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 助教総合研究大学院大学 宇宙観測科学講座 飛翔体天文学分野 助教
- 学位
- 博士(理学)(1998年3月 京都大学)修士(理学)(1995年3月 京都大学)
- 研究者番号
- 80342624
- ORCID ID
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9099-5755- J-GLOBAL ID
- 202001011170717781
- researchmap会員ID
- R000011919
論文
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PUBLICATIONS OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF JAPAN 70(2) 2018年3月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We present results of inflight calibration of the point spread function of the Soft X-ray Telescope that focuses X-rays onto the pixel array of the Soft X-ray Spectrometer system. We make a full array image of a point-like source by extracting a pulsed component of the Crab nebula emission. Within the limited statistics afforded by an exposure time of only 6.9 ks and limited knowledge of the systematic uncertainties, we find that the raytracing model of 1.'2 half-power-diameter is consistent with an image of the observed event distributions across pixels. The ratio between the Crab pulsar image and the raytracing shows scatter from pixel to pixel that is 40% or less in all except one pixel. The pixel-to-pixel ratio has a spread of 20%, on average, for the 15 edge pixels, with an averaged statistical error of 17% (1 sigma). In the central 16 pixels, the corresponding ratio is 15% with an error of 6%.
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PUBLICATIONS OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF JAPAN 70(2) 2018年3月We describe the in-orbit performance of the soft X-ray imaging system consisting of the Soft X-ray Telescope and the Soft X-ray Imager aboard Hitomi. Verification and calibration of imaging and spectroscopic performance are carried out, making the best use of the limited data of less than three weeks. Basic performance, including a large field of view of 38' x 38', is verified with the first-light image of the Perseus cluster of galaxies. Amongst the small number of observed targets, the on-minus-off pulse image for the out-of-time events of the Crab pulsar enables us to measure the half-power diameter of the telescope as similar to 1.'3. The average energy resolution measured with the onboard calibration source events at 5.89 keV is 179 +/- 3 eV in full width at half maximum. Light leak and crosstalk issues affected the effective exposure time and the effective area, respectively, because all the observations were performed before optimizing an observation schedule and the parameters for the dark-level calculation. Screening the data affected by these two issues, we measure the background level to be 5.6 x 10(-6) counts s(-1) arcmin(-2) cm(-2) in the energy band of 5-12 keV, which is seven times lower than that of the Suzaku XIS-BI.
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PUBLICATIONS OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF JAPAN 70(2) 2018年3月We present the result of the in-flight calibration of the effective area of the Soft X-ray Spectrometer (SXS) on board the Hitomi X-ray satellite using an observation of the Crab nebula. We corrected for artifacts when observing high count rate sources with the Xray microcalorimeter. We then constructed a spectrum in the 0.5-20 keV band, which we modeled with a single power-law continuum attenuated by interstellar extinction. We evaluated the systematic uncertainty of the spectral parameters by various calibration items. In the 2-12 keV band, the SXS result is consistent with the literature values in flux (2.20 +/- 0.08 x 10(-8) erg s(-1) cm(-2) with a 1 sigma statistical uncertainty) but is softer in the power-law index (2.19 +/- 0.11). The discrepancy is attributable to the systematic uncertainty of about +6%/-7% and +2%/-5% respectively for the flux and the power-law index. The softer spectrum is affected primarily by the systematic uncertainty of the Dewar gate valve transmission and the event screening.
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14th Marcel Grossman Meeting On Recent Developments in Theoretical and Experimental General Relativity, Astrophysics and Relativistic Field Theories, Proceedings 1915-1921 2018年We have analyzed XMM-Newton, Chandra, and Suzaku observations of three young Type Ia supernova remnants (SNRs), i.e., Kepler's SNR, Tycho's SNR, and SNR 0509-67.5 in the LMC, to investigate the properties of both the SN ejecta and the circumstellar medium (CSM). By simply comparing the X-ray spectra, we find that line intensity ratios of iron-group elements (IGE) to intermediate-mass elements (IME) for Kepler's SNR and SNR 0509-67.5 are much higher than those for Tycho's SNR. We therefore argue that Kepler is the product of an overluminous Type Ia SN. This inference is supported by our spectral modeling, which reveals the IGE and IME masses respectively to be 0.95 (0.58-1.29) M and 0.12 (0.07-0.31) M (Kepler's SNR), 0.75 (0.6-1.26) M and 0.34 (0.09-0.42) M (SNR 0509-67.5), and 0.35 (0.2-0.9) M and 0.70 (0.42-0.82) M (Tycho's SNR). On the other hand, there are a number of dense, N-rich CSM knots in Kepler's SNR, which were found by optical observations and are now confirmed by our X-ray observations. Their optical proper motions as well as X-ray measured ionization states indicate that they were located a few pc away from the progenitor system at the SN explosion. Therefore, we argue that Kepler's SN was an overluminous event that started to interact with massive CSM a few hundred years after the explosion, which supports the possible link between overluminous SNe and the so-called “Ia-CSM” SNe.
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SPACE TELESCOPES AND INSTRUMENTATION 2018: ULTRAVIOLET TO GAMMA RAY 10699 2018年X-ray Astronomy Recovery Mission (XARM) scheduled to be launched in early 2020's carries two soft X-ray telescopes. One is Resolve consisting of a soft X-ray mirror and a micro calorimeter array, and the other is Soft X-ray Imaging Telescope (Xtend), a combination of an X-ray mirror assembly (XMA) and an X-ray CCD camera (SXI). Xtend covers a field of view (FOV) of 38' x 8', much larger than that of Resolve (3' x 3') with moderate energy resolution in the energy band from 0.4 keV to 13 keV, which is similar to that of Resolve (from 0.3 keV to 12 keV). Simultaneous observations of both telescopes provide complimentary data of X-ray sources in their FOV. In particular, monitoring X-ray sources outside the Resolve FOV but inside the Xtend FOV is important to enhance the reliability of super high resolution spectra obtained with Resolve. Xtend is also expected to be one of the best instruments for low surface brightness X-ray emissions with its low non X-ray background level, which is comparable to that of Suzaku XIS. The design of Xtend is almost identical to those of Soft X-ray Telescope (SXT) and Soft X-ray Imager (SXI) both on board the Hitomi satellite. However, several mandatory updates are included. Updates for the CCD chips are verified with experiment using test CCD chips before finalizing the design of the flight model CCD. Fabrication of the foils for XMA has started, and flight model production of the SXI is almost ready.
