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 教授
- J-GLOBAL ID
- 201801002962836691
- researchmap会員ID
- B000323419
- 外部リンク
主にX線天文学の研究をやっています。X線天体のフォローアップとして、地上赤外線観測、電波観測もやってます。ブラックホール、中性子星、白色矮星、AGN、銀河面からのX線放射などに興味を持っています。
宇宙航空研究開発機構（JAXA）・宇宙科学研究所（ISAS）にて、MAXI、XRISMを始めとする天文衛星のデータ処理・解析システムの開発、宇宙科学データアーカイブDARTSの運用を行っています。DARTSにおける全天多波長早見システムJUDO2を開発しました。また、「あかり」のアーカイブデータを用いて銀河系内の赤外線前景放射を見積もり、将来のLiteBIRDによる宇宙論観測に生かせるようにしたいと考えています。
東京大学大学院理学系研究科天文学専攻の教員です。
研究キーワード
2研究分野
1経歴
4-
2005年8月 - 現在
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2001年8月 - 2004年12月
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1991年4月 - 1992年3月
学歴
2-
1986年4月 - 1991年3月
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1980年4月 - 1986年3月
委員歴
4-
2020年11月 - 現在
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2020年4月 - 現在
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2020年4月 - 現在
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2020年4月 - 現在
論文
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Physica Scripta 95(7) 074012-074012 2020年7月1日
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Journal of Low Temperature Physics 199(3-4) 1107-1117 2020年5月<title>Abstract</title>Recent developments of transition-edge sensors (TESs), based on extensive experience in ground-based experiments, have been making the sensor techniques mature enough for their application on future satellite cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization experiments. LiteBIRD is in the most advanced phase among such future satellites, targeting its launch in Japanese Fiscal Year 2027 (2027FY) with JAXA’s H3 rocket. It will accommodate more than 4000 TESs in focal planes of reflective low-frequency and refractive medium-and-high-frequency telescopes in order to detect a signature imprinted on the CMB by the primordial gravitational waves predicted in cosmic inflation. The total wide frequency coverage between 34 and 448 GHz enables us to extract such weak spiral polarization patterns through the precise subtraction of our Galaxy’s foreground emission by using spectral differences among CMB and foreground signals. Telescopes are cooled down to 5 K for suppressing thermal noise and contain polarization modulators with transmissive half-wave plates at individual apertures for separating sky polarization signals from artificial polarization and for mitigating from instrumental 1/<italic>f</italic> noise. Passive cooling by using V-grooves supports active cooling with mechanical coolers as well as adiabatic demagnetization refrigerators. Sky observations from the second Sun–Earth Lagrangian point, L2, are planned for 3 years. An international collaboration between Japan, the USA, Canada, and Europe is sharing various roles. In May 2019, the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, JAXA, selected LiteBIRD as the strategic large mission No. 2.
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Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1468(1) 012074-012074 2020年2月Abstract The CALET (CALorimetric Electron Telescope) space experiment, which is currently conducting direct cosmic-ray observations onboard the International Space Station (ISS), is an all-calorimetric instrument optimized for cosmic-ray electron measurements with capability to measure hadrons and gamma-rays. Since the start of observation in October 2015, smooth and continuous operations have taken place. In this paper, we will give a brief summary of the CALET observations ranging from charged cosmic rays, gamma-rays, to space weather, while focusing on the energy spectra of electrons and protons.
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Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering 11444 2020年The X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) is the successor to the 2016 Hitomi mission that ended prematurely. Like Hitomi, the primary science goals are to examine astrophysical problems with precise high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy. XRISM promises to discover new horizons in X-ray astronomy. XRISM carries a 6 x 6 pixelized X-ray micro-calorimeter on the focal plane of an X-ray mirror assembly and a co-aligned X-ray CCD camera that covers the same energy band over a large field of view. XRISM utilizes Hitomi heritage, but all designs were reviewed. The attitude and orbit control system were improved in hardware and software. The number of star sensors were increased from two to three to improve coverage and robustness in onboard attitude determination and to obtain a wider field of view sun sensor. The fault detection, isolation, and reconfiguration (FDIR) system was carefully examined and reconfigured. Together with a planned increase of ground support stations, the survivability of the spacecraft is significantly improved.
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Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering 11453 2020年The LiteBIRD satellite is planned to be launched by JAXA in the late 2020s. Its main purpose is to observe the large-scale B-mode polarization in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anticipated from the Inflation theory. LiteBIRD will observe the sky for three years at the second Lagrangian point (L2) of the Sun-Earth system. Planck was the predecessor for observing the CMB at L2, and the onboard High Frequency Instrument (HFI) suffered contamination by glitches caused by the cosmic-ray (CR) hits. We consider the CR hits can also be a serious source of the systematic uncertainty for LiteBIRD. Thus, we have started a comprehensive end-To-end simulation study to assess impact of the CR hits for the LiteBIRD detectors. Here, we describe procedures to make maps and power spectra from the simulated time-ordered data, and present initial results. Our initial estimate is that ClBB by CR is ∼ 2 ×10-6 μK2CMB in a one-year observation with 12 detectors assuming that the noise is 1 aW/ √ Hz for the differential mode of two detectors constituting a polarization pair.
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Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering 11447 2020年Narrow-band filters can detect emission and absorption line features from multiple sources in a field of view simultaneously without spectroscopy. However, it is difficult to estimate and subtract the continuum component from sources of different spectral slope, especially when the equivalent width of the target lines is small. For example, Cataclysmic Variables have equivalent widths of hydrogen recombination emission lines of about -10 to -100 angstroms, but many of the ones that have been detected by conventional NB filters so far have a large equivalent width. We have therefore constructed novel narrow-band filters with transmission bands on both sides of the central wavelengths of the Paβ (1.282 µm) and Brγ (2.167 µm) emission lines so that we can evaluate the continuum level more accurately than the conventional filters having transmission in only one side of the target line. We installed the narrow-band filters to the Simultaneous three-color InfraRed Imager for Unbiased Survey (SIRIUS) in the InfraRed Survey Facility (IRSF) telescope at South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO), and evaluated their performance. We found that the narrow-band filters can detect emission line features with an equivalent width of several tens of angstroms. Thus, this filter set is useful for detecting emission line features from targets with small equivalent widths that have been difficult to detect with the conventional NB filter set.
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Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering 11444 2020年© 2020 SPIE The X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission, XRISM, is currently scheduled to launch in 2022 with the objective of building on the brief, but significant, successes of the ASTRO-H (Hitomi) mission in solving outstanding astrophysical questions using high resolution X-ray spectroscopy. The XRISM Science Operations Team (SOT) consists of the JAXA-led Science Operations Center (SOC) and NASA-led Science Data Center (SDC), which work together to optimize the scientific output from the Resolve high-resolution spectrometer and the Xtend wide-field imager through planning and scheduling of observations, processing and distribution of data, development and distribution of software tools and the calibration database (CaldB), support of ground and in-flight calibration, and support of XRISM users in their scientific investigations of the energetic universe. Here, we summarize the roles and responsibilities of the SDC and its current status and future plans. The Resolve instrument poses particular challenges due to its unprecedented combination of high spectral resolution and throughput, broad spectral coverage, and relatively small field-of-view and large pixel-size. We highlight those challenges and how they are being met.
