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About HXMT

The Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (HXMT) , named "Insight", is China’s first X-ray astronomy satellite. There are three main payloads onboard Insight-HXMT, the high energy X-ray telescope (20-250 keV, 5100 cm2), the medium energy X-ray telescope (5-30 keV, 952 cm2), and the low energy X-ray telescope (1-15 keV, 384 cm2). The main scientific objectives of Insight-HXMT are: (1) to scan the Galactic Plane to find new transient sources and to monitor the known variable sources, (2) to observe X-ray binaries to study the dynamics and emission mechanism in strong gravitational or magnetic fields, and (3) to monitor and study Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) and Gravitational Wave Electromagnetic counterparts (GWEM).   


The main technique parameters, the effective areas of the three X-ray telescopes and the background and sensitivities are listed here:


Table 1. The main technique parameters of Insight-HXMT telescopes

Payloads

HE

ME

LE

Detectors

NaI(CsI)

Si-PIN

SCD

Detector   area (cm2)

5100

952

384

Energy band   (keV)

20350

835

112

FOVFWHM

18 collimators, including 16 FOVs of 1.1°×5.7° (one   blocked), 2 FOVs of 5.7°×5.7°

3 detector boxes, each of which contains 16 FOVs of   1°×4° (one blocked), 2 FOVs of 4°×4°

3 detector boxes, each of which contains 21 FOVs of   1.6°×6° (one blocked), 7 FOVs of 4°×6° (one blocked), and 2 FOVs of 5060°×2

Energy   resolution (FWHM)

≤17% (@60 keV)

15%@20 keV

2.5% @6 keV

Point source   resolution (20σ)

1′ (1σ)

Time   resolution

4 µs

240 µs

1 ms

 

Fig. 1 The effective areas of the three Insight-HXMT detectors.


Fig. 2 The background spectrum of Insight-HXMT detectors.


Fig. 3 Sensitivity of pointing observations of the three Insight-HXMT detectors (100 s, 3σ). The dashed line is the estimation considering only the statistical fluctuations, and the solid line is that including systematic errors of the background (the systematic errors of HE, ME and LE are 1%, 2% and 2% of their backgrounds, respectively).


Fig. 4 The time-dependent sensitivity of pointing observations of the three Insight-HXMT detectors (3σ). The energy ranges of LE, ME and HE are 1-6 keV, 10-20 keV, and 30-100 keV, respectively. The dashed lines are the estimation considering only the statistical fluctuations, and the solid lines are that including the systematic errors of the background (the systematic errors of HE, ME and LE are 1%, 2% and 2% of their backgrounds, respectively).