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JOURNAL OF ASTRONOMICAL TELESCOPES INSTRUMENTS AND SYSTEMS 4(1) 2018年1月We present the summary of the on-ground calibration of two soft x-ray telescopes (SXT-I and SXT-S), developed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), onboard Astro-H/Hitomi. After the initial x-ray measurements with a diverging beam at the GSFC 100-m beamline, we performed the full calibration of the x-ray performance, using the 30-m x-ray beamline facility at the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency in Japan. We adopted a raster scan method with a narrow x-ray pencil beam with a divergence of similar to 15 ''. The on-axis effective area (EA), half-power diameter, and vignetting function were measured at several energies between 1.5 and 17.5 keV. The detailed results appear in tables and figures in this paper. We measured and evaluated the performance of the SXT-S and the SXT-I with regard to the detector-limited field-of-view and the pixel size of the paired flight detector, i.e., SXS and the SXI, respectively. The primary items measured are the EA, image quality, and stray light for on-axis and off-axis sources. The accurate measurement of these parameters is vital to make the precise response function of the ASTRO-H SXTs. This paper presents the definitive results of the ground-based calibration of the ASTRO-H SXTs. (c) The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
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JOURNAL OF ASTRONOMICAL TELESCOPES INSTRUMENTS AND SYSTEMS 4(1) 2018年1月Hitomi (ASTRO-H) carries two Hard X-ray Telescopes (HXTs), which can focus x-rays up to 80 keV. Combined with the hard x-ray imagers (HXIs) that detect the focused x-rays, imaging spectroscopy in the high-energy band from 5 to 80 keV is made possible. We studied characteristics of HXTs after the launch, such as the encircled energy function (EEF) and the effective area using the data of a Crab observation. The half power diameters (HPDs) in the 5- to 80-keV band evaluated from the EEFs are 1.59 arcmin for HXT-1 and 1.65 arcmin for HXT-2. Those are consistent with the HPDs measured with ground experiments when uncertainties are taken into account. We can conclude that there is no significant change in the characteristics of the HXTs before and after the launch. The off-axis angle of the aim point from the optical axis is evaluated to be < 0.5 arcmin for both HXT-1 and HXT-2. The best-fit parameters for the Crab spectrum obtained with the HXT-HXI system are consistent with the canonical values. (c) The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
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JOURNAL OF ASTRONOMICAL TELESCOPES INSTRUMENTS AND SYSTEMS 4(1) 2018年1月We present x-ray characteristics of the Hard X-ray Telescopes (HXTs) on board the Hitomi (ASTRO-H) satellite. Measurements were conducted at the SPring-8 BL20B2 beamline and the ISAS/JAXA 27-m beamline. The angular resolution defined by a half-power diameter was 1.9 ' (HXT-1) and 2.1 ' (HXT-2) at 8 keV, 1.9 ' at 30 keV, and 1.8 ' at 50 keV. The effective area was found to be 620 cm(2) at 8 keV, 178 cm(2) at 30 keV, and 82 cm(2) at 50 keV per mirror module. Although the angular resolutions were slightly worse than the requirement (1.7 '), the effective areas sufficiently exceeded the requirements of 150 cm(2) at 30 keV and 55 cm2 at 50 keV. The off-axis measurements of the effective areas resulted in the field of view being 6.1 ' at 50 keV, 7.7 ' at 30 keV, and 9.7 ' at 8 keV in diameter. We confirmed that the main component of the stray x-ray light was significantly reduced by mounting the precollimator as designed. Detailed analysis of the data revealed that the angular resolution was degraded mainly by figure errors of mirror foils, and the angular resolution is completely explained by the figure errors, positioning errors of the foils, and conical approximation of the foil shape. We found that the effective areas were similar to 80% of the designed values below 40 keV, whereas they steeply decline above 40 keV and become only similar to 50%. We investigated this abrupt decline and found that neither the error of the multilayer design nor the errors of the incident angles induced by the positioning errors of the foils can be the cause. The reflection profile of each foil pair from the defocused image strongly suggests that the figure errors of the foils probably bring about the reduction in the effective areas at higher energies. (c) The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
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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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ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL 853(1) 2018年1月We present new evidence that the bright nonthermal X-ray emission features in the interior of the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant are caused by inward-moving shocks, based on Chandra and NuSTAR observations. Several bright inward-moving filaments were identified using monitoring data taken by Chandra in 2000-2014. These inward-moving shock locations are nearly coincident with hard X-ray (15-40 keV) hot spots seen by NuSTAR. From proper-motion measurements, the transverse velocities were estimated to be in the range of similar to 2100-3800 km s(-1) for a distance of 3.4 kpc. The shock velocities in the frame of the expanding ejecta reach values of similar to 5100-8700 km s(-1), which is slightly higher than the typical speed of the forward shock. Additionally, we find flux variations (both increasing and decreasing) on timescales of a few years in some of the inward-moving shock filaments. The rapid variability timescales are consistent with an amplified magnetic field of B similar to 0.5-1 mG. The high speed and low photon cut-off energy of the inward-moving shocks are shown to imply a particle diffusion coefficient that departs from the Bohm regime (k(0) = D-0/D-0,D-Bohm similar to 3-8) for the few simple physical configurations we consider in this study. The maximum electron energy at these shocks is estimated to be similar to 8-11 TeV, which is smaller than the values of similar to 15-34 TeV that were inferred for the forward shock. Cassiopeia A is dynamically too young for its reverse shock to appear to be moving inward in the observer frame. We propose instead that the inward-moving shocks are a consequence of the forward shock encountering a density jump of 5-8 in the surrounding material.