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Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering 11444 2020年© 2020 SPIE The XRISM is the X-ray astronomical mission led by JAXA/NASA/ESA with international participation, plan to be launched in 2022 (Japanese fiscal year), to quickly recover the high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy of astrophysical objects using the micro-calorimeter array after the failure of Hitomi. To enhance the scientific outputs of the mission, the Science Operations Team (SOT) is structured independently from the instrument teams and the mission operation team (MOT). The responsibilities of the SOT are summarized into four categories: 1) Guest observer program and data distributions, 2) Distribution of the analyses software and calibration database, 3) Guest observer supporting activities, and 4) the performance verification and optimization (PVO) activities. Before constructing the Operations Concept of the XRISM mission, the lessons on the Science Operations learned from the past Japanese X-ray missions (ASCA, Suzaku, and Hitomi) are reviewed, and 16 kinds of lessons are identified by the above categories: lessons on the importance of avoiding nonpublic (“animal”) tools, coding quality of public tools both on the engineering viewpoint and the calibration accuracy, tight communications with instrument teams and operations team, well-defined task division between scientists and engineers etc. Among these lessons, a) importance of the early preparations of the operations from the ground stage, b) construction of the independent team for the Science Operations from the instrument developments, and c) operations with well-defined duties by appointed members are recognized as the key lessons for XRISM. Then, i) the task division between the Mission and Science Operations and ii) the subgroup structure within the XRISM team are defined in detail as the XRISM Operations Concept. Then, following the Operations Concept, the detail plan of the Science Operations is designed as follows. The Science Operations tasks are shared among Japan, US, and Europe operated by three centers, the Science Operations Center (SOC) at JAXA, the Science Data Center (SDC) at NASA, and European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) at ESA. The SOT is defined as a combination of the SOC and SDC; the SOC is designed to perform tasks close to the spacecraft operations, such as spacecraft planning of science targets, quick-look health checks, pre-pipeline data processing, etc., and the SDC covers the tasks on the data calibration processing (pipeline processing), maintenance of the analysis tools etc. The data-archive and users-support activities are planned to be covered both by the SOC and SDC. Finally, the details of the Science Operations tasks and the tools for the Science Operations are also described in this paper. This information would be helpful for a construction of Science Operations of future X-ray missions.
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Physical Review Letters 122(18) 2019年5月10日 査読有り© 2019 authors. In this paper, we present the analysis and results of a direct measurement of the cosmic-ray proton spectrum with the CALET instrument onboard the International Space Station, including the detailed assessment of systematic uncertainties. The observation period used in this analysis is from October 13, 2015 to August 31, 2018 (1054 days). We have achieved the very wide energy range necessary to carry out measurements of the spectrum from 50 GeV to 10 TeV covering, for the first time in space, with a single instrument the whole energy interval previously investigated in most cases in separate subranges by magnetic spectrometers (BESS-TeV, PAMELA, and AMS-02) and calorimetric instruments (ATIC, CREAM, and NUCLEON). The observed spectrum is consistent with AMS-02 but extends to nearly an order of magnitude higher energy, showing a very smooth transition of the power-law spectral index from-2.81±0.03 (50-500 GeV) neglecting solar modulation effects (or-2.87±0.06 including solar modulation effects in the lower energy region) to-2.56±0.04 (1-10 TeV), thereby confirming the existence of spectral hardening and providing evidence of a deviation from a single power law by more than 3σ.
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MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY 484(2) 2229-2233 2019年4月 査読有りWR 125 is considered to be a colliding-wind Wolf-Rayet binary (CWWB), from which the most recent infrared flux increase was reported between 1990 and 1993. We observed the object four times from 2016 November to 2017 May with Swift and XMM-Newton, and carried out a precise X-ray spectral study for the first time. There were hardly any changes in the fluxes and spectral shapes for half a year, and the absorption-corrected luminosity was 3.0 x 10(33) erg s(-1) in the range 0.5-10.0 keV at a distance of 4.1 kpc. The hydrogen column density was higher than that expected from the interstellar absorption, and thus the X-ray spectra were probably absorbed by the Wolf-Rayet (WR) wind. The energy spectrum was successfully modelled by a collisional equilibrium plasma emission, in which both the plasma and the absorbing wind have unusual elemental abundances particular to WR stars. In 1981, the Einstein satellite clearly detected X-rays from WR 125, whereas the ROSAT satellite hardly detected X-rays in 1991, when the binary was probably around the periastron passage. We discuss possible causes for the unexpectedly low soft X-ray flux near the periastron.
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デジタルアーカイブ学会誌 3(2) 251-254 2019年3月15日月周回衛星「かぐや」に搭載されたハイビジョンカメラ(HDTV)は600以上の映像を取得した。広報目的に加え科学的な価値を見出すため、他の観測機器と同様に科学データとしてアーカイブを行った。HDTV映像は標準で30fpsの60秒間の1800枚のフレームから構成され、2倍速、4倍速、8倍速で撮像可能である。データアーカイブでは動画をフレームに分割して静止画として扱い、撮像時刻、動作モード、衛星位置、撮像範囲等を含め、総計100万枚以上の静止画にメタデータの付与を行った。ファイルフォーマットは天文学分野標準のFITSを用い、ディレクトリ構造やメタデータ記述は惑星探査データの標準規格であるPlanetary Data System (PDS)を用いた。FITSとPDSは親和性が高く2つの基準を満たすことが容易である。そのためHDTVデータは天文学分野と惑星探査分野の両方のツールを利用することが可能なハイブリッド仕様である。本発表ではHDTVデータの長期保存への取り組みをその背景と共に報告するものである。
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Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1181(1) 2019年3月10日 査読有り© Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd. The CALorimetric Electron Telescope (CALET) is a high-energy astroparticle physics space experiment installed on the International Space Station (ISS), developed and operated by Japan in collaboration with Italy and the United States. The CALET mission goals include the investigation of possible nearby sources of high-energy electrons, of the details of galactic particle acceleration and propagation, and of potential signatures of dark matter. CALET measures the cosmic-ray electron+positron flux up to 20 TeV, gamma-rays up to 10 TeV, and nuclei with Z=1 to 40 up to 1, 000 TeV for the more abundant elements during a long-term observation aboard the ISS. Starting science operation in mid-October 2015, CALET performed continuous observation without major interruption with close to 20 million triggered events over 10 GeV per month. Based on the data taken during the first two-years, we present an overview of CALET observations: 1) Electron+positron energy spectrum, 2) Nuclei analysis, 3) Gamma-ray observation including a characterization of on-orbit performance. Results of the electromagnetic counterpart search for LIGO/Virgo gravitational wave events are discussed as well.
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Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 482(4) 5316-5326 2019年2月1日 査読有りShort X-ray reverberation lags are seen across a broad Fe-K energy band in more than 20 active galactic nuclei (AGNs). This broad iron line feature in the lag spectrum is most significant in super-Eddington sources such as Ark 564 (L/L-Edd similar to 1) and 1H 0707-495 (L/L-Edd greater than or similar to 10). The observed lag time-scales correspond to very short distances of several R-g/c, so that they have been used to argue for extremely small 'lamp-post' coronae close to the event horizon of rapidly spinning black holes. Here, we show for the first time that these Fe-K short lags are more likely to arise from scattering in a highly ionized wind, launched at similar to 50 R-g, rotating and outflowing with a typical velocity of 0.2c. We show that this model can simultaneously fit the time-averaged energy spectra and the short-time-scale lag-energy spectra of both 1H 0707-495 and Ark 564. The Fe-K line in 1H 0707-495 has a strong P-Cygni-like profile, which requires that the wind solid angle is large and that our line of sight intercepts the wind. By contrast, the lack of an absorption line in the energy spectrum of Ark 564 requires rather face-on geometry, while the weaker broad Fe-K emission in the energy and lag-energy spectra argue for a smaller solid angle of the wind. This is consistent with theoretical predictions that the winds get stronger when the sources are more super-Eddington, supporting the idea of AGN feedback via radiation-pressure-driven winds.
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PUBLICATIONS OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF JAPAN 70(6) 2018年12月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% +/- 10.6%), and, the polarization angle is 110.degrees 7 + 13.degrees 2 /-13.degrees 0 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.degrees 0 +/- 0.degrees 1.
