincing example of a supermassive black hole with an X-ray spectrum being dominated by extremely smeared, relativistic reflection, with the additional requirement of strongly supersoler iron abundance. However, here we show that the iron features in its 2--10 keV spectrum are rather similar to the archetypal wind dominated source, PDS 456. We fit all the 2--10 keV spectra from 1H 0707-495 using the same wind model as used for PDS 456, but viewed at higher inclination so that the iron absorption line is broader but not so blueshifted. This gives a good overall fit to the data from 1H 0707-495, and an extrapolation of this model to higher energies also gives a good match to the NuSTAR data. Small remaining residuals indicate that the iron line emission is stronger than in PDS 456. This is consistent with the wider angle wind expected from a continuum driven wind from the super-Eddington mass accretion rate in 1H 0707-495, and/or the presence of residual reflection from the underlying disk though the presence of the absorption line in the model removes the requirement for highly relativistic smearing, and highly supersoler iron abundance. We suggest that the spectrum of 1H 0707-495 is sculpted more by absorption in a wind than by extreme relativistic effects in strong gravity.
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Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment 765 192-201 2015年9月2日 査読有り筆頭著者責任著者The Soft Gamma-ray Detector (SGD) is one of the instrument payloads onboard ASTRO-H, and will cover a wide energy band (60--600 keV) at a background level 10 times better than instruments currently in orbit. The SGD achieves low background by combining a Compton camera scheme with a narrow field-of-view active shield. The Compton camera in the SGD is realized as a hybrid semiconductor detector system which consists of silicon and cadmium telluride (CdTe) sensors. The design of the SGD Compton camera has been finalized and the final prototype, which has the same configuration as the flight model, has been fabricated for performance evaluation. The Compton camera has overall dimensions of 12 cm x 12 cm x 12 cm, consisting of 32 layers of Si pixel sensors and 8 layers of CdTe pixel sensors surrounded by 2 layers of CdTe pixel sensors. The detection efficiency of the Compton camera reaches about 15% and 3% for 100 keV and 511 keV gamma rays, respectively. The pixel pitch of the Si and CdTe sensors is 3.2 mm, and the signals from all 13312 pixels are processed by 208 ASICs developed for the SGD. Good energy resolution is afforded by semiconductor sensors and low noise ASICs, and the obtained energy resolutions with the prototype Si and CdTe pixel sensors are 1.0--2.0 keV (FWHM) at 60 keV and 1.6--2.5 keV (FWHM) at 122 keV, respectively. This results in good background rejection capability due to better constraints on Compton kinematics. Compton camera energy resolutions achieved with the final prototype are 6.3 keV (FWHM) at 356 keV and 10.5 keV (FWHM) at 662 keV, respectively, which satisfy the instrument requirements for the SGD Compton camera (better than 2%). Moreover, a low intrinsic background has been confirmed by the background measurement with the final prototype.
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Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment 787 328-335 2015年8月1日© 2015 Elsevier B.V. Asbstract The French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), with the support of the European Space Agency (ESA), is partner of the Soft Gamma-Ray Detector (SGD) and the Hard X-ray Imager (HXI) onboard the 6th Japanese X-ray scientific satellite ASTRO-H (JAXA) initiated by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS). Both scientific instruments, one hosting a series of Compton Gamma Cameras and the other being a focal plane of a grazing incidence mirror telescope in the hard X-ray domain, are equipped with Cadmium Telluride based detectors. ASTRO-H will be operated in a Low Earth Orbit with a 31°inclination at ~550 km altitude, thus passing daily through the South Atlantic Anomaly radiation belt, a specially harsh environment where the detectors are suffering the effect of the interaction with trapped high energy protons. As CdTe detector performance might be affected by the irradiation, we investigate the effect of the accumulated proton fluence on their spectral response. To do so, we have characterized and irradiated representative samples of SGD and HXI detector under different conditions. The detectors in question, from ACRORAD, are single-pixels having a size of 2 mm by 2 mm and 750 μm thick. The Schottky contact is either made of an Indium or Aluminum for SGD and HXI respectively. We ran the irradiation test campaign at the Proton Irradiation Facility (PIF) at PSI, and ESA approved equipment to evaluate the radiation hardness of flight hardware. We simulated the proton flux expected on the sensors over the entire mission, and secondary neutrons flux due to primary proton interactions into the surrounding BGO active shielding. We eventually characterized the detector response evolution, emphasizing each detector spectral response as well as its stability by studying the so-called Polarization effect. The latter is provoking a spectral response degradation against time as a charge accumulation process occurs in Schottky type CdTe sensors. In this paper, we report on the test campaigns at PIF and will show up our experimental setup. We will pursue describing the irradiation conditions associated with our GEANT 4 predictions and finally, we report the main results of our campaigns concluding that the proton effect does not severely affect the CdTe response neither the detector stability while the secondary neutrons might be more active to reduce the performance on the long run.
