AstroSat-CZTI as a hard X-ray Pulsar Monitor

Abstract

The Cadmium Zinc Telluride Imager (CZTI) is an imaging instrument onboard AstroSat. This instrument operates as a nearly open all-sky detector above ~60 keV, making possible long integrations irrespective of the spacecraft pointing. We present a technique based on the AstroSat-CZTI data to explore the hard X-ray characteristics of the $\gamma$-ray pulsar population. We report highly significant ($\sim 30\sigma$) detection of hard X-ray (60--380 keV) pulse profile of the Crab pulsar using $\sim$5000 ks of CZTI observations within 5 to 70 degrees of Crab position in the sky, using a custom algorithm developed by us. Using Crab as our test source, we estimate the off-axis sensitivity of the instrument and establish AstroSat-CZTI as a prospective tool in investigating hard X-ray characteristics of $\gamma$-ray pulsars as faint as 10 mCrab.

Accepted for publication in the Journal of Astrophysics and Astronomy, 8 pages, 3 figures, 3 tables

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Cited by in corpus (2)

• Using collimated CZTI as all sky X-ray detector based on Earth Occultation Technique
• Pulsars in AstroSat-CZTI: Detection in sub-MeV bands and Estimation of Spectral Index from Hardness Ratios