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JOURNAL OF ASTRONOMICAL TELESCOPES INSTRUMENTS AND SYSTEMS 4(1) 2018年1月We designed depth-graded multilayers, so-called supermirrors, with platinum/carbon (Pt/C) layer pairs for the Hard X-Ray Telescope (HXT) that was on-board the sixth Japanese X-Ray Astronomy Satellite Hitomi (ASTRO-H). The HXT has multinested thin foil optics, and the grazing angles of the x-ray mirrors are 0.07 to 0.27 deg. Supermirrors for HXTs are designed to provide a broad energy response (up to 80 keV) for astronomical requests. Under practical boundary conditions, we establish a block method applying empirical rules to maximize the integrated reflectivity. We fabricated Pt/C supermirrors using a DC magnetron sputtering system. The reflectivity of the mirrors was measured in a synchrotron radiation facility, SPring-8. We describe the design method for the supermirrors and our results. (C) The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
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SPACE TELESCOPES AND INSTRUMENTATION 2018: ULTRAVIOLET TO GAMMA RAY 10699 2018年The ASTRO-H mission was designed and developed through an international collaboration of JAXA, NASA, ESA, and the CSA. It was successfully launched on February 17, 2016, and then named Hitomi. During the in-orbit verification phase, the on-board observational instruments functioned as expected. The intricate coolant and refrigeration systems for soft X-ray spectrometer (SXS, a quantum micro-calorimeter) and soft X-ray imager (SXI, an X-ray CCD) also functioned as expected. However, on March 26, 2016, operations were prematurely terminated by a series of abnormal events and mishaps triggered by the attitude control system. These errors led to a fatal event: the loss of the solar panels on the Hitomi mission. The X-ray Astronomy Recovery Mission (or, XARM) is proposed to regain the key scientific advances anticipated by the international collaboration behind Hitomi. XARM will recover this science in the shortest time possible by focusing on one of the main science goals of Hitomi, "Resolving astrophysical problems by precise high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy".(1) This decision was reached after evaluating the performance of the instruments aboard Hitomi and the mission's initial scientific results, and considering the landscape of planned international X-ray astrophysics missions in 2020's and 2030's.Hitomi opened the door to high-resolution spectroscopy in the X-ray universe. It revealed a number of discrepancies between new observational results and prior theoretical predictions. Yet, the resolution pioneered by Hitomi is also the key to answering these and other fundamental questions. The high spectral resolution realized by XARM will not offer mere refinements; rather, it will enable qualitative leaps in astrophysics and plasma physics. XARM has therefore been given a broad scientific charge: "Revealing material circulation and energy transfer in cosmic plasmas and elucidating evolution of cosmic structures and objects". To fulfill this charge, four categories of science objectives that were defined for Hitomi will also be pursued by XARM; these include (1) Structure formation of the Universe and evolution of clusters of galaxies; (2) Circulation history of baryonic matters in the Universe; (3) Transport and circulation of energy in the Universe; (4) New science with unprecedented high resolution X-ray spectroscopy. In order to achieve these scientific objectives, XARM will carry a 6 x 6 pixelized X-ray micro-calorimeter on the focal plane of an X-ray mirror assembly, and an aligned X-ray CCD camera covering the same energy band and a wider field of view. This paper introduces the science objectives, mission concept, and observing plan of XARM.
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NATURE 551(7681) 478-+ 2017年11月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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PUBLICATIONS OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF JAPAN 69(4) 2017年8月We analyzed the Suzaku archive data of a type I X-ray burst from GRS1747-312, a low mass X-ray binary located in the globular cluster Terzan 6. During the Galactic bulge mapping observations with Suzaku, which covered Terzan 6, an X-ray burst of long duration and with moderate photospheric-radius expansion was serendipitously detected and was considered to be most probably originating from GRS1747-312. The time-divided burst spectra were reproduced well with an absorbed blackbody over the majority of the time, but significant deviation was detected late in the cooling phase. The deviation was due to a rolled-off feature, which gradually developed in the cooling phase of the burst, in the energy spectra above similar to 7 keV. We tested various models to reproduce the spectral feature and found three types of models (reflection by cold matter, partial-covering absorption, and Doppler-smeared absorption edges due to the rapid spin of a neutron star) gave a statistically acceptable fit. We discussed the feasibility of these models, including a non-Planckian nature of the burst spectra.