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Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment 787 207-211 2015年8月1日© 2014 Elsevier B.V. Abstract Gamma-ray imagers with the potential for visualizing the distribution of radioactive materials are required in the fields of astrophysics, medicine, nuclear applications, and homeland security. Based on the technology of the Si/CdTe Compton camera, we have manufactured the first commercial Compton camera for practical use. Through field tests in Fukushima, we demonstrated that the camera is capable of hot spot detection and the evaluation of radioactive decontamination.
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Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment 765 223-226 2014年11月21日© 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. We report on the recent development of a 64-channel analog front-end ASIC for a new gamma-ray imaging system designed to visualize radioactive substances. The imaging system employs a novel Compton camera which consists of silicon (Si) and cadmium telluride (CdTe) detectors. The ASIC is intended for the readout of pixel/pad detectors utilizing Si/CdTe as detector materials, and covers a dynamic range up to 1.4 MeV. The readout chip consists of 64 identical signal channels and was implemented with X-FAB 0.35μm CMOS technology. Each channel contains a charge-sensitive amplifier, a pole-zero cancellation circuit, a low-pass filter, a comparator, and a sample-hold circuit, along with a Wilkinson-type A-to-D converter. We observed an equivalent noise charge of ∼500 e- and a noise slope of ∼5 e-/pF (r.m.s.) with a power consumption of 2.1 mW per channel. The chip works well when connected to Schottky CdTe diodes, and delivers spectra with good energy resolution, such as ∼12 keV (FWHM) at 662 keV and ∼24 keV (FWHM) at 1.33 MeV.
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Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 446(1) 663-676 2014年10月7日Ultra-fast outflows (UFOs) are seen in many AGN, giving a possible mode for AGN feedback onto the host galaxy. However, the mechanism(s) for the launch and acceleration of these outflows are currently unknown, with UV line driving apparently strongly disfavoured as the material along the line of sight is so highly ionised that it has no UV transitions. We revisit this issue using the Suzaku X-ray data from PDS 456, an AGN with the most powerful UFO seen in the local Universe. We explore conditions in the wind by developing a new 3-D Monte-Carlo code for radiation transport. The code only handles highly ionised ions, but the data show the ionisation state of the wind is high enough that this is appropriate, and this restriction makes it fast enough to explore parameter space. We reproduce the results of earlier work, confirming that the mass loss rate in the wind is around 30% of the inferred inflow rate through the outer disc. We show for the first time that UV line driving is likely to be a major contribution to the wind acceleration. The mass loss rate in the wind matches that predicted from a purely line driven system, and this UV absorption can take place out of the line of sight. Continuum driving should also play a role as the source is close to Eddington. This predicts that the most extreme outflows will be produced from the highest mass accretion rate flows onto high mass black holes, as observed.