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Astrophysical Journal, Supplement Series 238(1) 2018年9月 査読有り© 2018. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. The CALorimetric Electron Telescope primary detector (CALET-CAL) is a 30 radiation-length-deep hybrid calorimeter designed for the accurate measurement of high-energy cosmic rays. It is capable of triggering on and giving near complete containment of electromagnetic showers from primary electrons and gamma rays from 1 GeV to over 10 TeV. The first 24 months of on-orbit scientific data (2015 November 01-2017 October 31) provide valuable characterization of the performance of the calorimeter based on analyses of the gamma-ray data set in general and bright point sources in particular. We describe the gamma-ray analysis, the expected performance of the calorimeter based on Monte Carlo simulations, the agreement of the flight data with the simulated results, and the outlook for long-term gamma-ray observations with the CAL.
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Astrophysical Journal 863(2) 2018年8月20日 査読有り© 2018. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. We present the results of searches for gamma-ray counterparts of the LIGO/Virgo gravitational wave events using CALorimetric Electron Telescope (CALET) observations. The main instrument of CALET, CALorimeter (CAL), observes gamma-rays from ∼1 GeV up to 10 TeV with a field of view (FOV) of nearly 2 sr. In addition, the CALET gamma-ray burst monitor views ∼3 sr and ∼2π sr of the sky in the 7 keV-1 MeV and the 40 keV-20 MeV bands, respectively, by using two different crystal scintillators. The CALET observations on the International Space Station started in 2015 October, and here we report analyses of events associated with the following gravitational wave events: GW151226, GW170104, GW170608, GW170814, and GW170817. Although only upper limits on gamma-ray emission are obtained, they correspond to a luminosity of 1049 ∼ 1053 erg s-1 in the GeV energy band depending on the distance and the assumed time duration of each event, which is approximately on the order of luminosity of typical short gamma-ray bursts. This implies that there will be a favorable opportunity to detect high-energy gamma-ray emission in further observations if additional gravitational wave events with favorable geometry will occur within our FOV. We also show the sensitivity of CALET for gamma-ray transient events, which is on the order of 10-7 erg cm-2 s-1 for an observation of 100 s in duration.
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MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY 478(1) 971-982 2018年7月 査読有りX-rays illuminating the accretion disc in active galactic nuclei give rise to an iron K line and its associated reflection spectrum that are lagged behind the continuum variability by the light-travel time from the source to the disc. The measured lag time-scales in the iron band can be as short as similar to R-g/c, where R-g is the gravitational radius, which is often interpreted as evidence for a very small continuum source close to the event horizon of a rapidly spinning black hole. However, the short lags can also be produced by reflection from more distant material, because the primary photons with no time-delay dilute the time-lags caused by the reprocessed photons. We perform a Monte Carlo simulation to calculate the dilution effect in the X-ray reverberation lags from a half-shell of neutral material placed at 100 R-g from the central source. This gives lags of similar to 2 R-g/c, but the iron line is a distinctly narrow feature in the lag-energy plot, whereas the data often show a broader line. We show that both the short lag and the line broadening can be reproduced, if the scattering material is outflowing at similar to 0.1c. The velocity structure in the wind can also give shifts in the line profile in the lag-energy plot calculated at different frequencies. Hence we propose that the observed broad iron reverberation lags and shifts in profile as a function of frequency of variability can arise from a disc wind at fairly large distances from the X-ray source.
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Astroparticle Physics 100 29-37 2018年7月 査読有り© 2018 Elsevier B.V. The CALorimetric Electron Telescope (CALET), launched for installation on the International Space Station (ISS) in August, 2015, has been accumulating scientific data since October, 2015. CALET is intended to perform long-duration observations of high-energy cosmic rays onboard the ISS. CALET directly measures the cosmic-ray electron spectrum in the energy range of 1 GeV to 20 TeV with a 2% energy resolution above 30 GeV. In addition, the instrument can measure the spectrum of gamma rays well into the TeV range, and the spectra of protons and nuclei up to a PeV. In order to operate the CALET onboard ISS, JAXA Ground Support Equipment (JAXA-GSE) and the Waseda CALET Operations Center (WCOC) have been established at JAXA and Waseda University, respectively. Scientific operations using CALET are planned at WCOC, taking into account orbital variations of geomagnetic rigidity cutoff. Scheduled command sequences are used to control the CALET observation modes on orbit. Calibration data acquisition by, for example, recording pedestal and penetrating particle events, a low-energy electron trigger mode operating at high geomagnetic latitude, a low-energy gamma-ray trigger mode operating at low geomagnetic latitude, and an ultra heavy trigger mode, are scheduled around the ISS orbit while maintaining maximum exposure to high-energy electrons and other high-energy shower events by always having the high-energy trigger mode active. The WCOC also prepares and distributes CALET flight data to collaborators in Italy and the United States. As of August 31, 2017, the total observation time is 689 days with a live time fraction of the total time of ∼ 84%. Nearly 450 million events are collected with a high-energy (E > 10 GeV) trigger. In addition, calibration data acquisition and low-energy trigger modes, as well as an ultra-heavy trigger mode, are consistently scheduled around the ISS orbit. By combining all operation modes with the excellent-quality on-orbit data collected thus far, it is expected that a five-year observation period will provide a wealth of new and interesting results.
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Physical Review Letters 120(26) 2018年6月25日 査読有り© 2018 American Physical Society. Extended results on the cosmic-ray electron + positron spectrum from 11 GeV to 4.8 TeV are presented based on observations with the Calorimetric Electron Telescope (CALET) on the International Space Station utilizing the data up to November 2017. The analysis uses the full detector acceptance at high energies, approximately doubling the statistics compared to the previous result. CALET is an all-calorimetric instrument with a total thickness of 30 X0 at normal incidence and fine imaging capability, designed to achieve large proton rejection and excellent energy resolution well into the TeV energy region. The observed energy spectrum in the region below 1 TeV shows good agreement with Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) data. In the energy region below ∼300 GeV, CALET's spectral index is found to be consistent with the AMS-02, Fermi Large Area Telescope (Fermi-LAT), and Dark Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE), while from 300 to 600 GeV the spectrum is significantly softer than the spectra from the latter two experiments. The absolute flux of CALET is consistent with other experiments at around a few tens of GeV. However, it is lower than those of DAMPE and Fermi-LAT with the difference increasing up to several hundred GeV. The observed energy spectrum above ∼1 TeV suggests a flux suppression consistent within the errors with the results of DAMPE, while CALET does not observe any significant evidence for a narrow spectral feature in the energy region around 1.4 TeV. Our measured all-electron flux, including statistical errors and a detailed breakdown of the systematic errors, is tabulated in the Supplemental Material in order to allow more refined spectral analyses based on our data.
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PUBLICATIONS OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF JAPAN 70(3) 2018年6月 査読有りWe present results from the Hitomi X-ray observation of a young composite-type supernova remnant (SNR) G21.5-0.9, whose emission is dominated by the pulsar wind nebula (PWN) contribution. The X-ray spectra in the 0.8-80 keV range obtained with the Soft X-ray Spectrometer (SXS), Soft X-ray Imager, and Hard X-ray Imager (HXI) show a significant break in the continuum as previously found with the NuSTAR observation. After taking into account all known emissions from the SNR other than the PWN itself, we find that the Hitomi spectra can be fitted with a broken power law with photon indices of Gamma(1) = 1.74 +/- 0.02 and Gamma(2) = 2.14 +/- 0.01 below and above the break at 7.1 +/- 0.3 keV, which is significantly lower than the NuSTAR result (similar to 9.0 keV). The spectral break cannot be reproduced by time-dependent particle injection one-zone spectral energy distribution models, which strongly indicates that a more complex emission model is needed, as suggested by recent theoretical models. We also search for narrow emission or absorption lines with the SXS, and perform a timing analysis of PSR J1833-1034 with the HXI and the Soft Gamma-ray Detector. No significant pulsation is found from the pulsar. However, unexpectedly, narrow absorption line features are detected in the SXS data at 4.2345 keV and 9.296 keV with a significance of 3.65 sigma. While the origin of these features is not understood, their mere detection opens up a new field of research and was only possible with the high resolution, sensitivity, and ability to measure extended sources provided by an X-ray microcalorimeter.