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Astrophysical Journal Letters 837(1) 2017年3月1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 S xvi (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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Suzaku and Chandra observations of CIZA J1700.8-3144, a cluster of galaxies in the Zone of AvoidancePUBLICATIONS OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF JAPAN 69(1) 2017年2月We present the Chandra and Suzaku observations of 1RXS J170047.8-314442, located towards the Galactic bulge, to reveal a wide-band (0.3-10 keV) X-ray morphology and spectrum of this source. With the Chandra observation, no point source was found at the position of 1RXSJ170047.8-314442. Instead, we revealed the presence of diffuse X-ray emission, via the wide-band X-ray image obtained from the Suzaku XIS. Although the X-ray emission had a nearly circular shape with a spatial extent of similar to 3'.5, the surface brightness profile was not axisymmetric; a bright spot-like emission was found at similar to 1' away in the northwestern direction from the center. The radial profile of the surface brightness, except for this spot-like emission, was reproduced with a single beta-model; beta and the core radius were found to be 1.02 and 1'.51, respectively. The X-ray spectrum of the diffuse emission showed an emission line at similar to 6 keV, indicating an origin of a thermal plasma. The spectrum was well explained with an absorbed, optically-thin thermal plasma model with a temperature of 6.2 keV and a redshift parameter of z = 0.1 +/- 0.01. Hence, the X-ray emission was considered to arise from the hot gas associated with a cluster of galaxies. Our spectroscopic result confirmed the optical identification of 1RXSJ170047.8-314442 by Kocevski et al. (2007, ApJ, 662, 224): CIZA J1700.8-3144, a member of the cluster catalogue in the Zone of Avoidance. The estimated bolometric X-ray luminosity of 5.9 x 10(44) erg s(-1) was among the lowest with this temperature, suggesting that this cluster is far from relaxed.
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ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL 836(2) 2017年2月We found a simultaneous decrease of the Fe-K line and 4.2-6 keV continuum of Cassiopeia A with the monitoring data taken by the Chandra X-ray Observatory in 2000-2013. The flux change rates in the whole remnant are -0.65 +/- 0.02% yr(-1) in the 4.2-6.0 keV continuum and -0.6 +/- 0.1% yr(-1) in the Fe-K line. In the eastern region where the thermal emission is considered to dominate, the variations show the largest values: -1.03 +/- 0.05% yr(-1) (4.2-6 keV band) and -0.6 +/- 0.1% yr(-1) (Fe-K line). In this region, the time evolution of the emission measure and the temperature have a decreasing trend. This could be interpreted as adiabatic cooling with the expansion of m = 0.66. On the other hand, in the non-thermal emission dominated regions, variations of the 4.2-6 keV continuum show smaller rates: -0.60 +/- 0.04% yr(-1) in the southwestern region, -0.46 +/- 0.05% yr(-1) in the inner region, and + 0.00 +/- 0.07% yr(-1) in the forward shock region. In particular, flux does not show significant change in the forward shock region. These results imply that strong braking in shock velocity has not been occurring in Cassiopeia A (< 5 km s(-1) yr(-1)). All of our results support the idea that X-ray flux decay in the remnant is mainly caused by thermal components.
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OPTICS FOR EUV, X-RAY, AND GAMMA-RAY ASTRONOMY VIII 10399 2017年The Japanese X-ray Astronomy Satellite, Hitomi (ASTRO-H) carried two hard X-ray telescopes (HXT), covering the energy band from 5 keV to 80 keV. In the initial functional verification phase of the onboard instruments, G21.5-0.9 and Crab nebula were observed with HXT. The data of G21.5-0.9 observation indicated that the hard X-ray imaging system worked well. Detail calibration of the Hitomi HXTs was performed with the observation data of Crab nebula. We extracted X-ray images of the Crab pulsar excluding the nebular emission, and continued that the imaging perfounance in orbit was satisfied with the requirement of the HXT. The 8-80 keV Crab spectrum was well fitted with a power-law model with the absorbed column of N-H=3 x 10(21) cm(-2). The estimated photon index of 2.122 0.003 was consistent with previous results of Crab observation, while the observed 2-10 keV flux of 2.3x10-8 erg s(-1) cm(-2) was slightly larger than the previous observation. We note that there was discrepancy between the simulated and the measured effective area on ground. Thus, we introduced a fudge factor to reproduce the effective area obtained in the ground calibration. The fudge factor of HXTs are included in the latest calibration database of Hitomi.
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OPTICS FOR EUV, X-RAY, AND GAMMA-RAY ASTRONOMY VIII 10399 2017年We report the atomic scattering factor in the 11.2-15.4 keV for the ASTRO-H Soft X-ray Telescope (SXT)2 obtained in the ground based measurements. The large effective area of the SXT covers above 10 keV. In fact, the flight data show the spectra of the celestical objects in the hard X-ray band. In order to model the area, the reflectivity measurements in the 11.2-15.4 keV band with the energy pitch of 0.4 0.7 eV were made in the synchrotron beamline Spring-8 BL01B1. We obtained atomic scattering factors fl and f2 by the curve fitting to the reflectivities of our witness sample. The edges associated with the gold's L-I, II, and III transitions are identified, of which the depths are found to be roughly 60% shallower than those expected from the Henke's atomic scattering factor.
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OPTICS FOR EUV, X-RAY, AND GAMMA-RAY ASTRONOMY VIII 10399 2017年We present a design of the broad band telescope with the angular resolution booster. A concept of the Xray imaging system with high angular-resolution and moderate sensitivity was presented by Maeda et al. (submitted). In the concept, a two-dimensional detector, i.e., imager, is put at a slightly defocused position of the focusing mirror, rather than right at the mirror focus as in the standard optics. The detector at the off-focus captures the microcosm of front mask-slits that are placed on the front of the mirror. The masks work as a modulation collimator and boost the angular resolution of the focusing telescope. The major advantage of this concept is that a much better angular resolution by an order of 2-3 or more than in the conventional optics is achievable, while a high throughput (large effective area) is maintained. We therefore present an example of a booster for a broad-band telescope. Using the technique of the Pt/C depth-graded supermirror, the broadband coverage up to 80 keV is discussed.
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LIVES AND DEATH-THROES OF MASSIVE STARS 12(S329) 448-448 2017年We report the results of the stellar wind measurement for two colliding wind binaries. The X-ray spectrum is the best measurement tool for the hot postshock gas. By monitoring the changing of the the X-ray luminosity and column density along with the orbital phases, we derive the mass-loss rates of these stars.