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Astrophysical Journal Letters 793(2) 2014年10月1日© 2014. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.. The Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager (FOXSI) sounding rocket payload flew for the first time on 2012 November 2 producing the first focused images of the Sun above 5 keV. To enable hard X-ray (HXR) imaging spectroscopy via direct focusing, FOXSI makes use of grazing-incidence replicated optics combined with fine-pitch solid-state detectors. On its first flight, FOXSI observed several targets that included active regions, the quiet Sun, and a GOES-class B2.7 microflare. This Letter provides an introduction to the FOXSI instrument and presents its first solar image. These data demonstrate the superiority in sensitivity and dynamic range that is achievable with a direct HXR imager with respect to previous, indirect imaging methods, and illustrate the technological readiness for a spaceborne mission to observe HXRs from solar flares via direct focusing optics.
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Transactions of Japanese Society for Medical and Biological Engineering 52 O-496 2014年8月17日© 2014, Japan Soc. of Med. Electronics and Biol. Engineering. All rights reserved. We are currently developing a Compton camera apparatus for use as a novel imaging modality of nuclear medicine. It is based on the advanced technology used in Si/CdTe semiconductor Compton cameras developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. In this study, the influence of scattered gamma rays by body trunk on image quality was evaluated using the developed Compton camera and a NEMA IEC body phantom. Na-22, Co-57 or Ba-133 gamma point source, which emit 511 keV, 122 keV or 356 keV respectively, was placed at the center of the body phantom. We compared the Compton images taken with the empty phantom and taken with the phantom filled with water. The image quality was degraded notably although the position resolution was not decreased. This is thought to be aftereffects of the reduction of the number of Compton events, broadening of the energy spectral region and the increase of the background.
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IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science 61(3) 1243-1251 2014年6月In very-high-spatial-resolution gamma-ray imaging applications, such as preclinical PET and SPECT, estimation of 3D interaction location inside the detector crystal can be used to minimize parallax error in the imaging system. In this work, we investigate the effect of bias voltage setting on depth-of-interaction (DOI) estimates for a semiconductor detector with a double-sided strip geometry. We first examine the statistical properties of the signals and develop expressions for likelihoods for given gamma-ray interaction positions. We use Fisher Information to quantify how well (in terms of variance) the measured signals can be used for DOI estimation with different bias-voltage settings. We performed measurements of detector response versus 3D position as a function of applied bias voltage by scanning with highly collimated synchrotron radiation at the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory. Experimental and theoretical results show that the optimum bias setting depends on whether or not the estimated event position will include the depth of interaction. We also found that for this detector geometry, the z-resolution changes with depth. © 1963-2012 IEEE.
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Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering 9144 2014年The 6th Japanese X-ray satellite, ASTRO-H, is scheduled for launch in 2015. The hard X-ray focusing imaging system will observe astronomical objects with the sensitivity for detecting point sources with a brightness of 1/100,000 times fainter than the Crab nebula at > 10 keV. The Hard X-ray Imager (HXI) is a focal plane detector 12 m below the hard X-ray telescope (HXT) covering the energy range from 5 to 80 keV. The HXI is composed of a stacked Si/CdTe semiconductor detector module and surrounding BGO scintillators. The latter work as active shields for efficient reduction of background events caused by cosmic-ray particles, cosmic X-ray background, and in-orbit radiation activation. In this paper, we describe the detector system, and present current status of flight model development, and performance of HXI using an engineering model of HXI.
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Journal of the Vacuum Society of Japan 57(2) 57-65 2014年Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) is one of the most promising semiconductor materials for hard X-ray and gamma-ray detection because of the high detection efficiency, and of the good energy resolution.Moreover, CdTe detectors with Schottky junction work as diode detectors, and show superior energy resolution. Based on the CdTe diode devices, we have developed CdTe pixel/strip imagers, and also realized a Si/CdTe Compton camera. These devices will be used for the Hard X-ray Imager (HXI) and the Soft Gamma-ray Detector (SGD) onboard ASTRO-H X-ray satellite to be launched in 2015. These developments are briefly reported in this article. We also describe our recent development of low-noise analog readout ASICs to be used for future development of CdTe gamma-ray imagers.