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JOURNAL OF ASTRONOMICAL TELESCOPES INSTRUMENTS AND SYSTEMS 4(2) 2018年4月 査読有りThe Hitomi (ASTRO-H) mission is the sixth Japanese x-ray astronomy satellite developed by a large international collaboration, including Japan, USA, Canada, and Europe. The mission aimed to provide the highest energy resolution ever achieved at E > 2 keV, using a microcalorimeter instrument, and to cover a wide energy range spanning four decades in energy from soft x-rays to gamma rays. After a successful launch on February 17, 2016, the spacecraft lost its function on March 26, 2016, but the commissioning phase for about a month provided valuable information on the onboard instruments and the spacecraft system, including astrophysical results obtained from first light observations. The paper describes the Hitomi (ASTRO-H) mission, its capabilities, the initial operation, and the instruments/spacecraft performances confirmed during the commissioning operations for about a month. (C) The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
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PUBLICATIONS OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF JAPAN 70(2) 2018年3月 査読有り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 2016 February-March, we performed the first X-ray microcalorimeter spectroscopy with the Soft X-ray Spectrometer (SXS) on board 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 similar to 5 eV at 6 keV achieved by Hitomi/SXS, we detected the Fe-K alpha line with similar to 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 similar to 20 keV, giving an equivalent width of similar to 20 eV for the 6.4 keV line. Because the velocity width is narrower than that of the broad H alpha line of similar to 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 similar to 1.6 kpc of 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 parsec to hundreds of parsecs scale in the active galactic nucleus system.
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PUBLICATIONS OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF JAPAN 70(2) 2018年3月 査読有りThe Crab nebula originated from a core-collapse supernova (SN) explosion observed in 1054 AD. 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 have been made for a massive shell that solves this discrepancy, but none has been detected. An alternative idea is that SN 1054 is an electron-capture (EC) explosion with a lower explosion energy by an order of magnitude than Fe-core-collapse SNe. X-ray imaging searches were performed for the plasma emission from the shell in the Crab outskirts to set a stringent upper limit on 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 on board the Hitomi satellite. By exploiting its superb energy resolution, we set an upper limit for emission or absorption features from as 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 less than or similar to 1 M-circle dot for a wide range of assumed shell radius, size, and plasma temperature values both in and out of 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 interstellar medium 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 less than or similar to 0.03 cm(-3) (Fe core) or less than or similar to 0.1 cm(-3) (EC) for the uniform density, or a progenitor wind density somewhat less than that provided by amass loss rate of 10(-5) M-circle dot yr(-1) at 20 km s(-1) for the wind environment.
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PUBLICATIONS OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF JAPAN 70(2) 2018年3月 査読有りWe report on a Hitomi observation of IGR J16318-4848, a high-mass X-ray binary system with an extremely strong absorption of N-H similar to 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 lines. For physical and geometrical insight into the nature of the reprocessing material, we utilized 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 imagers (SXI and HXI) aboard Hitomi. Even though the 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 line width. The line width corresponds to a velocity of 160(-70)(+300) km s(-1). This represents the most accurate, and smallest, width measurement of this line made so far from the any X-ray binary, much less than the Doppler broadening and Doppler shift expected from speeds that 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 have been confirmed. These characteristics suggest reprocessing materials that are distributed in a narrow solid angle or scattering, primarily by warm free electrons or neutral hydrogen. This measurement was achieved using the SXS detection of 19 photons. It provides strong motivation for follow-up observations of this and other X-ray binaries using the X-ray Astrophysics Recovery Mission and other comparable future instruments.
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PUBLICATIONS OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF JAPAN 70(2) 2018年3月 査読有りTo search for giant X-ray pulses correlated with the giant radio pulses (GRPs) from the Crab pulsar, we performed a simultaneous observation of the Crab pulsar with the X-ray satellite Hitomi in the 2-300 keV band and the Kashima NICT radio telescope in the 1.4-1.7 GHz band with a net exposure of about 2 ks on 2016 March 25, just before the loss of the Hitomi mission. The timing performance of the Hitomi instruments was confirmed to meet the timing requirement and about 1000 and 100 GRPs were simultaneously observed at the main pulse and inter-pulse phases, respectively, and we found no apparent correlation between the giant radio pulses and the X-ray emission in either the main pulse or inter-pulse phase. All variations are within the 2 sigma fluctuations of the X-ray fluxes at the pulse peaks, and the 3 sigma upper limits of variations of main pulse or inter-pulse GRPs are 22% or 80% of the peak flux in a 0.20 phase width, respectively, in the 2-300 keV band. The values for main pulse or inter-pulse GRPs become 25% or 110%, respectively, when the phase width is restricted to the 0.03 phase. Among the upper limits from the Hitomi satellite, those in the 4.5-10 keV and 70-300 keV bands are obtained for the first time, and those in other bands are consistent with previous reports. Numerically, the upper limits of the main pulse and inter-pulse GRPs in the 0.20 phase width are about (2.4 and 9.3) x 10(-11) erg cm(-2), respectively. No significant variability in pulse profiles implies that the GRPs originated from a local place within the magneto-sphere. Although the number of photon-emitting particles should temporarily increase to account for the brightening of the radio emission, the results do not statistically rule out variations correlated with the GRPs, because the possible X-ray enhancement may appear due to a > 0.02% brightening of the pulse-peak flux under such conditions.
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PUBLICATIONS OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF JAPAN 70(2) 2018年3月 査読有り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 a maxima of approximately 200 km s(-1) toward the central active galactic nucleus (AGN) and toward the AGN inflated northwestern "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 of the brightest cluster galaxy NGC 1275.
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PUBLICATIONS OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF JAPAN 70(2) 2018年3月 査読有りThe present paper explains the temperature structure of X-ray emitting plasma in the core of the Perseus cluster based on 1.8-20.0 keV data obtained with the Soft X-ray Spectrometer (SXS) on board the Hitomi Observatory. A series of four observations was carried out, with a total effective exposure time of 338 ks that covered a central region of similar to 7' in diameter. SXS was operated with an energy resolution of similar to 5 eV (full width at half maximum) at 5.9 keV. Not only fine structures of K-shell lines in He-like ions, but also transitions from higher principal quantum numbers were clearly resolved from Si through Fe. That enabled us to perform temperature diagnostics using the line ratios of Si, S, Ar, Ca, and Fe, and to provide the first direct measurement of the excitation temperature and ionization temperature in the Perseus cluster. The observed spectrum is roughly reproduced by a single-temperature thermal plasma model in collisional ionization equilibrium, but detailed line-ratio diagnostics reveal slight deviations from this approximation. In particular, the data exhibit an apparent trend of increasing ionization temperature with the atomic mass, as well as small differences between the ionization and excitation temperatures for Fe, the only element for which both temperatures could be measured. The best-fit two-temperature models suggest a combination of 3 and 5 keV gas, which is consistent with the idea that the observed small deviations from a single-temperature approximation are due to the effects of projecting the known radial temperature gradient in the cluster core along the line of sight. A comparison with the Chandra/ACIS and the XMM-Newton/RGS results, on the other hand, suggests that additional lower-temperature components are present in the intracluster medium (ICM), but not detectable with Hitomi/SXS giving its 1.8-20 keV energy band.
