Current Science

A. R. Rao ¹, D. Bhattacharya ², V. B. Bhalerao ², S. V. Vadawale ³, S. Sreekumar ⁴

Affiliations
1 Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road, Mumbai 400 005, IN
2 Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune 411 007, IN
3 Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad 380 009, IN
4 Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram 695 024, IN

Abstract

The AstroSat satellite is designed to make multi-waveband observations of astronomical sources and the Cadmium-Zinc-Telluride Imager (CZTI) instrument of AstroSat covers the hard X-ray band. CZTI has a large area position-sensitive hard X-ray detector equipped with a coded aperture mask, thus enabling simultaneous background measurements. Ability to record simultaneous detection of ionizing interactions in multiple detector elements is a special feature of the instrument, and this is exploited to provide polarization information in the 100-380 keV region. CZTI provides sensitive spectroscopic measurements in the 20-100 keV region, and acts as an all-sky hard X-ray monitor and polarimeter above 100 keV. During the first year of operation, CZTI has recorded several gamma-ray bursts, measured the phase-resolved hard X-ray polarization of the Crab pulsar, and the hard X-ray spectra of many bright galactic X-ray binaries. The excellent timing capability of the instrument has been demonstrated with simultaneous observation of the Crab pulsar with radio telescopes like Gaint Metrewave Radio Telescope and Ooty Radio Telescope.

Keywords

All-Sky Hard X-Ray Monitor, Gamma-Ray Bursts, Neutron Stars, X-Ray Polarization.

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