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Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment 760 46-56 2013年12月16日We study the image reconstruction problem of a Compton camera which consists of semiconductor detectors. The image reconstruction is formulated as a statistical estimation problem. We employ a bin-mode estimation (BME) and extend an existing framework to a Compton camera with multiple scatterers and absorbers. Two estimation algorithms are proposed: an accelerated EM algorithm for the maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) and a modified EM algorithm for the maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimation. Numerical simulations demonstrate the potential of the proposed methods.
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Astrophysical Journal 780(1) 2013年11月6日We develop a Monte Carlo Comptonization model for the X-ray spectrum of accretion-powered pulsars. Simple, spherical, thermal Comptonization models give harder spectra for higher optical depth, while the observational data from Vela X-1 show that the spectra are harder at higher luminosity. This suggests a physical interpretation where the optical depth of the accreting plasma increases with mass accretion rate. We develop a detailed Monte-Carlo model of the accretion flow, including the effects of the strong magnetic field ($\sim 10^{12}$ G) both in geometrically constraining the flow into an accretion column, and in reducing the cross section. We treat bulk-motion Comptonization of the infalling material as well as thermal Comptonization. These model spectra can match the observed broad-band {\it Suzaku} data from Vela X-1 over a wide range of mass accretion rates. The model can also explain the so-called "low state", in which the uminosity decreases by an order of magnitude. Here, thermal Comptonization should be negligible, so the spectrum instead is dominated by bulk-motion Comptonization.
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日本物理学会誌 68(6) 382-386 2013年6月5日2011年3月に東北地方を襲った大地震によって福島第一原子力発電所から放出された放射性物質が,国民生活に大きな影響を与えており,効率の良い除染が我が国の喫緊の課題となっている.われわれは,次期X線衛星ASTRO-Hのために開発を行ってきたSi/CdTeコンプトンカメラの技術を応用し,超広角コンプトンカメラと呼ばれるガンマ線カメラを急遽作り上げた.現地において,放射性物質中の原子核が崩壊して安定な原子核になる過程で放出されるガンマ線のイメージング実験を行い,その源となっている放射性物質の分布を知ることができることを示した.
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Radiology 267(3) 941-947 2013年6月Purpose: To develop a silicon (Si) and cadmium telluride (CdTe) imaging Compton camera for biomedical application on the basis of technologies used for astrophysical observation and to test its capacity to perform three-dimensional (3D) imaging. Materials and Methods: All animal experiments were performed according to the Animal Care and Experimentation Committee (Gunma University, Maebashi, Japan). Flourine 18 fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG), iodine 131 ( 131I) methylnorcholestenol, and gallium 67 (67Ga) citrate, separately compacted into micro tubes, were inserted subcutaneously into a Wistar rat, and the distribution of the radioisotope compounds was determined with 3D imaging by using the Compton camera after the rat was sacrificed (ex vivo model). In a separate experiment, indium 111(111In) chloride and 131I-methylnorcholestenol were injected into a rat intravenously, and copper 64 (64Cu) chloride was administered into the stomach orally just before imaging. The isotope distributions were determined with 3D imaging after sacrifice by means of the list-mode-expectation-maximizing- maximum-likelihood method. Results: The Si/CdTe Compton camera demonstrated its 3D multinuclear imaging capability by separating out the distributions of FDG, 131I-methylnorcholestenol, and 67Ga-citrate clearly in a test-tube-implanted ex vivo model. In the more physiologic model with tail vein injection prior to sacrifice, the distributions of 131I- methylnorcholestenol and 64Cu-chloride were demonstrated with 3D imaging, and the difference in distribution of the two isotopes was successfully imaged although the accumulation on the image of 111In-chloride was difficult to visualize because of blurring at the low-energy region. Conclusion: The Si/CdTe Compton camera clearly resolved the distribution of multiple isotopes in 3D imaging and simultaneously in the ex vivo model. © RSNA, 2013.