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PUBLICATIONS OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF JAPAN 70(2) 2018年3月 査読有りThanks to its high spectral resolution (similar to 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 effect should be taken into account. In the Hitomi waveband, resonant scattering mostly affects the Fe XXV He alpha line (w)-the strongest line in the spectrum. The flux measured by Hitomi in this line is suppressed by a factor of similar to 1.3 in the inner similar to 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 (Fe XXV 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 offering similar or better capabilities to the Hitomi SXS, will enable resonant scattering measurements to provide powerful constraints on the amplitude and anisotropy of cluster gas motions.
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PUBLICATIONS OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF JAPAN 70(2) 2018年3月 査読有りWe present Hitomi observations of N 132 D, a young, X-ray bright, O-rich core-collapse supernova remnant in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). Despite a very short observation of only 3.7 ks, the Soft X-ray Spectrometer (SXS) easily detects the line complexes of highly ionized S K and Fe K with 16-17 counts in each. The Fe feature is measured for the first time at high spectral resolution. Based on the plausible assumption that the Fe K emission is dominated by He-like ions, we find that the material responsible for this Fe emission is highly redshifted at similar to 800 km s(-1) compared to the local LMC interstellar medium (ISM), with a 90% credible interval of 50-1500 km s(-1) if a weakly informative prior is placed on possible line broadening. This indicates (1) that the Fe emission arises from the supernova ejecta, and (2) that these ejecta are highly asymmetric, since no blueshifted component is found. The S K velocity is consistent with the local LMC ISM, and is likely from swept-up ISM material. These results are consistent with spatial mapping that shows the He-like Fe concentrated in the interior of the remnant and the S tracing the outer shell. The results also show that even with a very small number of counts, direct velocity measurements from Doppler-shifted lines detected in extended objects like supernova remnants are now possible. Thanks to the very low SXS background of similar to 1 event per spectral resolution element per 100 ks, such results are obtainable during short pointed or slew observations with similar instruments. This highlights the power of high-spectral-resolution imaging observations, and demonstrates the new window that has been opened with Hitomi and will be greatly widened with future missions such as the X-ray Astronomy Recovery Mission (XARM) and Athena.
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PUBLICATIONS OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF JAPAN 70(2) 2018年3月 査読有りThe Hitomi Soft X-ray Spectrometer spectrum of the Perseus cluster, with similar to 5 eV resolution in the 2-9 keV band, offers an unprecedented benchmark of the atomic modeling and database for hot collisional plasmas. It reveals both successes and challenges of the current atomic data and models. The latest versions of AtomDB/APEC (3.0.8), SPEX (3.03.00), and CHIANTI (8.0) all provide reasonable fits to the broad-band spectrum, and are in close agreement on best-fit temperature, emission measure, and abundances of a few elements such as Ni. For the Fe abundance, the APEC and SPEX measurements differ by 16%, which is 17 times higher than the statistical uncertainty. This is mostly attributed to the differences in adopted collisional excitation and dielectronic recombination rates of the strongest emission lines. We further investigate and compare the sensitivity of the derived physical parameters to the astrophysical source modeling and instrumental effects. The Hitomi results show that accurate atomic data and models are as important as the astrophysical modeling and instrumental calibration aspects. Substantial updates of atomic databases and targeted laboratory measurements are needed to get the current data and models ready for the data from the next Hitomi-level mission.
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PUBLICATIONS OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF JAPAN 70(2) 2018年3月 査読有りThe emission mechanism of magnetars is still controversial even though various observational and theoretical studies have been made. In order to investigate mechanisms of both the persistent X-ray emission and the burst emission of the magnetars, we propose a model in which the persistent X-ray emission consists of numerous micro-bursts of various sizes. If this model is correct, root mean square (rms) intensity variations of the persistent emission would exceed the values expected from the Poisson distribution. Using Suzaku archive data of 11 magnetars (22 observations), the rms intensity variations were calculated from 0.2 keV to 70 keV. As a result, we found significant excess rms intensity variations from all 11 magnetars. We suppose that numerous micro-bursts constituting the persistent X-ray emission cause the observed variations, suggesting that the persistent X-ray emission and the burst emission have identical emission mechanisms. In addition, we found that the rms intensity variations clearly increase toward higher energy bands for four magnetars (six observations). The energy-dependent rms intensity variations imply that the soft thermal component and the hard X-ray component are emitted from different regions far apart from each other.
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Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan 70(3) 2018年2月21日Many Seyfert galaxies are known to exhibit Fe-K broad emission line features<br /> in their X-ray energy spectra. The observed lines have three distinct features;<br /> (1) the line profiles are skewed and show significant low-energy tails, (2) the<br /> Fe-K band have low variability, which produces a broad and deep dip in the<br /> root-mean-square (rms) spectra, and (3) photons in this band have time lags<br /> behind those in the adjacent energy bands with amplitudes of several $R_g/c$,<br /> where $R_g$ is the gravitational radius. The "relativistic light bending model"<br /> is proposed to explain these observed features, where a compact X-ray source<br /> (lamp post) above an extreme Kerr black hole illuminates the innermost area of<br /> the accretion disc. In this paper, we critically examine the relativistic light<br /> bending model by computing the rms spectra and the lag features using a<br /> ray-tracing technique, when a lamp post moves vertically on the black hole spin<br /> axis. As a result, we found that the observed deep rms dip requires that the<br /> iron is extremely overabundant ($\gtrsim10$ solar), whereas the observed lag<br /> amplitude is consistent with the normal iron abundance. Furthermore,<br /> disappearance of the lag in the high-flux state requires a source height as<br /> high as $\sim40\,R_g$, which contradicts the relativistically broad emission<br /> line feature. Our simulations agree with the data that the reverberation<br /> feature moves to lower frequencies with larger source height, however, if this<br /> scenario is correct, the simulations predict detection of a clear Fe-K lag at<br /> low frequencies, which is not constrained in the data. Therefore, we conclude<br /> that the relativistic light bending model may not explain the characteristic<br /> Fe-K spectral variations in Seyfert galaxies.
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Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering 10698 2018年LiteBIRD is a candidate for JAXA's strategic large mission to observe the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization over the full sky at large angular scales. It is planned to be launched in the 2020s with an H3 launch vehicle for three years of observations at a Sun-Earth Lagrangian point (L2). The concept design has been studied by researchers from Japan, U.S., Canada and Europe during the ISAS Phase-A1. Large scale measurements of the CMB B-mode polarization are known as the best probe to detect primordial gravitational waves. The goal of LiteBIRD is to measure the tensor-to-scalar ratio (r) with precision of r < 0:001. A 3-year full sky survey will be carried out with a low frequency (34 - 161 GHz) telescope (LFT) and a high frequency (89 - 448 GHz) telescope (HFT), which achieve a sensitivity of 2.5 μK-arcmin with an angular resolution 30 arcminutes around 100 GHz. The concept design of LiteBIRD system, payload module (PLM), cryo-structure, LFT and verification plan is described in this paper.
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HIGH ENERGY, OPTICAL, AND INFRARED DETECTORS FOR ASTRONOMY VIII 10709 2018年X-ray Imaging Spectrometers (XIS) are the X-ray CCD cameras onboard Suzaku. They were operated in orbit from 2005 to 2015 and produced lots of findings with their good energy resolution and low non X-rat background. Precise calibration including the 10 eV accuracy in the energy scale reinforced them. Nevertheless, there has been a unresolved calibration issue in the spectral response around the Si-K edge (1.839 keV) appearing as systematic residuals up to 10%. The residual is negative peaking at 1.85 keV in the front illuminated (FI) sensors and positive peaking at 1.8 keV in the back illuminated (BI) sensor for X-ray sources dominated by continuum X-ray emission. Various attempts to eliminate these residuals by changing response parameters or quantum efficiency models have been insufficient. In this paper, we revisit this problem by focusing on the relation between incident X-ray energy and pulse height. We introduce a jump in that relation at the Si-K edge by modifying the, and optimize its value so as to minimize the residuals in the fit of the X-ray spectra for the black hole binary LMC X-3, a source dominated by continuum emission. We find the introduction of a jump significantly reduces the residuals. The optimized jump values are +4.2 channel, +4.0 channel, and -3.1 channel, corresponding to 15.3 eV, 11.3 eV, and 14.6 eV, for XIS0, XIS3 (FI), and XIS1 (BI), respectively. The direction of the jump is opposite for the FI and for the BI. We revise the response matrices generator so as to include the jump for each XIS sensor, and apply it to the X-ray spectra of the Perseus cluster of galaxies which has various emission lines in the spectra, and the blazar PKS2155-304 which was observed various epoch in the Suzakuoperation. We confirm the residuals are significantly reduced for these sources, too. We finally suggest the jump at Si-K edge in the energy and pulse height relation is qualitatively explained, if some of charges are lost in course of charger collection to the electrode of the CCD in the depletion later, and its amount is large for larger travel length in the depletion layer. If this explanation is correct, the Si-K edge problem and its solution presented in this paper is not specific only for the SuzakuXIS but also for other X-ray CCDs.