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OPTICS EXPRESS 24(22) 25548-25564 2016年10月The atomic scattering factor in the energy range of 11.2-15.4 keV for the ASTROH Soft X-ray Telescope (SXT) is reported. The large effective area of the SXT makes use of photon spectra above 10 keV viable, unlike most other X-ray satellites with total-reflection mirror optics. Presence of gold's L-edges in the energy band is a major issue, as it complicates the function of the effective area. In order to model the area, the reflectivity measurements in the 11.2-15.4 keV band with the energy pitch of 0.4-0.7 eV were made in the synchrotron beamline Spring-8 BL01B1. We obtained atomic scattering factors f1 and f2 by the curve fitting to the reflectivities of our witness sample. The edges associated with the L-I, II, and III transitions are identified, of which the depths are found to be roughly 60% shallower than those expected from the Henke's atomic scattering factor. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America
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JOURNAL OF ASTRONOMICAL TELESCOPES INSTRUMENTS AND SYSTEMS 2(4) 2016年10月The international x-ray observatory ASTRO-H was renamed "Hitomi" after launch. It covers a wide energy range from a few hundred eV to 600 keV. It is equipped with two soft x-ray telescopes (SXTs: SXT-I and SXT-S) for imaging the soft x-ray sky up to similar to 12 keV, which focus an image onto the respective focal-plane detectors: CCD camera (SXI) and a calorimeter (SXS). The SXTs are fabricated in a quadrant unit. The angular resolution in half-power diameter (HPD) of each quadrant of the SXTs ranges between 1.1 and 1.4 arc min at 4.51 keV. It was also found that one quadrant has an energy dependence on the HPD. We examine the angular resolution with "spot scan" measurements. In order to understand the cause of imaging capability deterioration and to reflect it to the future telescope development, we carried out spot scan measurements, in which we illuminate all over the aperture of each quadrant with a square beam 8 mm on a side. Based on the scan results, we made "maps" of image blurring and a focus position. The former and the latter reflect figure error and positioning error, respectively, of the foils that are within the incident 8 mm x 8 mm beam. As a result, we estimated those errors in a quadrant to be similar to 0.9 to 1.0 and similar to 0.6 to 0.9 arc min, respectively. We found that the larger the positioning error in a quadrant is, the larger its HPD is. The HPD map, which manifests the local image blurring, is very similar from quadrant to quadrant, but the map of the focus position is different from location to location in each telescope. It is also found that the difference in local performance causes energy dependence of the HPD. (C) 2016 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)
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NATURE 535(7610) 117-+ 2016年7月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With XMM-Newton and Suzaku observations, for the first time, we acquired broad-band spectra of two unidentified X-ray sources towards the Galactic bulge: 1RXS J180556.1-343818 and 1RXS J173905.2-392615. The 1RXS J180556.1-343818 spectrum in the 0.3-7 keV band was explained by X-ray emission that originated from an optically-thin thermal plasma with temperatures of 0.5 and 1.8 keV. The estimated absorption column density of N-H similar to 4 x 10(20) cm(-2) was significantly smaller than the Galactic HI column density towards the source. A candidate for its optical counterpart, HD321269, was found within 4 ''. In terms of the X-ray properties and the positional coincidence, it is quite conceivable that 1RXS J180556.1-343818 is an active G giant. We also found a dim X-ray source that was positionally consistent with 1RXS J173905.2-392615. Assuming that the X-ray spectrum can be reproduced with an absorbed, optically-thin thermal plasma model with kT = 1.6 keV, the X-ray flux in the 0.5-8 keV band was 8.7 x 10(-14) erg s(-1) cm(-2), fainter by a factor of similar to 7 than that of 1RXSJ173905.2-392615 during the ROSAT observation. The follow-up observations we conducted revealed that these two sources would belong to the Galactic disk, rather than the Galactic bulge.
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PUBLICATIONS OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF JAPAN 68 2016年6月GRS1747-312 is a neutron star low-mass X-ray binary in the globular cluster Terzan 6, located at a distance of 9.5 kpc from the Earth. During its outbursts, periodic eclipses were known to occur. Observations for the outbursts were performed with Chandra in 2004 and Swift in 2013. XMM-Newton observed its quiescent state in 2004. In addition, when Suzaku observed it in 2009 as a part of Galactic center mapping observations, GRS1747-312 was found to be in a low-luminosity state with L-x similar to 1.2 x 10(35) erg s(-1). All of the observations except for XMM-Newton included the time of the eclipses predicted. We analyzed archival data of these observations. During the Chandra and Swift observations, we found clear flux decreases at the expected time of the eclipses. During the Suzaku observation, however, there were no clear signs for the predicted eclipses. The lapse of the predicted eclipses during the Suzaku observation can be explained by a contaminant source quite close to GRS1747-312. When GRS1747-312 is in the quiescent state, we observe X-rays from the contaminant source rather than from GRS1747-312. However, we have no clear evidence for the contaminant source in our data. The lapse might also be explained by thick material (N-H > 10(24) cm(-2)) between the neutron star and the companion star, though the origin of the thick material is not clear.