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Astrophysical Journal 767(1) 2013年4月22日We have analyzed the time variability of the wide-band X-ray spectrum of Vela X-1, the brightest wind-fed accreting neutron star, on a short timescale of 2 ks by using {\it Suzaku} observations with an exposure of 100 ks. During the observation, the object showed strong variability including several flares and so-called "low states", in which the X-ray luminosity decreases by an order of magnitude. Although the spectral hardness increases with the X-ray luminosity, the majority of the recorded flares do not show any significant changes of circumstellar absorption. However, a sign of heavy absorption was registered immediately before one short flare that showed a significant spectral hardening. In the low states, the flux level is modulated with the pulsar spin period, indicating that even at this state the accretion flow reaches the close proximity of the neutron star. Phenomenologically, the broad-band X-ray spectra, which are integrated over the entire spin phase, are well represented by the "NPEX" function (a combination of negative and positive power laws with an exponential cutoff by a common folding energy) with a cyclotron resonance scattering feature at 50 keV. Fitting of the data allowed us to infer a correlation between the photon index and X-ray luminosity. Finally, the circumstellar absorption shows a gradual increase in the orbital phase interval 0.25--0.3, which can be interpreted as an impact of a bow shock imposed by the motion of the compact object in the supersonic stellar wind.
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Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment 699 230-234 2013年1月21日Hard X-ray Imager and Soft Gamma-ray Detector are being developed as onboard instruments for the Astro-H mission, which is scheduled for launch in 2014. In both detectors, BGO scintillators play key roles in achieving high sensitivity in low Earth orbit (LEO), by generating active veto signals to reject cosmic-ray events and gamma-ray backgrounds from radio-activated detector materials. In order to maximize background rejection power, it is also important to minimize the energy threshold of this shield. As a readout sensor of weak scintillation light from a number of BGO crystals in a complicated detector system, high performance, reverse-type Avalanche Photodiodes (APDs), with an effective area of 10×10mm2 are being employed, instead of bulky photomultiplier tubes (PMTs).Another advantage of using APDs is their low power consumption, although the relatively low gain of APDs (compared to conventional PMTs) requires dedicated analog circuits for noise suppression. In this paper, we report on the development and performance of APD detectors specifically designed for the Astro-H mission. In addition to APD performance, various environmental tests, including radiation hardness and qualification thermal cycling, will be described in detail. Moreover, a dedicated charge sensitive amplifier and analog filters are newly developed and tested here to optimize the performance of APDs to activate fast veto signals within a few μs from the BGO trigger. We will also report on overall performance testing of a prototype BGO detector system that mimics the data acquisition system onboard Astro-H. © 2012 Elsevier B.V.
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Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment 699 225-229 2013年1月21日Hard X-ray Imager (HXI) and Soft Gamma-ray Detector (SGD) onboard the 6th Japanese X-ray satellite, ASTRO-H, utilize double-sided silicon strip detectors (DSSD) and pixel array-type silicon sensors (Si-pad), respectively. The DSSD with a 3.4 cm×3.4 cm area has an imaging capability in the lower energy band for the HXI covering 5-80 keV. The Si-pad consists of 16×16 pixels with a 5.4 cm×5.4 cm area and measures a photon direction with the Compton kinematics in 10-600 keV. Since the ASTRO-H will be operated in a low earth orbit, these detectors will be damaged by irradiation of cosmic-ray protons mainly in the South Atlantic Anomaly. In order to evaluate damage effects of the sensors, we have carried out irradiation tests with 150 MeV proton beams and 60Co gamma-rays with a total dose of 10-20 years irradiation level. In both experiments, the leakage current has increased by ∼0.2 - 1.1nA/ cm2 under an expected operation temperature at -15 °C, which resulted in the noise level within a tolerance of 20 years. In this report, we present a summary of the basic performance of silicon detectors, and radiation effects on them by the irradiation tests. © 2012 Elsevier B.V.