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NATURE 551(7681) 478-+ 2017年11月 査読有りThe metal abundance of the hot plasma that permeates galaxy clusters represents the accumulation of heavy elements produced by billions of supernovae(1). Therefore, X-ray spectroscopy of the intracluster medium provides an opportunity to investigate the nature of supernova explosions integrated over cosmic time. In particular, the abundance of the iron-peak elements (chromium, manganese, iron and nickel) is key to understanding how the progenitors of typical type Ia supernovae evolve and explode(2-6). Recent X-ray studies of the intracluster medium found that the abundance ratios of these elements differ substantially from those seen in the Sun(7-11), suggesting differences between the nature of type Ia supernovae in the clusters and in the Milky Way. However, because the K-shell transition lines of chromium and manganese are weak and those of iron and nickel are very close in photon energy, highresolution spectroscopy is required for an accurate determination of the abundances of these elements. Here we report observations of the Perseus cluster, with statistically significant detections of the resonance emission from chromium, manganese and nickel. Our measurements, combined with the latest atomic models, reveal that these elements have near-solar abundance ratios with respect to iron, in contrast to previous claims. Comparison between our results and modern nucleosynthesis calculations(12-14) disfavours the hypothesis that type Ia supernova progenitors are exclusively white dwarfs with masses well below the Chandrasekhar limit (about 1.4 times the mass of the Sun). The observed abundance pattern of the iron-peak elements can be explained by taking into account a combination of near-and sub-Chandrasekhar-mass type Ia supernova systems, adding to the mounting evidence that both progenitor types make a substantial contribution to cosmic chemical enrichment(5,15,16).
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Physical Review Letters 119(18) 2017年11月1日 査読有り© 2017 Published by the American Physical Society. First results of a cosmic-ray electron and positron spectrum from 10 GeV to 3 TeV is presented based upon observations with the CALET instrument on the International Space Station starting in October, 2015. Nearly a half million electron and positron events are included in the analysis. CALET is an all-calorimetric instrument with total vertical thickness of 30 X0 and a fine imaging capability designed to achieve a large proton rejection and excellent energy resolution well into the TeV energy region. The observed energy spectrum over 30 GeV can be fit with a single power law with a spectral index of -3.152±0.016 (stat+syst). Possible structure observed above 100 GeV requires further investigation with increased statistics and refined data analysis.
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Astroparticle Physics 91 1-10 2017年5月1日 査読有り© 2017 The Authors In August 2015, the CALorimetric Electron Telescope (CALET), designed for long exposure observations of high energy cosmic rays, docked with the International Space Station (ISS) and shortly thereafter began to collect data. CALET will measure the cosmic ray electron spectrum over the energy range of 1 GeV to 20 TeV with a very high resolution of 2% above 100 GeV, based on a dedicated instrument incorporating an exceptionally thick 30 radiation-length calorimeter with both total absorption and imaging (TASC and IMC) units. Each TASC readout channel must be carefully calibrated over the extremely wide dynamic range of CALET that spans six orders of magnitude in order to obtain a degree of calibration accuracy matching the resolution of energy measurements. These calibrations consist of calculating the conversion factors between ADC units and energy deposits, ensuring linearity over each gain range, and providing a seamless transition between neighboring gain ranges. This paper describes these calibration methods in detail, along with the resulting data and associated accuracies. The results presented in this paper show that a sufficient accuracy was achieved for the calibrations of each channel in order to obtain a suitable resolution over the entire dynamic range of the electron spectrum measurement.
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MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY 466(3) 3259-3271 2017年4月 査読有りThe narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 4051 is known to exhibit significant X-ray spectral/flux variations and have a number of emission/absorption features. X-ray observations have revealed that these absorption features are blueshifted, which indicates that NGC 4051 has warm absorber outflow. In order to constrain physical parameters of the warm absorber outflow, we analyse the archival data with the longest exposure taken by XMM-Newton in 2009. We calculate the root-mean-square (rms) spectra with the grating spectral resolution for the first time. The rms spectra have a sharp peak and several dips, which can be explained by variable absorption features and non-variable emission lines; a lower ionized warm absorber (WA1: log xi = 1.5, v = -650 km s(-1)) shows large variability, whereas higher ionized warm absorbers (WA2: log xi = 2.5, v = -4100 km s(-1), WA3: log xi = 3.4, v = -6100 km s(-1)) show little variability. WA1 shows the maximum variability at a time-scale of similar to 10(4) s, suggesting that the absorber locates at similar to 10(3) times of the Schwarzschild radius. The depth of the absorption features due to WA1 and the observed soft X-ray flux are anticorrelated in several observational sequences, which can be explained by variation of partial covering fraction of the double-layer blobs that are composed of the Compton-thick core and the ionized layer (= WA1). WA2 andWA3 show little variability and presumably extend uniformly in the line of sight. The present result shows that NGC 4051 has two types of the warm absorber outflows; the static, high-ionized and extended line-driven disc winds and the variable, low-ionized and clumpy double-layer blobs.
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PUBLICATIONS OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF JAPAN 69(1) 2017年2月 査読有りX-ray behavior of the dwarf novae (DNe) outside the quiescent state has not been fully understood. We thus assembled 21 data sets of the 15 DNe observed by the Suzaku satellite by the end of 2013, which include spectra taken during not only the quiescence, but also the transitional, outburst, and super-outburst states. Starting with the traditional cooling flow model to explain the X-ray emission from the boundary layer, we made several modifications to account for the observed spectra. As a result, we found that the best-fitting spectral model depends strongly on the state of the DNe with only a few exceptions. Spectra in the quiescent state are explained by the cooling flow model plus a Fe fluorescent line emission attenuated by an interstellar extinction. Spectra in the transitional state require an additional partial covering extinction. Spectra in the outburst and super-outburst state require additional low-temperature thin-thermal plasma component(s). Spectra in the super-outburst state further require a high value of minimum temperature for the boundary layer. We present an interpretation on the required modifications to the cooling flow model for each state.
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ASTRONOMICAL DATA ANALYSIS SOFTWARE AND SYSTEMS XXV 512 685-688 2017年 査読有りDARTS (Data ARchives and Transmission Systems) is JAXA's space science data archive. DARTS has several web-applications which enable users to easily browse and quick-look the data archived at DARTS. Here, we introduce C3 and JLTDo2, with which users can freely explore the terrestrial data and astronomical data, respectively, using only an ordinary web-browser. To display the terrestrial data, C3 uses the same technology as Dagik Earth; the global maps are made using an orthographic projection, which evokes a realistic visual feeling if projected on a (hemi)sphere. The original JUDO was developed and released in 2007 to facilitate use of the Suzaku and ASCA X-ray data. It has been fully refurbished in 2014/2015 using Aladin-lite, and MAXI and Swift all sky survey data have been added. With JUDO2, users can display not only different survey images superposing one another, but also the specific information on the Suzaku and ASCA data such as foot-prints, proposal abstracts and download URLs.
