Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS April Meeting 2015
Volume 60, Number 4
Saturday–Tuesday, April 11–14, 2015; Baltimore, Maryland
Session R14: Missions and Instruments I (General) |
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Sponsoring Units: DAP Chair: Reshmi Mukherjee, Columbia University Room: Key 10 |
Monday, April 13, 2015 10:45AM - 10:57AM |
R14.00001: ABSTRACT WITHDRAWN |
Monday, April 13, 2015 10:57AM - 11:09AM |
R14.00002: ISS-Lobster: a low-cost wide-field X-ray transient detector on the ISS Robert Petre, Jordan Camp, Scott Barthelmy, Neil Gehrels, Judith Racusin, Frank Marshall, Andrew Ptak ISS-Lobster is a wide-field X-ray transient detector proposed to be deployed on the International Space Station. Through its unique imaging X-ray optics that allow a 30 deg by 30 deg FoV, a 1 arc min position resolution and a 10$^{\mathrm{-11}}$ erg/(sec cm$^{\mathrm{2}})$ sensitivity in 2000 sec, ISS-Lobster will observe numerous events per year of X-ray transients related to compact objects, including: tidal disruptions of stars, supernova shock breakouts, neutron star bursts and superbursts, high redshift Gamma-Ray Bursts, and perhaps most exciting, X-ray counterparts of gravitational wave detections involving stellar mass and possibly supermassive black holes. The mission includes a 3-axis gimbal system that allows fast Target of Opportunity pointing, and a small gamma-ray burst monitor to be contributed by the Technion (Israel Institute of Technology.) [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, April 13, 2015 11:09AM - 11:21AM |
R14.00003: Time Projection Chamber Polarimeters for X-ray Astrophysics Joanne Hill, Kevin Black, Keith Jahoda Time Projection Chamber (TPC) based X-ray polarimeters achieve the sensitivity required for practical and scientifically significant astronomical observations, both galactic and extragalactic, with a combination of high analyzing power and good quantum efficiency. TPC polarimeters at the focus of an X-ray telescope have low background and large collecting areas providing the ability to measure the polarization properties of faint persistent sources.~ TPCs based on drifting negative ions rather than electrons permit large detector collecting areas with minimal readout electronics enabling wide field of view polarimeters for observing unpredictable, bright transient sources such as gamma-ray bursts. We described here the design and expected performance of two different TPC polarimeters proposed for small explorer missions: The PRAXyS (Polarimetry of Relativistic X-ray Sources) X-ray Polarimeter Instrument, optimized for observations of faint persistent sources and the POET (Polarimetry of Energetic Transients) Low Energy Polarimeter, designed to detect and measure bright transients. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, April 13, 2015 11:21AM - 11:33AM |
R14.00004: The Speedster-EXD - A New Event-Triggered Hybrid CMOS X-ray Detector Christopher Griffith, Abe Falcone, Zach Prieskorn, David Burrows We present the characterization of a new event driven x-ray hybrid CMOS detector developed by Penn State University in collaboration with Teledyne Imaging Sensors. Hybrid CMOS detectors currently have many advantages over CCDs including lower susceptibility to radiation damage, lower power consumption, and faster read-out time to avoid pile-up. The Speedster-EXD hybrid CMOS detector has many new features that improve upon the previous generation of detectors including two new in-pixel features that reduce noise from known noise sources: (1) a low-noise, high-gain CTIA amplifier to eliminate interpixel capacitance crosstalk and (2) in-pixel CDS subtraction to reduce kTC noise. The most exciting new feature of the Speedster-EXD is an in-pixel comparator that enables read out of only the pixels which contain signal from an x-ray event. The comparator threshold can be set by the user so that only pixels with signal above the set threshold are read out. This comparator feature can increase effective frame rate by orders of magnitude. We present the read noise, dark current, interpixel capacitance, energy resolution, and gain variation measurements of two Speedster-EXD detectors. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, April 13, 2015 11:33AM - 11:45AM |
R14.00005: Quantum efficiency of Si Hybrid CMOS detectors in the soft X-ray band Zachary Prieskorn, Stephen Bongiorno, David Burrows, Abraham Falcone, Christopher Griffith, Jonathan Nikoleyczik, Mark Wells X-ray sensitive Si Hybrid CMOS detectors (HCDs) will potentially replace X-ray CCDs in the focal planes of future X-ray observatories. HCDs improve on the performance of CCDs in numerous areas: faster read out time, windowed read out mode, less susceptibility to radiation {\&} micrometeoroid damage, and lower power consumption. Understanding the detector quantum efficiency (QE) is critical for estimating the sensitivity of an X-ray instrument. We report on the QE for multiple energies in the soft X-ray band of four HCDs based on the Teledyne Imaging Sensors HyViSI$^{\mathrm{TM}}$ detectors. These detectors have Al optical blocking filters deposited directly on the Si substrate; these filters vary in thickness from 180 -- 1000 {\AA}. We estimate the QE with a 1D slab absorption model and find good agreement between the model and our results across an energy range from 0.677 -- 8.05 keV. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, April 13, 2015 11:45AM - 11:57AM |
R14.00006: The Cherenkov Telescope Array Peter Karn The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is the next-generation atmospheric Cherenkov gamma ray observatory. CTA is being developed by an international consortium which brings together the experience of all current-generation Cherenkov experiments. Arrays of dozens of telescopes in both hemispheres will provide an unprecedented view of the entire gamma-ray sky from 30 GeV to more than 100 TeV. Multiple telescope sizes optimized for different energy ranges and state of the art detector technology will give an order of magnitude increase in sensitivity compared to current experiments. CTA will allow for the most detailed studies to date of particle acceleration in a variety of galactic and extragalactic environments. In addition, new windows of parameter space will be opened for several physics frontier topics, including indirect dark matter detection and the positron excess. [Preview Abstract] |
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