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Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan 2016年4月1日<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>We observed the 2015 July–August long outburst of V1006 Cyg and established this object to be an SU UMa-type dwarf nova in the period gap. Our observations have confirmed that V1006 Cyg is the second established object showing three types of outbursts (normal, long normal, and superoutbursts) after TU Men. We have succeeded in recording the growing stage of superhumps (stage A superhumps) and obtained a mass ratio of 0.26–0.33, which is close to the stability limit of tidal instability. This identification of stage A superhumps demonstrates that superhumps indeed slowly grow in systems near the stability limit, the idea first introduced by Kato et al. (2014, PASJ, 66, 90). The superoutburst showed a temporary dip followed by a rebrightening. The moment of the dip coincided with the stage transition of superhumps, and we suggest that stage C superhumps are related to the start of the cooling wave in the accretion disk. We interpret that the tidal instability was not strong enough to maintain the disk in the hot state when the cooling wave started. We propose that the properties commonly seen in the extreme ends of mass ratios (WZ Sge-type objects and long-period systems) can be understood as a result of weak tidal effect.</jats:p>
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Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering 9905 2016年© 2016 SPIE. A ray-trace simulation code for the Hard X-ray Telescope (HXT) on board the Hitomi (ASTRO-H) satellite is being developed. The half power diameter and effective area simulated based on the code are consistent with ground measurements within 10%. The HXT observed the pulsar wind nebula G21.5-0.9 for 105 ksec. We confirmed that the encircled energy function and the half power diameter obtained from the data are consistent with the ground measurements.
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SPACE TELESCOPES AND INSTRUMENTATION 2016: ULTRAVIOLET TO GAMMA RAY 9905 2016年The Japanese X-ray Astronomy Satellite, Hitomi (ASTRO-H) carries hard X-ray imaging system, covering the energy band from 5 keV to 80 keV. The hard X-ray imaging system consists of two hard X-ray telescopes (HXT) and two hard X -ray imagers (HXI). The HXT employs tightly-nested, conically-approximated thin foil Wolter-I optics. The mirror surfaces of HXT were coated with Pt/C depth-graded multilayers. We carried out ground calibrations of HXTs at the synchrotron radiation facility SPring-8/ BL20B2 in Japan, and found that total effective area of two HXTs was about 350 cm(2) at 30 keV, and the half power diameter of HXT was about 1.'9. After the launch of Hitomi, Hitomi observed several targets during the initial functional verification of the onboard instruments. The Hitomi software and calibration team (SCT) provided the Hitomi's data of G21.5-0.9, a pulsar wind nebula, to the hardware team for the purpose of the instrument calibration. Through the analysis of the in-flight data, we have confirmed that the X-ray performance of HXTs in orbit was consistent with that estimated by the ground calibrations.
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SPACE TELESCOPES AND INSTRUMENTATION 2016: ULTRAVIOLET TO GAMMA RAY 9905 2016年ASTRO-H (Hitomi) satellite equips two Soft X-ray Telescopes (SXTs), one of which (SXT-S) is coupled to Soft X-ray Spectrometer (SXS) while the other (SXT-I) is coupled to Soft X-ray Imager (SXI). Although SXTs are lightweight of similar to 42 kg module(-1) and have large on-axis effective area (EA) of similar to 450cm(2) at 4.5 keV module(-1) by themselves, their angular resolutions are moderate similar to 1.2 arcmin in half power diameter. The amount of contamination into the SXS FOV (3.05 x 3.05 arcmin(2)) from nearby sources was measured in the ground-based calibration at the beamline in Institute of Space and Astronautical Science. The contamination at 4.5 keV were measured with sources distant from the SXS center by one width of the FOV in perpendicular and diagonal directions, that is, 3 and 4.5 arcmin-off, respectively. The average EA of the contamination in the four directions with the 3 and 4.5 arcmin-off were measured to be 2 and 0.6% of the on-axis EA of 412 cm(2) for the SXS FOV, respectively. The contamination from a source distant by two FOV widths in a diagonal direction, that is, 8.6 arcmin-off was measured to be 0.1% of the on-axis at 4.5 keV. The contamination amounts were also measured at 1.5 keV and 8.0 keV which indicated that the ratio of the contamination EA to that of on-axis hardly depended on the source energy. The off-axis SXT-I images from -4.5 to 27 arcmin were acquired at intervals of 4.5 arcmin for the SXI FOV of 38 x 38 arcmin(2). The image shrinked as the off-axis angle increased. Above 13.5 arcmin of off-angle, a stray appeared around the image center in the off-axis direction. As for the on-axis image, a ring-shaped stray appeared at the edge of SXI of similar to 18 arcmin distant from the image center.
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PROCEEDINGS OF THE 14TH INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON NUCLEI IN THE COSMOS (NIC2016) 2016年A neutron star (NS) is a natural laboratory to probe the nature of the ultra-dense matter. Its observational parameters, e.g., mass and radius, may constrain the equation of state of the supranuclear matter. Here, we analyzed the thermonuclear X-ray burst from GRS 1747-312 observed with Suzaku to constrain the mass-radius relation of a NS. The burst had a long duration with the photospheric radius expansion. We detected for the first time a broad absorption edge like feature above 6 keV in the energy spectrum during the decay phase of the burst. The feature was most plausibly explained by the absorption edges of hydrogen-like Fe and Zn ions, which were smeared by the rapid NS spin. Assuming those ions are responsible for the feature, the surface gravitational redshift is estimated as 1 + z = 1.56 +/- 0.03. This value may be feasible if the NS is as heavy as 2M(circle dot).
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SPACE TELESCOPES AND INSTRUMENTATION 2016: ULTRAVIOLET TO GAMMA RAY 9905 2016年The X-ray astronomy satellite ASTRO-H are equipped with two equivalent soft X-ray telescopes (SXT-I and SXT-S) which cover the energy band 0.3-12 keV. The X-ray reflectors of the SXTs are coated with a gold monolayer by means of the replication technique (Okajima et al. in this volume). A series of gold M absorption edges in the 2-4 keV band causes complex structures in the energy response of the SXTs. In the same band, there are astrophysically important emission lines from Si, Ar and S. Since the SXS has unprecedentedly high spectral resolution, we have measured the reflectivity around the gold M-edges in an extremely fine energy pitch at the synchrotron radiation facility KEK PF BL11-B, with the 2 eV pitch in 2100 eV to 4100 eV band that covers the entire series of the absorption edges (M-I through M-V) at grazing incident angles to the reflectors of 0.5, 0.8, 1.0, 1.2, 1.4 degree, and with a finer pitch of 0.25 eV in the 2200 eV to 2350 eV band where the two deepest M-IV and M-V edges are included. In the resultant reflectivity curves, we have clearly identified the fine structures associated with all the M-edges. Using these data, we calculated atomic scattering factor f1 as a function of X-ray energy, with which we have built the mirror response function which can be applied to the Suzaku spectra. As a result, we have found that discrepancy of the spectral model to the Suzaku data of 4U1630-472 (a black hole transient) and the Crab nebula around the M-edges are significantly reduced from those with the official Suzaku response.
