Haruyoshi Katayama

The MAXI Mission on the ISS: Science and Instruments for Monitoring All-Sky X-Ray Images

The Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image (MAXI) mission is the first astronomical payload to be installed on the Japanese Experiment Module — Exposed Facility (JEM-EF or Kibo-EF) on the International Space Station. It has two types of X-ray slit cameras with wide FOVs and two kinds of X-ray detectors consisting of gas proportional counters covering the energy range of 2 to 30 keV and X-ray CCDs covering the energy range of 0.5 to 12 keV. MAXI will be more powerful than any previous X-ray All Sky Monitor payloads, being able to monitor hundreds of Active Galactic Nuclei. A realistic simulation under optimal observation conditions suggests that MAXI will provide all-sky images of X-ray sources of � 20 mCrab (� 7 � 10 � 10 erg cm � 2 s � 1 in the energy band of 2–30 keV) from observations during one ISS orbit (90 min), � 4.5 mCrab for one day, and � 2 mCrab for one week. The final detectability of MAXI could be � 0.2 mCrab for two years, which is comparable to the source confusion limit of the MAXI field of view (FOV). The MAXI objectives are: (1) to alert the community to X-ray novae and transient X-ray sources, (2) to monitor long-term variabilities of X-ray sources, (3) to stimulate multi-wavelength observations of variable objects, (4) to create unbiased X-ray source cataloges, and (5) to observe diffuse cosmic X-ray emissions, especially with better energy resolution for soft X-rays down to 0.5 keV.

Reproducibility of Non-X-Ray Background for the X-Ray Imaging Spectrometer aboard Suzaku

One of the advantages of the X-ray Imaging Spectrometer (XIS) system on board Suzaku is its low and stable non-X-ray background (NXB). In order to make the best use of this advantage, modeling the NXB spectra with high accuracy is important to subtract them from the spectra of on-source observations. We construct an NXB database by collecting XIS events when the dark Earth covers the XIS FOV. The total exposure time of the NXB data is about 785 ks for each XIS. It is found that the count rate of the NXB anti-correlates with the cut-off-rigidity and correlates with the count rate of the PIN upper discriminator (PIN-UD) in Hard X-ray Detector on board Suzaku. We thus model the NXB spectrum for a given on-source observation by employing either of these parameters and obtain a better reproducibility of the NXB for the model with PIN-UD than that with the cut-off-rigidity. The reproducibility of the NXB model with PIN-UD is 4.55-5.63% for each XIS NXB in the 1-7 keV band and 2.79-4.36% for each XIS NXB in the 5-12 keV band for each 5 ks exposure of the NXB data. This NXB reproducibility is much smaller than the spatial fluctuation of the cosmic X-ray background in the 1-7 keV band, and is almost comparable to that in the 5-12 keV band.

Solid-State Slit Camera (SSC) Aboard MAXI

Solid-state Slit Camera (SSC) is an X-ray camera onboard the MAXI mission of the International Space Station. Two sets of SSC sensors view X-ray sky using charge-coupled devices (CCDs) in 0.5--12\,keV band. The total area for the X-ray detection is about 200\,cm

PROPERTIES OF THE BRIGHTEST CLUSTER GALAXY AND ITS HOST CLUSTER

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In-Orbit Performance of the MAXI/SSC onboard the ISS

which is the largest among the missions of X-ray astronomy. The energy resolution at the CCD temperature of

Two-million-pixel SOI diode uncooled IRFPA with 15μm pixel pitch

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The background properties of Suzaku/XIS

70 \degc is 145\,eV in full width at the half maximum (FWHM) at 5.9\,keV, and the field of view is 1\deg .5 (FWHM)

Measurement of quantum efficiency of a charge coupled device

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Performance of an Analog ASIC Developed for X-ray CCD Camera Readout System Onboard Astronomical Satellite

90\deg for each sensor. The SSC could make a whole-sky image with the energy resolution good enough to resolve line emissions, and monitor the whole-sky at the energy band of

Development of the Compact InfraRed Camera (CIRC) for wildfire detection

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