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Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment 699 112-115 2013年1月21日Astro-H is the sixth Japanese X-ray space observatory which will be launched in 2014. Two of onboard instruments of Astro-H, Hard X-ray Imager and Soft Gamma-ray Detector are surrounded by many number of large Bismuth Germanate (Bi4Ge3O12; BGO) scintillators. Optimum readout system of scintillation lights from these BGOs are essential to reduce the background signals and achieve high performance for main detectors because most of gamma-rays from out of field-of-view of main detectors or radio-isotopes produced inside them due to activation can be eliminated by anti-coincidence technique using BGO signals. We apply Avalanche Photo Diode (APD) for light sensor of these BGO detectors since their compactness and high quantum efficiency make it easy to design such large number of BGO detector system. For signal processing from APDs, digital filter and other trigger logics on the Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) is used instead of discrete analog circuits due to limitation of circuit implementation area on spacecraft. For efficient observations, we have to achieve as low threshold of anti-coincidence signal as possible by utilizing the digital filtering. In addition, such anti-coincident signals should be sent to the main detector within 5μs to make it in time to veto the A-D conversion. Considering this requirement and constraint from logic size of FPGA, we adopt two types of filter, 8 delay taps filter with only 2 bit precision coefficient and 16 delay taps filter with 8 bit precision coefficient. The data after former simple filter provides anti-coincidence signal quickly in orbit, and the latter filter is used for detail analysis after the data is down-linked. © 2012 Elsevier B.V.
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2013 IEEE NUCLEAR SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM AND MEDICAL IMAGING CONFERENCE (NSS/MIC) 2013年 査読有りWe studied a new method to monitor a beam range in heavy-ion radiation therapy by measuring low energy photons emitted from a track of the ion beam. A 290 MeV/u carbon beam was injected into a cylindrical water phantom. A CdTe semiconductor detector with a lead slit having a width of 2mm was placed at a side of the phantom. In order to measure the position dependence of the low energy photon count, the beam range was varied by changing the injection energy using a binary energy degrader placed about 100 cm upstream of the beam focal point. The measured photon count decreased when the detector got closer to the end point of the beam range and the derivative of the photon count clearly changed in front of the range position. This was explained by our theoretical study assuming the photons were secondary electron bremsstrahlung. These results indicate that this new method could estimate the range position from the observation of bremsstrahlung with an accuracy of a few mm.
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IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium Conference Record 2013年The SGD is a Soft Gamma-ray Detector on board the ASTRO-H satellite and is a Narrow FOV Compton Camera. The key technology utilized to realize this concept is a 'large-scale' Si/CdTe multilayer Compton camera. Although we need an algorithm that can reconstruct the gamma-ray event correctly with this detector, such algorithms have not been well established so far. We have developed a new event reconstruction algorithm for the 'large-scale' Si/CdTe semiconductor Compton camera of the SGD. This algorithm is based on parameterizations that indirectly represent the probability of each sequence and can be applied uniformly to any patterns of signals that might occur in this Compton camera. With this algorithm and SGD background rejection concept, the S/N ratio is increased by a factor of 2.5. Detection efficiency is improved by a factor of 4 compared with the simplest algorithm. We have high (∼ 70% @ 500 keV) correctness in the order determination with the algorithm. © 2013 IEEE.
