EXIST: A high sensitivity hard x-ray imaging sky survey mission for ISS

Grindlay, J.; Bildsten, Lars; Chakrabarty, Deepto; Elvis, M.; Fabian, A. C.; Fiore, F.; Gehrels, N.; Hailey, C. J.; Harrison, Fiona A.; Hartmann, D.; Prince, Thomas A.; Ramsey, B.; Rothschild, R.; Skinner, G. K.; Woosley, S. E.

doi:10.1063/1.1303305

Cited by 9 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 6 publications

(8 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs) are detected in the Galaxy (3) and LMC (1) and are associated with NSs, probably magnetars [16]. The Giant Flares detected from two of these reach highly superEddington luminosities which EXIST could detect with its all-sky monitoring and imaging out to ~3-10Mpc.…”

Section: Short Grbs and Sgrsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These general considerations, as well as the primary goal to conduct a hard x-ray imaging survey which extends ROSAT sensitivity to >100keV but with all sky coverage each orbit [1], yield the preliminary EXIST mission concept outlined below. The baseline implementation is for a Free Flyer mission although a version studied originally [1,2] could be mounted on the International Space Station.…”

Section: Exist Mission Conceptmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The baseline implementation is for a Free Flyer mission although a version studied originally [1,2] could be mounted on the International Space Station.…”

Section: Exist Mission Conceptmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Proposed Next Generation GRB Mission: EXIST

Grindlay

Gehrels²,

Harrison

et al. 2003

AIP Conference Proceedings

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract.A next generation Gamma Ray Burst (GRB) mission to follow the upcoming Swift mission is described. The proposed Energetic X-ray Imaging Survey Telescope, EXIST, would yield the limiting (practical) GRB trigger sensitivity, broad-band spectral and temporal response, and spatial resolution over a wide field. It would provide high resolution spectra and locations for GRBs detected at GeV energies with GLAST. Together with the next generation missions Constellation-X, NGST and LISA and optical-survey (LSST) telescopes, EXIST would enable GRBs to be used as probes of the early universe and the first generation of stars. EXIST alone would give ~10-50" positions (long or short GRBs), approximate redshifts from lags, and constrain physics of jets, orphan afterglows, neutrinos and SGRs.

show abstract

Section: Short Grbs and Sgrsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Exist Mission Conceptmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Proposed Next Generation GRB Mission: EXIST

Grindlay

Gehrels²,

Harrison

et al. 2003

AIP Conference Proceedings

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For a sensitivity of ∼ 0.05 mCrab, as baselined for EXIST on the International Space Station, approximately 8 m 2 of CZT are required. 9 Large fields of view (40 • for each module of EXIST) are needed to conduct a survey over the entire sky, further increasing background and requiring large (1-2 mm) pixels to avoid projection effects in thick detectors. Large pixels have increased leakage current noise, and this must be reduced to allow high bias voltages for complete charge collection.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Construction and testing of a pixellated CZT detector and shield for a hard x-ray astronomy balloon flight

Bloser¹,

Narita

Jenkins

et al. 2000

X-Ray and Gamma-Ray Instrumentation for Astronomy XI

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We report on the construction and laboratory testing of pixellated CZT detectors mounted in a flip-chip, tiled fashion and read out by an ASIC, as required for proposed hard X-ray astronomy missions. Two 10 mm × 10 mm × 5 mm detectors were fabricated, one out of standard eV Products high-pressure Bridgman CZT and one out of IMARAD horizontal Bridgman CZT. Each was fashioned with a 4 × 4 array of gold pixels on a 2.5 mm pitch with a surrounding guard ring. The detectors were mounted side by side on a carrier card, such that the pixel pitch was preserved, and read out by a 32-channel VA-TA ASIC from IDE AS Corp. controlled by a PC/104 single-board computer. A passive shield/collimator surrounded by plastic scintillator encloses the detectors on five sides and provides a ∼ 40• field of view. Thus this experiment tests key techniques required for future hard X-ray survey instruments. The experiment was taken to Ft Sumner, NM in May 2000 in preparation for a scientific balloon flight aboard the joint Harvard-MSFC EXITE2/HERO payload. Although we did not receive a flight opportunity, and are currently scheduled to fly in September 2000, we present our calibration data in the flight configuration together with data analysis techniques and simulations of the expected flight background spectrum.

show abstract

“…Motivated by the requirements of the EXIST concept, 6 our goals were to investigate techniques for assembling a large-area detector plane out of small elements, test various detector materials in the near-space environment, demonstrate an ASIC readout system in flight, and compare active shielding techniques using particle and photon shields for a wide field-of-view telescope.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

<title>Balloon flight background measurement with actively-shielded planar and imaging CZT detectors</title>

et al. 2002

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We present results from the flight of two prototype CZT detectors on a scientific balloon payload in September 2000. The first detector, referred to as "CZT1," consisted of a 10 mm × 10 mm × 2 mm CZT crystal with a single gold planar electrode readout. This detector was shielded by a combination of a passive collimator in the front, giving a 40 degree field of view and surrounded by plastic scintillator, and a thick BGO crystal in the rear. The second detector, "CZT2," comprised two 10 mm × 10 mm × 5 mm CZT crystals, one made of eV Products high pressure Bridgman material and the other of IMARAD horizontal Bridgman material, each fashioned with a 4 × 4 array of gold pixels on a 2.5 mm pitch. The pixellated detectors were flip-chip-mounted side by side and read out by a 32-channel ASIC. This detector was also shielded by a passive/plastic collimator in the front, but used only additional passive/plastic shielding in the rear. Both experiments were flown from Ft. Sumner, NM on September 19, 2000 on a 24 hour balloon flight. Both instruments performed well. CZT1 recorded a non-vetoed background level at 100 keV of ∼ 1 × 10 −3 cts cm −2 s −1 keV −1 . Raising the BGO threshold from 50 keV to ∼ 1 MeV produced only an 18% increase in this level. CZT2 recorded a background at 100 keV of ∼ 4 × 10 −3 cts cm −2 s −1 keV −1 in the eV Products detector and ∼ 6 × 10 −3 cts cm −2 s −1 keV −1 in the IMARAD detector, a difference possibly due to our internal background subtracting procedure. Both CZT1 and CZT2 spectra were in basic agreement with Monte Carlo simulations, though both recorded systematically higher count rates at high energy than predicted. No lines were observed, indicating that neutron capture reactions, at least those producing decay lines at a few 100 keV, are not significant components of the CZT background. Comparison of the CZT1 and CZT2 spectra indicates that passive/plastic shielding may provide adequately low background levels for many applications.

show abstract

EXIST: A high sensitivity hard x-ray imaging sky survey mission for ISS

Cited by 9 publications

References 6 publications

Proposed Next Generation GRB Mission: EXIST

Proposed Next Generation GRB Mission: EXIST

Construction and testing of a pixellated CZT detector and shield for a hard x-ray astronomy balloon flight

<title>Balloon flight background measurement with actively-shielded planar and imaging CZT detectors</title>

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About