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The particle background of the X-IFU instrument

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Abstract

In this paper we are going to review the latest estimates for the particle background expected on the X-IFU instrument onboard of the ATHENA mission. The particle background is induced by two different particle populations: the so called “soft protons” and the Cosmic rays. The first component is composed of low energy particles (< 100s keV) that get funnelled by the mirrors towards the focal plane, losing part of their energy inside the filters and inducing background counts inside the instrument sensitivity band. The latter component is induced by high energy particles (> 100 MeV) that possess enough energy to cross the spacecraft and reach the detector from any direction, depositing a small fraction of their energy inside the instrument. Both these components are estimated using Monte Carlo simulations and the latest results are presented here.

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Acknowledgements

Part of the research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Programme under the AHEAD project (grant agreement n. 654215).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. INAF, IAPS, Via fosso del Cavaliere 100, 00133, Roma, Italy

    Simone Lotti, Matteo D’Andrea, Claudio Macculi & Luigi Piro

  2. INAF, IASF Palermo, Via U. La Malfa 153, I90146, Palermo, Italy

    Teresa Mineo

  3. IRAP, CNRS-University of Toulouse, Toulouse, France

    Christian Jacquey

  4. INAF, IASF Milano, Via E. Bassini 15, I-20133, Milano, Italy

    Silvano Molendi

  5. University of Roma “Tor Vergata”, Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133, Roma, Italy

    Matteo D’Andrea

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  1. Simone Lotti
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  2. Teresa Mineo
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  3. Christian Jacquey
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  4. Silvano Molendi
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  5. Matteo D’Andrea
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  6. Claudio Macculi
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  7. Luigi Piro
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Correspondence to Simone Lotti.

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Lotti, S., Mineo, T., Jacquey, C. et al. The particle background of the X-IFU instrument. Exp Astron 44, 371–385 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10686-017-9538-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10686-017-9538-1

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