Simulating and reproducing instrument background for x-ray CCD spectrometers in space

Abstract

In anticipation of the European Space Agency (ESA) X-ray Evolving Universe Spectroscopy (XEUS) mission, designed as a follow-on to the ESA X-ray Multi Mirror (XMM-Newton) mission, the instrument background for the XMM-Newton mission, the Japanese Space Agency Suzaku mission and the NASA Swift mission has been studied. The instrument background has been modelled using the Geant4 toolkit to establish the constituent components for the differing orbits and detector designs across the energy range from 1 keV to 12 keV. The results, consistent with the spectra obtained in-orbit, are then discussed. With knowledge of the dominant components of the instrument background, methods targeted at reduction in future missions are considered, with experimental results designed to determine their effects