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Astrophysical Journal Letters 848(2) 2017年
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PUBLICATIONS OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF JAPAN 68(5) 2016年10月 査読有りTwenty-three giant flares from thirteen active stars (eight RS CVn systems, one Algol system, three dMe stars, and one young stellar object) were detected during the first two years of our all-sky X-ray monitoring with the gas propotional counters (GSC) of the Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image (MAXI). The observed parameters of all these MAXI/GSC flares are found to be at the upper ends for stellar flares with the luminosity of 10(31-34) erg s(-1) in the 2-20 keV band, the emission measure of 10(54-57) cm(-3), the e-folding time of 1 hr to 1.5 d, and the total radiative energy released during the flare of 10(34-39) erg. Notably, the peak X-ray luminosity of 5(-2)(+4) x 10(33) erg s(-1) in the 2-20 keV band was detected in one of the flares on II Peg, which is one of the, or potentially the, largest-ever-observed in stellar flares. X-ray flares were detected from GT Mus, V841 Cen, SZ Psc, and TWA-7 for the first time in this survey. Whereas most of our detected sources aremultiple-star systems, two of them are single stars (YZ CMi and TWA-7). Among the stellar sources within 100 pc distance, the MAXI/GSC sources have larger rotation velocities than the other sources. This suggests that the rapid rotation velocity may play a key role in generating large flares. Combining the X-ray flare data of nearby stars and the sun, taken from literature and our own data, we discovered a universal correlation of tau alpha L-X(0.2) for the flare duration tau and the intrinsic X-ray luminosity L-X in the 0.1-100 keV band, which holds for 5 and 12 orders of magnitude in tau and L-X, respectively. The MAXI/GSC sample is located at the highest ends of the correlation.
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PUBLICATIONS OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF JAPAN 68(5) 2016年10月 査読有りThe narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy (NLS1) IRAS 13224-3809 is known to exhibit significant X-ray spectral variation, a sharp spectral drop at similar to 7 keV, strong soft excess emission, and a hint of an iron L-edge feature, which is very similar to the NLS1 1H 0707-495. We have proposed the "Variable Double Partial Covering (VDPC) model" to explain the energy spectra and spectral variability of 1H0707-495 (Mizumoto et al. 2014, PASJ, 66, 122). In this model, the observed flux/spectral variations below 10 keV within similar to a day are primarily caused by change of the partial covering fraction of patchy clouds composed by double absorption layers in the line of sight. In this paper, we apply the VDPC model to IRAS 13224-3809. Consequently, we have found that the VDPC model can explain the observed spectral variations of IRAS 13224-3809 in the 0.5-10 keV band. In particular, we can explain the observed root mean square (RMS) spectra (energy dependence of the fractional flux variation) in the entire 0.5-10 keV band. In addition to the well-known significant drop in the iron K-band, we have found intriguing iron L-peaks in the RMS spectra when the iron L-edge is particularly deep. This feature, which is also found in 1H 0707-495, is naturally explained with the VDPC model, such that the RMS variations increase at the energies where optical depths of the partial absorbers are large. The absorbers have a larger optical depth at the iron L-edge than in the adjacent energy bands, and thus a characteristic iron L-peak appears. On the other hand, just below the iron K-edge, the optical depth is the lowest and the RMS spectrum has a broad dip.
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Astrophysical Journal Letters 829(1) 2016年9月20日 査読有り© 2016. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.. We present upper limits in the hard X-ray and gamma-ray bands at the time of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) gravitational-wave event GW151226 derived from the CALorimetric Electron Telescope (CALET) observation. The main instrument of CALET, CALorimeter (CAL), observes gamma-rays from ∼1 GeV up to 10 TeV with a field of view of ∼2 sr. The CALET gamma-ray burst monitor (CGBM) views ∼3 sr and ∼2π sr of the sky in the 7 keV-1 MeV and the 40 keV-20 MeV bands, respectively, by using two different scintillator-based instruments. The CGBM covered 32.5% and 49.1% of the GW151226 sky localization probability in the 7 keV-1 MeV and 40 keV-20 MeV bands respectively. We place a 90% upper limit of 2 ×10-7 erg cm-2 s-1 in the 1-100 GeV band where CAL reaches 15% of the integrated LIGO probability (∼1.1 sr). The CGBM 7σ upper limits are 1.0 ×10-6 erg cm-2 s-1 (7-500 keV) and 1.8 ×10-6 erg cm-2 s-1 (50-1000 keV) for a 1 s exposure. Those upper limits correspond to the luminosity of 3-5 ×1049 erg s-1, which is significantly lower than typical short GRBs.
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PUBLICATIONS OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF JAPAN 68(4) 2016年8月 査読有りThe Galactic Ridge X-ray Emission (GRXE) is an apparently extended X-ray emission along the Galactic plane. The X-ray spectrum is characterized by a hard continuum with a strong Fe K emission feature in the 6-7 keV band. A substantial fraction (similar to 80%) of the GRXE in the Fe band was resolved into point sources by deep Chandra imaging observations; thus GRXE is mostly composed of dim Galactic X-ray point sources, at least in this energy band. To investigate the populations of these dim X-ray point sources, we carried out near-infrared (NIR) follow-up spectroscopic observations in two deep Chandra fields located in the Galactic plane at (l, b) = (0.degrees 1,-1 degrees 4) and (28.degrees 5, 0.degrees 0) using NTT/SofI and Subaru/MOIRCS. We obtained well-exposed NIR spectra from 65 objects and found that there are three main classes of Galactic sources based on the X-ray color and NIR spectral features: those having (A) hard X-ray spectra and NIR emission features such as HI (Br gamma), He I, and HeII (2 objects), (B) soft X-ray spectra and NIR absorption features such as HI, NaI, CaI, and CO (46 objects), and (C) hard X-ray spectra and NIR absorption features such as HI, NaI, CaI, and CO (17 objects). From these features, we argue that classA sources are cataclysmic variables (CVs), and class B sources are late-type stars with enhanced coronal activity, which is in agreement with current knowledge. Class C sources possibly belong to a new group of objects, which has been poorly studied so far. We argue that the candidate sources for class C are the binary systems hosting white dwarfs and late-type companions with very low accretion rates. It is likely that this newly recognized class of sources contribute to a non-negligible fraction of the GRXE, especially in the Fe K band.
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NATURE 535(7610) 117-+ 2016年7月 査読有りClusters of galaxies are the most massive gravitationally bound objects in the Universe and are still forming. They are thus important probes(1) of cosmological parameters and many astrophysical processes. However, knowledge of the dynamics of the pervasive hot gas, the mass of which is much larger than the combined mass of all the stars in the cluster, is lacking. Such knowledge would enable insights into the injection of mechanical energy by the central supermassive black hole and the use of hydrostatic equilibrium for determining cluster masses. X-rays from the core of the Perseus cluster are emitted by the 50-million-kelvin diffuse hot plasma filling its gravitational potential well. The active galactic nucleus of the central galaxy NGC 1275 is pumping jetted energy into the surrounding intracluster medium, creating buoyant bubbles filled with relativistic plasma. These bubbles probably induce motions in the intracluster medium and heat the inner gas, preventing runaway radiative cooling-a process known as active galactic nucleus feedback(2-6). Here we report X-ray observations of the core of the Perseus cluster, which reveal a remarkably quiescent atmosphere in which the gas has a line-of-sight velocity dispersion of 164 +/- 10 kilometres per second in the region 30-60 kiloparsecs from the central nucleus. A gradient in the line-of-sight velocity of 150 +/- 70 kilometres per second is found across the 60-kiloparsec image of the cluster core. Turbulent pressure support in the gas is four per cent of the thermodynamic pressure, with large-scale shear at most doubling this estimate. We infer that a total cluster mass determined from hydrostatic equilibrium in a central region would require little correction for turbulent pressure.
