Jau-Shian Liang

DETECTION AND IMAGING OF THE CRAB NEBULA WITH THE NUCLEAR COMPTON TELESCOPE

The Nuclear Compton Telescope (NCT) is a balloon-borne Compton telescope designed for the study of astrophysical sources in the soft gamma-ray regime (200 keV–20 MeV). NCT’s 10 high-purity germanium crossedstrip detectors measure the deposited energies and three-dimensional positions of gamma-ray interactions in the sensitive volume, and this information is used to restrict the initial photon to a circle on the sky using the Compton scatter technique. Thus NCT is able to perform spectroscopy, imaging, and polarization analysis on soft gamma-ray sources. NCT is one of the next generation of Compton telescopes—the so-called compact Compton telescopes (CCTs)—which can achieve effective areas comparable to the Imaging Compton Telescope’s with an instrument that is a fraction of the size. The Crab Nebula was the primary target for the second flight of the NCT instrument, which occurred on 2009 May 17 and 18 in Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Analysis of 29.3 ks of data from the flight reveals an image of the Crab at a significance of 4σ . This is the first reported detection of an astrophysical source by a CCT.

Occultation of X-rays from Scorpius X-1 by small trans-neptunian objects

Since the discovery of the trans-neptunian objects (TNOs) in 1992, nearly one thousand new members have been added to our Solar System, several of which are as big as—or even larger than—Pluto. The properties of the population of TNOs, such as the size distribution and the total number, are valuable information for understanding the formation of the Solar System, but direct observation is only possible for larger objects with diameters above several tens of kilometres. Smaller objects, which are expected to be more abundant, might be found when they occult background stars, but hitherto there have been no definite detections. Here we report the discovery of such occultation events at millisecond timescales in the X-ray light curve of Scorpius X-1. The estimated sizes of these occulting TNOs are ≤100 m. Their abundance is in line with an extrapolation of the distribution of sizes of larger TNOs.

Millisecond dip events in the 2007 RXTE/PCA data of Sco X−1 and the trans-Neptunian object size distribution

Millisecond dips in the RXTE/PCA archival data of Sco X−1 taken from 1996 to 2002 were reported recently. Those dips were found to be most likely caused by instrumental dead time but may also contain some true astronomical events, which were interpreted as the occultation of X-rays from Sco X−1 by trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) of 100 m size. Here, we report the results of search for millisecond dip events with the new RXTE/PCA data of Sco X−1 taken in the year 2007. Adopting the same selection criteria as that in the previous study, we found only three dip events in 72-ks data, much fewer than the 107 events found in the 560-ks data taken from 1996 to 2002 reported earlier. The new data provide more detailed information of individual ‘very large events’ (VLEs), which is not available in the old archival data. Although the number of VLEs does not obviously increase during the occurrence of dip events, all the three dip events are coincident in time with VLEs that have no flags set for any of the propane or the six main xenon anodes. It is a strong indication of instrumental effects. No significant dips which might be real occultation by 60‐100 m TNOs were observed. With only 72-ks data, however, the previously proposed possibility that about 10 percent of the dip events might not be instrumental still cannot be strictly excluded. Using the absence of those anomalous VLEs as the criterion for identifying non-instrumental dip events, we found, at a lower confidence level, four dip events of duration 8‐10 ms in the 72-ks data. Upper limits to the size distribution of TNOs at the small size end are suggested.

Millisecond dips in the RXTE/PCA light curve of Sco X-1 and trans-Neptunian object occultation

Millisecond dips in the RXTE/Proportional Counter Array (PCA) light curve of Sco X-1 were reported recently, which were interpreted as the occultation of X-rays from Sco X-1 caused by trans-Neptunian objects (TNO) of 100-m size. Inconclusive signatures of possible instrumental effects in many of these dip events related to high-energy cosmic rays were later found and the TNO interpretation became shaky. Here, we report more detailed analysis aiming at distinguishing true occultation events from those related to cosmic rays. Based on some indicative criteria derived from housekeeping data and two-channel spectral information, we suggest that about 10 per cent of the dips are probable events of occultation. The total number of TNOs of size from 60 to 100 m is estimated to be about 10 15 accordingly. Limited by the

Overview of the Nuclear Compton Telescope

The Nuclear Compton Telescope (NCT) is a balloon-borne telescope designed to study astrophysical sources of nuclear line emission and polarization at soft gamma-ray (0.2-10 MeV) energies. NCT uses high-purity germanium strip detectors for 3D tracking of photon interactions. Compton imaging enables effective background rejection, resulting in a compact but highly efficient instrument. The NCT prototype completed a successful flight from Fort Sumner, New Mexico in 2005. We have since integrated additional detectors, updated the readout electronics, and improved other flight systems. Two flights of the full instrument are upcoming: a conventional flight in New Mexico and a long duration flight from Australia. We give an overview of the instrument and its status prior to the planned balloon flights.

