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Register a new userCross-calibration of the X-ray Instruments onboard the Chandra, INTEGRAL, RXTE, Suzaku, Swift, and XMM-Newton Observatories using G21.5-0.9
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Authors
Masahiro Tsujimoto
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Context. The Crab nebula has been used as a celestial calibration source of the X-ray flux and spectral shape for many years by X-ray astronomy missions. However, the object is often too bright for current and future missions equipped with instruments with improved sensitivity. Aims. We use G21.5-0.9 as a viable, fainter substitute to the Crab, which is another pulsar-wind nebula with a time-constant powerlaw spectrum with a flux of a few milli Crab in the X-ray band. Using this source, we conduct a cross-calibration study of the instruments onboard currently active observatories: Chandra ACIS, Suzaku XIS, Swift XRT, XMM-Newton EPIC (MOS and pn) for the soft-band, and INTEGRAL IBIS-ISGRI, RXTE PCA, and Suzaku HXD-PIN for the hard band. Methods. We extract spectra from all the instruments and fit them under the same astrophysical assumptions. We compare the spectral parameters of the G21.5-0.9 model: power-law photon index, H-equivalent column density of the interstellar photoelectric absorption, flux in the soft (2-8 keV) or hard (15-50 keV) energy band. Results. We identify the systematic differences in the best-fit parameter values unattributable to the statistical scatter of the data alone. We interpret these differences as due to residual cross-calibration problems. The differences can be as large as 20% and 9% for the soft-band flux and power-law index, respectively, and 46% for the hard-band flux. The results are plotted and tabulated as a useful reference for future calibration and scientific studies using multiple missions.
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G21.5-0.9 is a plerionic supernova remnant (SNR) used as a calibration target for the Chandra X-ray telescope. The first observations found an extended halo surrounding the bright central pulsar wind nebula (PWN). A 2005 study discovered that this halo is limb-brightened and suggested the halo to be the missing SNR shell. In 2010 the spectrum of the limb-brightened shell was found to be dominated by non-thermal X-rays. In this study, we combine 15 years of Chandra observations comprising over 1~Msec of exposure time (796.1~ks with the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS) and 306.1~ks with the High Resolution Camera (HRC)) to provide the deepest-to-date imaging and spectroscopic study. The emission from the limb is primarily non-thermal and is described by a power-law model with a photon index $Gamma = 2.22 , (2.04-2.34)$, plus a weak thermal component characterized by a temperature $kT = 0.37, (0.20-0.64)$ keV and a low ionization timescale of $n_{e}t < 2.95 times 10^{10}$ cm$^{-3}$s. The northern knot located in the halo is best fitted with a two-component power-law + non-equilibrium ionization thermal model characterized by a temperature of 0.14 keV and an enhanced abundance of silicon, confirming its nature as ejecta. We revisit the spatially resolved spectral study of the PWN and find that its radial spectral profile can be explained by diffusion models. The best fit diffusion coefficient is $D sim 2.1times 10^{27}rm cm^2/s$ assuming a magnetic field $B =130 mu G$, which is consistent with recent 3D MHD simulation results.
We desire a simple comparison of the absolute effective areas of the current generation of CCD instruments onboard the following observatories: Chandra ACIS-S3, XMM-Newton (EPIC-MOS and EPIC-pn), Suzaku XIS, and Swift XRT and a straightforward comparison of the time-dependent response of these instruments across their respective mission lifetimes. We have been using 1E 0102.2-7219, the brightest supernova remnant in the Small Magellanic Cloud, to evaluate and modify the response models of these instruments. 1E 0102.2-7219 has strong lines of O, Ne, and Mg below 1.5 keV and little or no Fe emission to complicate the spectrum. As part of the activities of the International Astronomical Consortium for High Energy Calibration (IACHEC), we have developed a standard spectral model for 1E 0102.2-7219. The model is empirical in that it includes Gaussians for the identified lines, an absorption component in the Galaxy, another absorption component in the SMC, and two thermal continuum components. In our fits, the model is highly constrained in that only the normalizations of the four brightest lines/line complexes (the O vii He$alpha$ triplet, O viii Ly$alpha$ line, the Ne ix He$alpha$ triplet, and the Ne x Ly$alpha$ line) and an overall normalization are allowed to vary. We have examined these measured line fluxes as a function of time for each instrument after applying the most recent calibrations that account for the time-dependent response of each instrument. We perform our effective area comparison with representative, early mission data when the radiation damage and contamination layers were at a minimum. We find that the measured fluxes of these lines generally agree to within +/-10% for all instruments, with 38 of our 48 fitted normalizations within +/-10% of the IACHEC model value.
On behalf of the International Astronomical Consortium for High Energy Calibration (IACHEC), we present results from the cross-calibration campaigns in 2012 on 3C 273 and in 2013 on PKS 2155-304 between the then active X-ray observatories Chandra, NuSTAR, Suzaku, Swift and XMM-Newton. We compare measured fluxes between instrument pairs in two energy bands, 1-5 keV and 3-7 keV and calculate an average cross-normalization constant for each energy range. We review known cross-calibration features and provide a series of tables and figures to be used for evaluating cross-normalization constants obtained from other observations with the above mentioned observatories.
IGR J18483-0311 was discovered with INTEGRAL in 2003 and later classified as a supergiant fast X-ray transient. It was observed in outburst many times, but its quiescent state is still poorly known. Here we present the results of XMM-Newton, Swift, and Chandra observations of IGRJ18483-0311. These data improved the X-ray position of the source, and provided new information on the timing and spectral properties of IGR J18483-0311 in quiescence. We report the detection of pulsations in the quiescent X-ray emission of this source, and give for the first time a measurement of the spin-period derivative of this source. In IGRJ18483-0311 the measured spin-period derivative of -(1.3+-0.3)x10^(-9) s/s likely results from light travel time effects in the binary. We compare the most recent observational results of IGRJ18483-0311 and SAXJ1818.6-1703, the two supergiant fast X-ray transients for which a similar orbital period has been measured.
We present the first broadband 0.3-25.0 kev X-ray observations of the bright ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) Holmberg II X-1, performed by NuSTAR, XMM-Newton and Suzaku in September 2013. The NuSTAR data provide the first observations of Holmberg II X-1 above 10 keV, and reveal a very steep high-energy spectrum, similar to other ULXs observed by NuSTAR to date. These observations further demonstrate that ULXs exhibit spectral states that are not typically seen in Galactic black hole binaries. Comparison with other sources implies that Holmberg II X-1 accretes at a high fraction of its Eddington accretion rate, and possibly exceeds it. The soft X-ray spectrum (E<10 keV) appears to be dominated by two blackbody-like emission components, the hotter of which may be associated with an accretion disk. However, all simple disk models under-predict the NuSTAR data above ~10 keV and require an additional emission component at the highest energies probed, implying the NuSTAR data does not fall away with a Wien spectrum. We investigate physical origins for such an additional high-energy emission component, and favor a scenario in which the excess arises from Compton scattering in a hot corona of electrons with some properties similar to the very-high state seen in Galactic binaries. The observed broadband 0.3-25.0 keV luminosity inferred from these epochs is Lx = (8.1+/-0.1)e39 erg/s, typical for Holmberg II X-1, with the majority of the flux (~90%) emitted below 10 keV.
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