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A preliminary design of the magnetic diverter on-board the eXTP observatory

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Abstract

Charged particles in the space environment can degrade the scientific performances of X-ray detectors in astronomical telescopes. An efficient countermeasure is to place a magnetic diverter at the exit pupil of optics to deflect charged particles away from the sensitive detection area. In this work, we have performed a preliminary design of the magnetic diverter on-board the enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry (eXTP) observatory. It relies on a Monte Carlo method via the GEANT4 toolkit to simulate the mirror responses to charged particles, using the single scattering physics for electrons and the elastic Remizovich physics for protons. It also implements a numerical method to calculate magnetic fields generated by an assembly of permanent magnets and its impact on the trajectories of charged particles. The compact calculation scheme provides efficient access to the background level estimation given the certain radiation environment, which enables the verification of the diverter configuration with the scientific requirements.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the support from the Strategic Priority Program on Space Science, China, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Grant No. XDA15020501. We also acknowledge Project 12003037 supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Particle Astrophysics, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Liqiang Qi, Gang Li, Yupeng Xu, Yong Chen, Huilin He, Yusa Wang, Yanji Yang, Juan Zhang & Fangjun Lu

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  1. Liqiang Qi
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Qi, L., Li, G., Xu, Y. et al. A preliminary design of the magnetic diverter on-board the eXTP observatory. Exp Astron 51, 475–492 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10686-021-09707-x

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