The High Energy X-ray telescope (HE) onboard the Insight-HXMT astronomy satellite

The Insight-Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope(Insight-HXMT) is a broadband X-ray and γ-ray(1-3000 ke V) astronomy satellite. One of its three main telescopes is the High Energy X-ray telescope(HE). The main detector plane of HE comprises 18 Na I(Tl)/Cs I(Na) phoswich detectors, where Na I(Tl) is used as the primary detector to measure ~ 20-250 ke V photons incident from the field of view(FOV) defined by collimators, and Cs I(Na) is used as the active shielding detector to Na I(Tl) by pulse shape discrimination. Additionally, Cs I(Na) is used as an omnidirectional γ-ray monitor. The HE collimators have a diverse FOV,i.e. 1.1°×5.7°(15 units), 5.7°×5.7°(2 units), and blocked(1 unit). Therefore, the combined FOV of HE is approximately5.7°×5.7°. Each HE detector has a diameter of 190 mm resulting in a total geometrical area of approximately 5100 cm2, and the energy resolution is ~15% at 60 ke V. For each recorded X-ray event by HE, the timing accuracy is less than 10 μs and the deadtime is less than 10 μs. HE is used for observing spectra and temporal variability of X-ray sources in the 20-250 ke V band either by pointing observations for known sources or scanning observations to unveil new sources. Additionally, HE is used for monitoring the γ-ray burst in 0.2-3 Me V band. This paper not only presents the design and performance of HE instruments but also reports results of the on-ground calibration experiments.     

Temporal study of GRS 1915+105 with rms-flux relation: The importance of magnetic activities in the corona

The rms-flux relations for some observations of GRS 1915+105 are studied. The rms-flux relations of the light curves in only one state, state C or state A, can be described by the simple non-linear model provided Zhang; we thus interpret that such a linear relation reflects the relative importance of magnetic instability for X-ray emission in the corona of the system, compared to the thermal viscous instability for the X-ray emission in the accretion disk. The rms-flux relations for state B are very scattered, possibly because of the dominance of thermal viscous instability for the X-ray emission in the accretion disk. The complex rms-flux relations for the observations of transitions between two or three states are caused by the combination of the different rms-flux relations of these states. The underlying physical processes are the combination of magnetic topology in the corona and thermal viscous instability in the accretion disk.

     

SVOM gamma ray monitor

The space-based multi-band astronomical Variable Object Monitor (SVOM) mission is dedicated to the detection, localization and broad-band study of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and other high-energy transient phenomena. The gamma ray monitor (GRM) onboard is designed to observe GRBs up to 5 MeV. With this instrument, one of the key GRB parameters, E _peak, can be easily measured in the hard X-ray band. It can achieve a detection rate of 100 GRBs per year which ensures the scientific output of SVOM.     

GRB 090423: Marking the death of a massive star at z=8.2

GRB 090423 is the new high-z record holder of Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) with z～ 8.2. We present a detailed analysis of both the spectral and temporal features of GRB 090423 observed with Swift/BAT and Fermi/GBM. We find that the T ₉₀ observed with BAT in the 15–150 keV band is 13.2 s, corresponding to ～ 1.4 s at z=8.2. It once again gives rise to the issue of whether the progenitors of high-z GRBs are massive stars or mergers since the discovery of GRB 080913 at z=6.7. In comparison with the T ₉₀ distribution in the burst frame of the current redshift-known GRB sample, we find that it is marginally grouped into the long group (Type II GRBs). The spectrum observed with both BAT and GBM is well fitted by a power-law with exponential cutoff, which yields an E _p=(50.4±7.0) keV. The event satisfies the Amati-relation well for Type II GRBs within their 3σ uncertainty range. Our results indicate that this event would be produced by the death of a massive star. Based on the Amati-relation, we derive its distance modulus, which follows the Hubble diagram of the concordance cosmology model at a redshift of ～8.2.     

Light collection of the POLAR detector

POLAR is a compact polarimeter dedicated to measuring the polarization of GRBs between 50–350 keV. The light collection of 200 mm×6 mm×6 mm plastic bars has been simulated and optimized in order to get uniform response to X-rays at different points along one single bar. According to the Monte Carlo results, the amplitude uniformity strongly depends on the level of polishing of the scintillator surface and the covering. A uniformity of 89% is achieved with a prototype constructed by a non position-sensitive PMT and an array of 4×4 bars.     

The Low Energy X-ray telescope (LE) onboard the Insight-HXMT astronomy satellite

The Low Energy X-ray telescope(LE) is one of the three main instruments of the Insight-Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope(Insight-HXMT). It is equipped with Swept Charge Device(SCD) sensor arrays with a total geometrical area of 384 cm^2 and an energy band from 0.7 to 13 ke V. In order to evaluate the particle induced X-ray background and the cosmic X-ray background simultaneously, LE adopts collimators to define four types of Field Of Views(FOVs), i.e., 1.6°×6°, 4°×6°, 50°-60°×2°-6 oand the blocked ones which block the X-ray by an aluminum cover. LE is constituted of three detector boxes(LEDs) and an electric control box(LEB) and achieves a good energy resolution of 140 e V@5.9 ke V, an excellent time resolution of 0.98 ms, as well as an extremely low pileup(<1%@18000 cts/s). Detailed performance tests and calibration on the ground have been performed,including energy-channel relation, energy response, detection efficiency and time response.     

Diagnostics for the structure of AGNs’ broad line regions with reverberation mapping data: confirmation of the two-component broad line region model

We re-examine the ten Reverberation Mapping (RM) sources with public data based on the two-component model of the Broad Line Region (BLR). In fitting their broad Hβ Mlines, six of them only need one Gaussian component, one of them has a double-peak profile, one has an irregular profile, and only two of them need two components, i.e., a Very Broad Gaussian Component (VBGC) and an Inter-Mediate Gaussian Component (IMGC). The Gaussian components are assumed to come from two distinct regions in the two-component model; they are the Very Broad Line Region (VBLR) and the Inter-Mediate Line region (IMLR). The two sources with a two-component profile are Mrk 509 and NGC 4051. The time lags of the two components of both sources satisfy t _IMLR/t _VBLR=V ² _VBLR/V ² _IMLR, where t _IMLR and t _VBLR are the lags of the two components while V _IMLR and V _VBLR represent the mean gas velocities of the two regions, supporting the two-component model of the BLR of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs). The fact that most of these ten sources only have the VBGC confirms the assumption that RM mainly measures the radius of the VBLR; consequently, the radius obtained from the R-L relationship mainly represents the radius of VBLR. Moreover, NGC 4051, with a lag of about 5 days in the one component model, is an outlier on the R-L relationship as shown in Kaspi et al. (2005); however this problem disappears in our two-component model with lags of about 2 and 6 days for the VBGC and IMGC, respectively.