Analysis of the unconcentrated background of the EPIC-pn camera on board XMM-Newton

TL;DR

This study analyzes the background of the EPIC-pn camera on XMM-Newton, revealing new insights into cosmic ray interactions, background components, and their correlation with solar activity, aiding future X-ray mission predictions.

Contribution

It provides the largest data set analysis of the EPIC-pn background, identifying a new isotropic component and establishing correlations with cosmic rays and solar activity.

Findings

Unconcentrated background is sky-exposed in out-field regions.

Background correlates with solar cycle and cosmic ray flux.

Identifies a stable, isotropic background component.

Abstract

Our understanding of the background of the EPIC/pn camera onboard XMM-Newton is incomplete. This affects the study of extended sources and can influence the predictions of the background of future X-ray missions. We provide new results based on the analysis of the largest data set ever used. We focus on the unconcentrated component of the EPIC/pn background - supposedly related to cosmic rays interacting with the telescope. We find that the out-field of view region of the pn detector is actually exposed to the sky. After cleaning from the sky contamination, the unconcentrated background does not show significant spatial variations and its time behaviour is anti-correlated with the solar cycle. We find a very tight, linear correlation between unconcentrated backgrounds detected in the EPIC/pn and MOS2 cameras: this permits the correct evaluation of the pn unconcentrated background of each exposure on the basis of MOS2 data, avoiding the use (as usual) of the contaminated pn regions. We find a tight, linear correlation between the pn unconcentrated background and the proton flux in the 630-970 MeV energy band measured by SOHO/EPHIN. Through this relationship we quantify the contribution of cosmic ray interactions to the pn unconcentrated background and we find a second source which contributes to the pn unconcentrated background for a significant fraction (30%-70%), that does not vary with time and is roughly isotropic. Hard X-ray photons of the CXB satisfy all the known properties of this new component. Our findings provide an important observational confirmation of simulation results on ATHENA.