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PUBLICATIONS OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF JAPAN 68 2016年6月 査読有りThe X-ray spectrum of GRS1915+105 is known to have a "broad iron spectral feature" in the spectral hard state. Similar spectral features are often observed in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and other black-hole binaries (BHBs), and several models have been proposed for explaining it. In order to distinguish spectralmodels, time variation provides an important key. In AGNs, variation amplitude has been found to drop significantly at the iron K-energy band at timescales of similar to 10 ks. If spectral variations of black holes are normalized by their masses, the spectral variations of BHBs on timescales of sub-seconds should exhibit similar characteristics to those of AGNs. In this paper, we investigated spectral variations of GRS 1915+105 at timescales down to similar to 10 ms. This was made possible for the first time with the Suzaku XIS Parallel-sum clocking (P-sum) mode, which has the CCD energy-resolution as well as a time-resolution of 7.8 ms. Consequently, we found that the variation amplitude of GRS 1915+105 does not drop at the iron K-energy band on any timescales from 0.06 s to 63000 s, and that the entire X-ray flux and the iron feature are independently variable at timescales of hours. These are naturally understood in the framework of the "partial covering" model, in which variation timescales of the continuum flux and partial absorbers are independent. The difference of the energy dependence of the variation amplitude between AGNs and BHBs is presumably due to different mechanisms of the outflow winds, i.e., the partial absorbers are due to UV-line driven winds (AGNs) or thermally driven winds (BHBs).
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PUBLICATIONS OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF JAPAN 68 2016年6月 査読有りMany Seyfert galaxies are known to exhibit significant X-ray spectral variations and seemingly broad iron K-emission line features. In this paper, we show that the "variable partial covering model," which has been successfully proposed for MCG-6-30-15 (Miyakawa et al. 2012, PASJ, 64, 140) and 1H 0707-495 (Mizumoto et al. 2014, PASJ, 66, 122), can also explain the spectral variations in 2-10 keV as well as the broad iron line features in 20 other Seyfert galaxies observed with Suzaku. In this model, the absorbed spectral component through the optically thick absorbing clouds has a significant iron K-edge, which primarily accounts for the observed, seemingly broad iron line feature. Fluctuation of the absorbing clouds in the line of sight of the extended X-ray source results in variation of the partial covering fraction, which causes an anti-correlation between the direct (not covered) spectral component and the absorbed (covered) spectral component below similar to 10 keV. Observed spectral variation in 2-10 keV in a timescale of less than similar to 1 day is primarily explained by such variations of the partial covering fraction, while the intrinsic soft X-ray luminosity is hardly variable.
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ASTRONOMISCHE NACHRICHTEN 337(4-5) 507-511 2016年5月The "broad iron spectral features" are often seen in X-ray spectra of active galactic nuclei (AGN) and black-hole binaries (BHB). These features may be explained either by the "relativistic disc reflection" scenario or the " partial covering" scenario: It is hardly possible to determine which model is valid from time-averaged spectral analysis. Thus, X-ray spectral variability has been investigated to constrain spectral models. To that end, it is crucial to study iron structure of BHBs in detail at short time-scales, which is, for the first time, made possible with the Parallel-sum clocking (P-sum) mode of XIS detectors on board of Suzaku. This observational mode has a time-resolution of 7.8 ms as well as a CCD energy-resolution. We have carried out systematic calibration of the P-sum mode, and investigated spectral variability of the BHB GRS 1915+105. Consequently, we found that the spectral variability of GRS 1915+105 does not show iron features at sub-seconds. This is totally different from variability of AGN such as 1H0707-495, where the variation amplitude significantly drops at the iron K-energy band. This difference can be naturally explained in the framework of the " partial covering" scenario. (C) 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH&Co. KGaA, Weinheim
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SPACE TELESCOPES AND INSTRUMENTATION 2016: ULTRAVIOLET TO GAMMA RAY 9905 2016年 査読有りThe Hitomi (ASTRO-H) mission is the sixth Japanese X-ray astronomy satellite developed by a large international collaboration, including Japan, USA, Canada, and Europe. The mission aimed to provide the highest energy resolution ever achieved at E > 2 keV, using a microcalorimeter instrument, and to cover a wide energy range spanning four decades in energy from soft X-rays to gamma-rays. After a successful launch on 2016 February 17, the spacecraft lost its function on 2016 March 26, but the commissioning phase for about a month provided valuable information on the on-board instruments and the spacecraft system, including astrophysical results obtained from first light observations. The paper describes the Hitomi (ASTRO-H) mission, its capabilities, the initial operation, and the instruments/spacecraft performances confirmed during the commissioning operations for about a month.
MISC
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ASTRONOMICAL DATA ANALYSIS SOFTWARE AND SYSTEMS XXVI 521 205-208 2019年We are developing the web-based quick data analysis tools JUDO2 and UDON2 at DARTS (http: //darts.isas.jaxa.jp). JUDO2 adopts Aladin Lite to display various astronomical survey data. In particular, we have created HiPS data of Suzaku, MAXI, ASCA and Swift, and publish them from DARTS. In addition, we made various types of the constellation data in HiPS format. Recently, thanks to cooperation by ESA-sky team, the XMM fields of view (footprints) and direct links to the XMM-archive at ESA are made available in JUDO2. UDON2 allows users to extract spectra and light-curves of MAXI, Suzaku and ASCA data. Users can display favorite targetstars or sky regions in JUDO2, and jump to UDON2 to quickly analyze these targets. We are going to add JAXA's other astronomical data (e.g. Akari pointing data, Hitomi) to JUDO2 and UDON2.
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ASTRONOMICAL DATA ANALYSIS SOFTWARE AND SYSTEMS XXVIII 523 515-518 2019年CALET (CALorimetric Electron Telescope) has been installed and operational on the Japanese Experiment Module Exposed Facility of the International Space Station (ISS) since August 2015. We describe the Web analaysis system for the CALET Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (CGBM), which is publicly available from DARTS.
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ASTRONOMICAL DATA ANALYSIS SOFTWARE AND SYSTEMS XXVI 521 46-49 2019年Over the past few years the Hierarchical Progressive Survey (HiPS) has become a key method for the distribution of all -sky reference data. Today, HiPS represents about 100 TB of data, and is expected to double each year as the network of a dozen of HiPS providers including ESAC, JAXA, CADC and CDS grows. HiPS data sets are used by thousands of users per day through various HiPS aware clients: Aladin, MIZAR, Aladin Lite, and Aladin-Lite based ESASky and JUDO2. We expect that this technology will be one of the main methods for the distribution of surveys - images, catalogs and cubes - for the next decade. In this extremely fast growing environment, we will discuss why the HiPS network is an excellent candidate for long term management of all-sky reference data. We highlight how the intrinsic HiPS architecture based on the well known HEALPix geometry, a simple tile structure, straightforward distribution method based only on a basic HTTP server, and being standardised by IVOA, constitutes an extremely robust foundation for a system which will support all-sky data distribution for a long time.
講演・口頭発表等
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JpGU-AGU Joint Meeting 2020:Virtual ユニオンセッション U-12 「地球惑星科学の進むべき道10 ビッグデータとオープンサイエンス」 2020年7月15日 招待有り
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20 Years of Chandra Science Symposium
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The 29th annual international Astronomical Data Analysis Software & Systems (ADASS)
所属学協会
1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(C) 2016年4月 - 2019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(C) 2009年 - 2011年
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日本学術振興会 科学研究費助成事業 基盤研究(B) 2007年 - 2009年
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日本学術振興会 科学研究費助成事業 国際学術研究 1992年 - 1994年
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日本学術振興会 科学研究費助成事業 奨励研究(特別研究員) 1990年 - 1990年
