A Hard X-Ray Telescope System for the Constellation X-Ray Mission
Michael Garcia
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
garcia@cfa.harvard.edu
Additional authors: P.Gorenstein, S.Romaine, R. Bruni, G. Pareschi, O. Citterio, M. Ghigo, F. Mazzolini, S. Basso, G. Parodi, B. Ramsey, C.Speegle, J.Kilodziejcak, S. O'Dell, M. Gubarev, D. Englehaupt
The genesis of high-energy radiation can be traced back to a non-thermal process involving high-energy particles that are either colliding with their surroundings or circulating in very high magnetic fields. In most cases the hard X-ray band is more closely connected than the soft X-ray band to their initial interactions. In particular sources of thermal X-radiation, which Con-X will study with qualitatively higher sensitivity than ever before frequently contain a higher energy component bearing evidence of their non-thermal heritage. In fact, for many AGNs the hard X-ray component is the most luminous band of their spectrum. To aid in understanding the nature and origin of the thermal component and to study the non-thermal component on its own Con-X will contain a hard X-ray telescope system covering the 6 to 70 keV band (with 1500 cm2 effective area at 40 keV) that is co-aligned with the soft X-ray spectroscopy telescopes. We describe one of the two hard X-ray telescope systems being studied for Con-X. Large area is obtained with small graze angles and mirror coatings consisting of depth graded multiple dual layers of W/Si or Pt/C for the larger diameter mirror shells and iridium for the smaller diameter shells. Our mirror substrates are electroformed integral shells made by a process similar to XMM-Newton's but with three times larger area to mass ratio and a much smoother surface to accommodate the multilayer coatings.
