A novel approach to model EPIC variable background
Abstract
In the past years XMM-Newton revolutionized our way to look at the X-ray sky. With more than 200 Ms of exposure, it allowed for numerous discoveries in every field of astronomy. Unfortunately, about 35% of the observing time is badly affected by soft proton flares, with background increasing by orders of magnitudes hampering any classical analysis of field sources. One of the main aim of the EXTraS ("Exploring the X-ray Transient and variable Sky") project is to characterise the variability of XMM-Newton sources within each single observation, including periods of high background. This posed severe challenges. I will describe a novel approach that we implemented within the EXTraS project to produce background-subtracted light curves, that allows to treat the case of very faint sources and very large proton flares. EXTraS light curves will be soon released to the community, together with new tools that will allow the user to reproduce EXTraS results, as well as to extend a similar analysis to future data. Results of this work (including an unprecedented characterisation of the soft proton phenomenon and instrument response) will also serve as a reference for future missions and will be particularly relevant for the Athena observatory.
- Publication:
-
XMM-Newton: The Next Decade
- Pub Date:
- June 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016xnnd.confE.101M