Vth School of Astroparticle Physics
23 - 28 May 2016
OHP, Saint Michel l'Observatoire

Physics of the Universe in X-rays

X-ray Telescopes - design, manufacture and performances

Richard WILLINGALE
  Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, UK

Course
The course will provide a brief introduction to the basic principles of grazing incidence mirrors, an overview of the capabilities of existing X-ray Observatories like XMM Newton and Chandra  and discussion of how we can achieve high angular resolution, large effective area, a high energy response and large field of view for the next generation of X-ray telescopes. We will end with a summary of the performance characteristics of X-ray telescopes that are currently being developed and will fly in the next 10-15 years.

Context

X-ray telescopes use grazing incidence mirrors to produce a true image of the X-ray sky. We know of only 3 basic geometries that can be used to focus soft X-rays and produce an image: Wolter I, Kirkpatrick-Baez and lobster eye, and the choice of geometry depends on the application and the technology available to produce and assemble the mirrors. Because they must conform to one of these 3 geometries the performance characteristics of X-ray telescopes are somewhat different from instruments used in other wavebands.

Bibliography
    • "Spiegelsysteme streifenden Einfalls als abbildende Optiken fur Rontgenstrahlen"
      Wolter, H.,Annalen der Physik,1952,445,1-2,94-114
      Wiley Online Library
      BibCode: wolter1952spiegelsysteme
    • "Formation of optical images by X-rays"
      Kirkpatrick, P. and Baez, A.V.,J. Opt. Soc. Am.,38,9,766-773,1948
      Optical Society of America
      BibCode: kirkpatrick1948formation
    • "A proposed X-ray focusing device with wide field of view for use in X-ray astronomy"
      Schmidt, W.H.K., Nucl. Instr. and Methods, 1975,127,285-292
      BibCode: 1975NIM.127..285S
    • "Lobster eyes as X-ray telescopes"
      Angel, J.R.P.,ApJ, 1979,233,364-373
      BibCode: 1979ApJ...233..364A
    • "The Chandra Telescope System"
      http://chandra.harvard.edu/about/telescope_system.html
    • "The Telescopes of XMM-Newton"
      http://xmm.esac.esa.int/external/xmm_user_support/documentation/technical/Mirrors/index.shtml
    • "The Swift X-Ray Telescope"
      Burrows, D.N. et al., Space Science Reviews,2005,120,165-195
      BibCode: 2005SSRv..120..165B
    • "The Hot and Energetic Universe: The Optical Design of the Athena+ Mirror"
      Willingale, R., Pareschi, G., Christensen, F., den Herder, J-W., arXiv, 2013
      BibCode: arXiv:1307.1709

 

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