Background Simulations of the Wide Field Imager of the ATHENA X-Ray Observatory

TL;DR

This paper presents background simulations for the ATHENA X-ray Observatory's Wide Field Imager, estimating cosmic ray-induced backgrounds and exploring reduction strategies using Monte Carlo methods.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed Monte Carlo simulation-based background estimates for the ATHENA WFI detector considering its mechanics and shielding design.

Findings

Estimated cosmic ray background levels for WFI

Potential background reduction strategies identified

Simulation results inform detector design improvements

Abstract

The ATHENA X-ray Observatory-IXO is a planned multinational orbiting X-ray observatory with a focal length of 11.5m. ATHENA aims to perform pointed observations in an energy range from 0.1 keV to 15 keV with high sensitivity. For high spatial and timing resolution imaging and spectroscopic observations the 640x640 pixel^2 large DePFET-technology based Wide field Imager (WFI) focal plane detector, providing a field of view of 18 arcsec will be the main detector. Based on the actual mechanics, thermal and shielding design we present estimates for the WFI cosmic ray induced background obtained by the use of Monte-Carlo simulations and possible background reduction measures.