ART-XC: Astronomical Roentgen Telescope – X-ray Concentrator

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ART-XC on SRG

Simulations

ART-XC will survey the entire sky every 6 months during the first four years of its mission. Our team at MSFC has conducted a series of simulations to test the scientific performance of ART-XC during this survey mode using the SIXTE software developed at Erlangen Centre for Astroparticle Physics.

ART-XC simulated exposure maps.

The exposure maps shown at the right are generated using SIXTE based on the sample eROSITA all-sky survey attitude file and the ART-XC vignetting functions. They display only a 4 deg by 4 deg region of the sky centered at RA=270 deg and DEC=66 deg. Exposure maps for several different time periods of the all-sky survey are shown.

Based on these exposure times, we have also simulated ART-XC sources based on the ROSAT all-sky survey. Both images with and without particle and cosmic backgrounds are shown below. Since SRG will maintain the L2 orbit at which the X-ray particle background is less studied, we assumed a NuSTAR-like particle background. These simulations show the large numbers of sources ART-XC will be able to detect using its exquisite MSFC-built hard X-ray mirrors and IKI-built detectors.

ART-XC simulated sources, with (right) and without (left) background counts.

Analysis Tools

The data reduction pipeline is still under development. Meanwhile, a collection of scripts that works with simulated event lists generated by SIXTE, along with tentative ART-XC calibration files, is also being developed.