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In-orbit performance of LE onboard Insight-HXMT in the first 5 years

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Abstract

Purpose

The low-energy X-ray telescope (LE) is a main instrument of the Insight-HXMT mission and consists of 96 swept charge devices covering the 1–10 keV energy band. The energy gain and resolution are continuously calibrated by analyzing Cassiopeia A (Cas A) and blank sky data, while the effective areas are also calibrated with the observations of the Crab Nebula. In this paper, we present the evolution of the in-orbit performances of LE in the first 5 years since launch.

Methods

The Insight-HXMT data analysis software package (HXMTDAS) is utilized to extract the spectra of Cas A, blank sky, and Crab Nebula using different good time interval selections. We fit a model with a power-law continuum and several Gaussian lines to different ranges of Cas A and blank sky spectra to get peak energies of their lines through xspec. After updating the energy gain calibration in CALibration DataBase (CALDB), we rerun the Cas A data to obtain the energy resolution. An empirical function is used to modify the simulated effective areas so that the background-subtracted spectrum of the Crab Nebula can best match the standard model of the Crab Nebula.

Results

The energy gain, resolution, and effective areas are calibrated every month. The corresponding calibration results are duly updated in CALDB, which can be downloaded and used for the analysis of Insight-HXMT data. Simultaneous observations with NuSTAR and NICER can also be used to verify our derived results.

Conclusion

LE is a well-calibrated X-ray telescope working in 1–10 keV band. The uncertainty of LE gain is less than 20 eV in 2–9 keV band, and the uncertainty of LE resolution is less than 15 eV. The systematic errors of LE, compared to the model of the Crab Nebula, are lower than 1.5% in 1–10 keV.

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Notes

  1. http://hxmten.ihep.ac.cn/.

  2. The time format (YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS) used in the paper is UTC time.

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Acknowledgements

This work used data from the Insight-HXMT mission, a project funded by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). We gratefully acknowledge the support from the National Program on Key Research and Development Project (Grant No. 2021YFA0718500) from the Minister of Science and Technology of China (MOST). The authors thank supports from the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grants 12273043, U1838201, U1838202, U1938102, and U1938108. This work was partially supported by the International Partnership Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. 113111KYSB20190020).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Particle Astrophysics, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Science, 19B Yuquan Road, Shijingshan District, Beijing, 100049, China

    Xiaobo Li, Yong Chen, Liming Song, Weiwei Cui, Wei Li, Juan Wang, Shuang-Nan Zhang, Fangjun Lu, Yupeng Xu, Haisheng Zhao, Mingyu Ge, Youli Tuo, Yusa Wang, Tianxiang Chen, Dawei Han, Jia Huo, Yanji Yang, Maoshun Li, Ziliang Zhang, Yuxuan Zhu & Xiaofan Zhao

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  1. Xiaobo Li
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  2. Yong Chen
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  3. Liming Song
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Correspondence to Yong Chen.

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Li, X., Chen, Y., Song, L. et al. In-orbit performance of LE onboard Insight-HXMT in the first 5 years. Radiat Detect Technol Methods 7, 25–33 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41605-023-00391-3

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