The upcoming long duration balloon flight of the Nuclear Compton Telescope

The nuclear Compton telescope (NCT) is a balloon- borne soft gamma-ray (0.2 MeV-10 MeV) telescope designed to study astrophysical sources of nuclear line emission and polarization. A prototype instrument was successfully launched from Fort Sumner, New Mexico on June 1, 2005. The NCT prototype consisted of two 3D position sensitive high-purity germanium strip detectors (GeDs) fabricated with amorphous Ge contacts. We are currently working toward two balloon flights: another conventional balloon flight from Fort Sumner, New Mexico in September 2008, and a long-duration balloon flight (LDBF) from Alice Springs, Australia in December 2009. The NCT instrument is being upgraded to include all twelve planned GeDs. The electronics for all twelve detectors have been redesigned for smaller size, lower power consumption, and lower noise, and are now being fabricated and tested. Here we present our current progress in preparing for the flights.

Prospects for the 2014/2015 Nuclear Compton Telescope balloon campaign

The Nuclear Compton Telescope (NCT) is a balloon-borne soft γ-ray (0.2-10 MeV) telescope designed to perform wide-field imaging, high-resolution spectroscopy, and novel polarization analysis of astrophysical sources. NCT employs a novel Compton telescope design, utilizing 12 high spectral resolution germanium detectors, with the ability to localize photon interaction in three dimensions. NCT underwent its first science flight from Fort Sumner, NM in Spring 2009, and was partially destroyed during a second launch attempt from Alice Spring, Australia in Spring 2010. We have begun the rebuilding process and are using this as an opportunity to update and optimize various aspects of NCT. The cryostat which houses the 12 germanium detectors is being redesigned so as to accommodate the detectors in a new configuration, which will increase the effective area and improve the on-axis performance as well as polarization sensitivity of NCT. We will be replacing the liquid nitrogen detector cooling system with a cryocooler system which will allow for long duration flights. Various structural changes to NCT, such as the use of an all new gondola, will affect the physical layout of the electronics and instrument subsystems. We expect to return to flight readiness by Fall 2013, at which point we will recommence science flights. We will discuss science goals for the rebuilt NCT as well as proposed flight campaigns.

Efficiency and polarimetric calibration of the Nuclear Compton Telescope

The Nuclear Compton Telescope (NCT) is a balloon-borne gamma-ray telescope which uses cross-strip germanium detectors to study astrophysical sources of nuclear line emission. The compact design allows for wide-field imaging with excellent efficiency from 0.2–10 MeV. Moreover, the Compton imaging principle utilized by NCT provides polarimetric sensitivity above 200 keV. We conducted an extensive calibration campaign using radioactive sources prior to our flight from Ft. Sumner, New Mexico in Spring 2009. We present the results of our calibration of the effective area throughout NCTs field of view and compare them with Monte Carlo simulations using a detailed mass model. Additionally, we assess NCTs polarimetric capabilities with observations of a partially-polarized beam.

The X-ray properties of the energetic pulsar PSR J1838−0655

We present and interpret several new X-ray features of the X-ray pulsar PSR J1838―0655. The X-ray data are obtained from the archival data of Chandra, RXTE and Suzaku. We combine all these X-ray data and fit the spectra with different models. We find that the joint spectra are difficult to fit with a single power law; a broken power-law model with a break at around 6.5 keV can improve the fit significantly. The photon index changes from Γ = 1.0 (below 6.5 keV) to 1.5 (above 6.5 keV); this indicates a softer spectral behaviour at hard X-rays. The X-ray flux at 2-20 keV is found to be 1.6 x 10 ―11 erg cm ―2 s ―1 . The conversion efficiency from the spin-down luminosity is ∼0.9 per cent at 0.8-10 keV, which is much higher than that (∼10 ―3 to 10 ―4 per cent) of the pulsars that show similar timing properties. We discuss non-thermal radiation mechanisms for the observed high X-ray conversion efficiency and find that emission from the magnetosphere of a greatly inclined rotator is the most favourable interpretation for the conversion rate and the pulse profiles at X-ray bands. A line feature close to 6.65 keV is also detected in the spectra of Suzaku/X-ray imaging spectrometer; it might be the Kα emission of highly ionized Fe surrounding the pulsar.

The Data Readout System of the Nuclear Compton Telescope (NCT)

The Nuclear Compton Telescope (NCT) is a balloon-borne telescope based on the 3D-positioning germanium detectors. It is designed to study astrophysical sources of gamma-ray emission in the energy range of 0.2 MeV to 10 MeV. The data readout system of NCT is designed to amplify, digitize and collect signals from a germanium detector according to a certain trigger scheme. It also has an interface to the NCT flight computer to receive commands and transfer data. This paper contains the design and the scientific test result of the readout system.