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IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium Conference Record 2013年Electron and holes, produced by the absorption of a gamma-ray photon in the depletion region of a semiconductor detector, drift towards their respective electrodes under the influence of the electric field created by a bias potential difference applied between the contacts. Carrier transport has an important impact on the signals observed with compound semiconductors such as CdTe and CdZnTe, as these materials are known to suffer from non-negligible trapping effects. Trapping causes the carrier-induced charge on the anodes and cathodes to become a function of where the electrons and holes are generated via the gamma-ray interaction in the crystal. The mean drift length of the charge carriers, and thus the significance of the effects of trapping, can be at least partially controlled by changing the magnitude of the applied bias voltage. Selection of operating bias voltage can therefore provide us a means to tune the sensitivity to gamma-ray depth-of-interaction (DOI). In very-high-resolution gamma-ray imaging applications, such as preclinical PET and SPECT, estimation of a 3D interaction location inside the detector crystal can be used to minimize parallax error in the imaging system. In this work, we investigate the effect of bias voltage setting on DOI estimates for a semiconductor detector with a double-sided strip geometry. We first examine the statistical properties of the signals and develop expressions for likelihoods for given gamma-ray interaction positions. Trapping effects are modeled as non-stationary spatial point processes. We use Fisher Information to quantify how well (in terms of variance) the measured signals can be used for DOI estimation with different bias-voltage settings. We performed measurements of detector response versus 3D position as a function of applied bias voltage by scanning with highly collimated synchrotron radiation at the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory. Experimental and theoretical results show that the optimum bias setting depends on whether or not the estimated event position will include the depth of interaction. We also found that for this detector geometry, the Fisher Information changes with depth. © 2013 IEEE.
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Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment 731 64-67 2013年This study describes the development of a CdTe pixel detector for high-energy X-ray diffraction experiments at synchrotron radiation facilities. We have developed three prototypes. The third prototype detector (SP8-02B) was designed with a pixel size of 200μm×200μm and a matrix of 20×50 pixels. The sensor was bonded to an application-specific integrated circuit with a preamplifier, shaper, window-type discriminator, and a 20-bit counter for each pixel. The SP8-02B detector improved the uniformity between pixels in one chip in comparison with the previous prototypes. The long-term stability was measured at various temperatures. A moderate cooling achieved good stability that was not affected by the polarization effect. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.
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Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering 8862 2013年Solar flares accelerate particles up to high energies (MeV and GeV scales for electrons and ions, respectively) through efficient acceleration processes that are not currently understood. Hard X-rays (HXRs) are the most direct diagnostic of flare-accelerated electrons. However, past and current solar HXR observers lack the necessary sensitivity and imaging dynamic range to make detailed studies of faint HXR sources in the solar corona (where particle acceleration is thought to occur); these limitations are mainly due to the indirect Fourier imaging techniques used by these observers. With greater sensitivity and dynamic range, electron acceleration sites could be systematically studied in detail. Both these capabilities can be advanced by the use of direct focusing optics. The recently own Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager (FOXSI) sounding rocket payload demonstrates the unique diagnostic power of focusing optics for observations of solar HXRs. FOXSI features grazing-incidence replicated nickel optics with ∼5 arcsecond resolution and fine-pitch silicon strip detectors with a ∼7.7 arcsecond strip pitch. FOXSI flew successfully on 2012 November 2, producing images and spectra of a microflare and performing a search for non-thermal emission (4{15 keV) from nanoflares occurring outside active regions in the quiet Sun. A future spacecraft version of FOXSI, featuring similar optics and detectors, could make detailed observations of HXRs from flare-accelerated electrons, identifying and characterizing particle acceleration sites and mapping out paths of energetic electrons as they leave these sites and propagate throughout the solar corona. This paper will describe the FOXSI instrument and present images from the first flight. © 2013 SPIE.
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Proceedings of the International Conference on Sensing Technology, ICST 674-677 2013年The goal of the Compton camera imaging is to visualize the gamma-ray intensity map. Here, we focus on the case where the gamma-ray sources are sufficiently far from the camera and propose a new reconstruction method for the Compton camera imaging. The method is called the bin-mode estimation (BME). The assumption is valid for astronomy applications. The method can be implemented easily, and numerical simulations show the proposed method provides sharp reconstructions. © 2013 IEEE.