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SPACE TELESCOPES AND INSTRUMENTATION 2016: ULTRAVIOLET TO GAMMA RAY 9905 2016年The Soft X-ray Spectrometer (SXS) onboard the Astro-H (Hitomi) orbiting x-ray observatory featured an array of 36 silicon thermistor x-ray calorimeters optimized to perform high spectral resolution x-ray imaging spectroscopy of astrophysical sources in the 0.3-12 keV band. Extensive pre-flight calibration measurements are the basis for our modeling of the pulse-height-energy relation and energy resolution for each pixel and event grade, telescope collecting area, detector efficiency, and pulse arrival time.Because of the early termination of mission operations, we needed to extract the maximum information from observations performed only days into the mission when the onboard calibration sources had not yet been commissioned and the dewar was still coming into thermal equilibrium, so our technique for reconstructing the per-pixel time-dependent pulse-height-energy relation had to be modified. The gain scale was reconstructed using a combination of an absolute energy scale calibration at a single time using a fiducial from an onboard radioactive source, and calibration of a dominant time-dependent gain drift component using a dedicated calibration pixel, as well as a residual time-dependent variation using spectra from the Perseus cluster of galaxies.The energy resolution was also measured using the onboard radioactive sources. It is consistent with instrument-level measurements accounting for the modest increase in noise due to spacecraft systems interference. We use observations of two pulsars to validate our models of the telescope area and detector efficiency, and to derive a more accurate value for the thickness of the gate valve Be window, which had not been opened by the time mission operations ceased. We use observations of the Crab pulsar to refine the pixel-to-pixel timing and validate the absolute timing.
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SPACE TELESCOPES AND INSTRUMENTATION 2016: ULTRAVIOLET TO GAMMA RAY 9905 2016年We report the atomic scattering factor in the 11.2-15.4 keV for the ASTRO-H Soft X-ray Telescope (SXT)(9) obtained in the ground based measurements. The large effective area of the SXT covers above 10 keV. In fact, the flight data show the spectra of the celestical objects in the hard X-ray band. In order to model the area, the reflectivity measurements in the 11.2-15.4 keV band with the energy pitch of 0.4 - 0.7 eV were made in the synchrotron beamline Spring-8 BL01B1. We obtained atomic scattering factors f1 and f2 by the curve fitting to the reflectivities of our witness sample. The edges associated with the gold's L-I, II, and III transitions are identified, of which the depths are found to be roughly 60% shallower than those expected from the Henke's atomic scattering factor.
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SPACE TELESCOPES AND INSTRUMENTATION 2016: ULTRAVIOLET TO GAMMA RAY 9905 2016年ASTRO-H (Hitomi) is a Japanese X-ray astrophysics satellite just launched in February, 2016, from Tanegashima, Japan by a JAXA's H-IIA launch vehicle. It has two Soft X-ray Telescopes (SXTs), among other instruments, that were developed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in collaboration with ISAS/JAXA and Nagoya University. One is for an X-ray micro-calorimeter instrument (Soft X-ray Spectrometer, SXS) and the other for an X-ray CCD camera (Soft X-ray Imager, SXI), both covering the X-ray energy band up to 15 keV. The two SXTs were fully characterized at the 30-m X-ray beamline at ISAS/JAXA. The combined SXT+SXS system effective area is about 250 and 300 cm(2) at 1 and 6 keV, respectively, although observations were performed with the gate valve at the dewar entrance closed, which blocks most of low energy X-rays and some of high energy ones. The angular resolution for SXS is 1.2 arcmin (Half Power Diameter, HPD). The combined SXT+SXI system effective area is about 370 and 350 cm(2) at 1 and 6 keV, respectively. The angular resolution for SXI is 1.3 arcmin (HPD). The both SXTs have a field of view of about 16 arcmin (FWHM of their vignetting functions). The SXT+SXS field of view is limited to 3x3 arcmin by the SXS array size. In-flight data available to the SXT team was limited at the time of this conference and a point-like source data is not available for the SXT+SXS. Although due to lack of attitude information we were unable to reconstruct a point spread function of SXT+SXI, according to RXJ1856.5-3754 data, the SXT seems to be working as expected in terms of imaging capability. As for the overall effective area response for both SXT+SXS and SXT+SXI, consistent spectral model fitting parameters with the previous measurements were obtained for Crab and G21.5-0.9 data. On the other hand, their 2-10 keV fluxes differ by about 20 % at this point. Calibration work is still under progress. The SXT is the latest version of the aluminum foil X-ray mirror, which is extremely light-weight and very low cost, yet produces large effective area over a wide energy-band. Its area-mass ratio is the largest, 16 cm(2)/kg, among ASTRO-H, Chandra, and XMM-Newton mirrors. The aluminum foil mirror is a still compelling technology depending on the mission science goal.