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NUCLEAR INSTRUMENTS & METHODS IN PHYSICS RESEARCH SECTION A-ACCELERATORS SPECTROMETERS DETECTORS AND ASSOCIATED EQUIPMENT 695 179-183 2012年12月We have developed a new Compton camera based on silicon (Si) and cadmium telluride (CdTe) semiconductor double-sided strip detectors (DSDs). The camera consists of a 500-mu m-thick Si-DSD and four layers of 750-mu m-thick CdTe-DSDs all of which have common electrode configuration segmented into 128 strips on each side with pitches of 250 mu m. In order to realize high angular resolution and to reduce size of the detector system, a stack of DSDs with short stack pitches of 4 mm is utilized to make the camera. Taking advantage of the excellent energy and position resolutions of the semiconductor devices, the camera achieves high angular resolutions of 4.5 degrees at 356 key and 3.5 degrees at 662 keV. To obtain such high resolutions together with an acceptable detection efficiency, we demonstrate data reduction methods including energy calibration using Compton scattering continuum and depth sensing in the CdTe-DSD. We also discuss imaging capability of the camera and show simultaneous multi-energy imaging. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering 8443 2012年10月16日The joint JAXA/NASA ASTRO-H mission is the sixth in a series of highly successful X-ray missions initiated by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS). ASTRO-H will investigate the physics of the high-energy universe via a suite of four instruments, covering a very wide energy range, from 0.3 keV to 600 keV. These instruments include a high-resolution, high-throughput spectrometer sensitive over 0.3-2 keV with high spectral resolution of Delta E < 7 eV, enabled by a micro-calorimeter array located in the focal plane of thin-foil X-ray optics; hard X-ray imaging spectrometers covering 5-80 keV, located in the focal plane of multilayer-coated, focusing hard X-ray mirrors; a wide-field imaging spectrometer sensitive over 0.4-12 keV, with an X-ray CCD camera in the focal plane of a soft X-ray telescope; and a non-focusing Compton-camera type soft gamma-ray detector, sensitive in the 40-600 keV band. The simultaneous broad bandpass, coupled with high spectral resolution, will enable the pursuit of a wide variety of important science themes.
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Physics in Medicine and Biology 57(10) 2843-2856 2012年5月21日We describe a new method for estimating the beam range in heavy-ion radiation therapy by measuring the ion beam bremsstrahlung. We experimentally confirm that the secondary electron bremsstrahlung process provides the dominant bremsstrahlung contribution. A Monte Carlo simulation shows that the number of background photons from annihilation gamma rays is about 1% of the bremsstrahlung strength in the low-energy region used in our estimation (6368 keV). Agreement between the experimental results and the theoretical prediction for the characteristic shape of the bremsstrahlung spectrum validates the effectiveness of our new method in estimating the ion beam range. © 2012 Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine.
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IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science 59(1 PART 1) 70-76 2012年2月By using a prototype Compton camera consisting of silicon (Si) and cadmium telluride (CdTe) semiconductor detectors, originally developed for the ASTRO-H satellite mission, an experiment involving imaging multiple radiopharmaceuticals injected into a living mouse was conducted to study its feasibility for medical imaging. The accumulation of both iodinated ( 131I) methylnorcholestenol and 85Sr into the mouse's organs was simultaneously imaged by the prototype. This result implies that the Compton camera is expected to become a multi-probe tracker available in nuclear medicine and small animal imaging. © 2012 IEEE.
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
93共同研究・競争的資金等の研究課題
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日本学術振興会 科学研究費助成事業 基盤研究(A) 2021年4月 - 2025年3月
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日本学術振興会 科学研究費助成事業 基盤研究(A) 2020年4月 - 2024年3月
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日本学術振興会 科学研究費助成事業 新学術領域研究(研究領域提案型) 2018年6月 - 2023年3月
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日本学術振興会 科学研究費助成事業 新学術領域研究(研究領域提案型) 2018年6月 - 2023年3月
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日本学術振興会 科学研究費助成事業 基盤研究(A) 2016年4月 - 2020年3月