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SPACE TELESCOPES AND INSTRUMENTATION 2016: ULTRAVIOLET TO GAMMA RAY 9905 2016年The X-ray astronomy satellite ASTRO-H, which is the 6th Japanese X-ray astronomy satellite and is renamed Hitomi after launch, is designed to observe celestial X-ray objects in a wide energy band from a few hundred eV to 600 keV. The Soft X-ray Telescopes (SXTs) onboard ASTRO-H play a role of collecting and imaging X-rays up to similar to 12 keV. Although the field of view of the SXT is similar to 15' (FWHM), due to the thin-foil-nested Wolter-I type optics adopted in the SXTs, X-rays out of the field of view can reach the focal plane without experiencing a normal double reflection. This component is referred to as "stray light". Owing to investigation of the stray light so far, "secondary reflection" is now identified as the main component of the stray light, which is composed of X-rays reflected only by secondary reflectors. In order to cut the secondary reflections, a "pre-collimator" is equipped on top of the SXTs. However, we cannot cut all the stray lights with the pre-collimator in some off-axis angle domain. In this study, we measure the brightness of the stray light of the SXTs at some representative off-axis angles by using the ISAS X-ray beam line.ASTRO-H is equipped with two modules of the SXT; one is for the Soft X-ray Spectrometer (SXS), an X-ray calorimeter, and the other is for the Soft X-ray Imager (SXI), an X-ray CCD camera. These SXT modules are called SXT-S and SXT-I, respectively. Of the two detector systems, the SXI has a large field of view, a square with 38' on a side. To cope with this, we have made a mosaic mapping of the stray light at a representative off-axis angle of 30' in the X-ray beam line at the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science. The effective area of the brightest secondary reflection is found of order similar to 0.1% of the on-axis effective area at the energy of 1.49 keV. The other components are not so bright (<5x10(-4) times smaller than the on-axis effective area). On the other hand, we have found that the effective area of the stray light in the SXS field of view (similar to 3'x3') at large off-axis angles (>15') are similar to 10(-4) times smaller than the on-axis effective area (similar to 590 cm(2) at 1.49 keV).
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SPACE TELESCOPES AND INSTRUMENTATION 2016: ULTRAVIOLET TO GAMMA RAY 9905 2016年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.
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PUBLICATIONS OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF JAPAN 67(6) 2015年12月Suzaku observations of theWolf-Rayet (W-R) binaryWR 140 (WC7pd+O5.5fc) were made at four different times around periastron passage in 2009 January. The spectra changed in shape and flux with the phase. As periastron approached, the column density of the low-energy absorption increased, which indicates that the emission from the wind-wind collision plasma was absorbed by the dense W-R wind. The spectra can be mostly fitted with two different components: a warm component with k(B)T = 0.3-0.6 keV and a dominant hot component with k(B)T similar to 3 keV. The emission measure of the dominant, hot component is not inversely proportional to the distance between the two stars. This can be explained by the O star wind colliding before it has reached its terminal velocity, leading to a reduction in its wind momentum flux. At phases closer to periastron, we discovered a cool plasma component in a recombining phase, which is less absorbed. This component may be a relic of the wind-wind collision plasma, which was cooled down by radiation, and may represent a transitional stage in dust formation.
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JOURNAL OF ASTRONOMICAL TELESCOPES INSTRUMENTS AND SYSTEMS 1(4) 2015年10月The 30-m x-ray pencil beam line at the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science has been upgraded. The vacuum chamber has been replaced by a new cylindrical chamber of diameter 1.8 m and length 11.3 m. Stages on which a telescope and detectors had been mounted were also replaced. At the same time, a new charge-coupled device consisting of 1240 x 1152 pixels of size 22.5 x 22.5 mu m(2) was introduced. The detector stage can be moved along the x-ray beam in the vacuum chamber, which enables us to vary the distance between the sample and the detectors from 0.7 to 9 m. The two stages can be moved in a square region 500 x 500 mm(2) in the plane normal to the x-ray beam. The pitching of moving axes of Y direction (horizontal and normal to the beam) of the sample and the detector stages is somewhat large, but does not exceed 60 arc sec. The pitching of the other axes and the yawing of all the axes are less than 30 arc sec. As for rolling, we could obtain only the upper limits because of the difficulty in measuring them. The upper limit of the Z direction (vertical and normal to the beam) of the detector stage moving axis is somewhat large and is about 60 arc sec, and those of the other axes are less than 30 arc sec. A summary of the beam line performance is presented. Soon after the upgrade, the ASTRO-H Soft X-ray telescopes were calibrated in this beam line. (C) The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.
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The Astrophysical Journal 2015年7月17日
MISC
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大気球シンポジウム: 2022年度 = Balloon Symposium: 2022 2022年11月大気球シンポジウム 2022年度（2022年11月7-8日. ハイブリッド開催（JAXA相模原キャンパス& オンライン)) Balloon Symposium 2022 (November 7-8, 2022. Hybrid(in-person & online) Conference (Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)(ISAS)), Sagamihara, Kanagawa Japan 著者人数: 87名 資料番号: SA6000177030 レポート番号: isas22-sbs-030
講演・口頭発表等
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44th COSPAR Scientific Assembly 2022年
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nuclear burning in massive stars – towards the formation of binary black holes – 2021年7月28日
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Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2020: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray 2020年12月19日
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The 15th Symposium of Japanese Research Community on X-ray Imaging Optics 2019年10月26日 招待有り
担当経験のある科目(授業)
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2023年9月 - 2024年3月
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2021年4月 - 2022年3月宇宙理学概論(オムニパス) (総合研究大学院大学)
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2019年10月 - 2020年3月宇宙理学概論(オムニパス) (総合研究大学院大学)
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2009年10月 - 2010年3月応用物理学講義 (中央大学)
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2009年4月 - 2009年9月宇宙物理学講義 (中央大学)
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 2023年4月 - 2027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(B) 2022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 - 2023年3月
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日本学術振興会 科学研究費助成事業 挑戦的研究(萌芽) 2019年6月 - 2022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) 2013年4月 - 2015年3月
