Design and test of a portable Gamma-Ray Burst simulator for GECAM

Abstract

The main scientific goal of the Gravitational wave high-energy Electromagnetic Counterpart All-sky Monitor (GECAM) is to monitor various types of Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRB) originated from merger of binary compact stars, which could also produce gravitational wave, and collapse of massive stars. In order to study the response of GECAM Gamma-Ray Detectors (GRDs) to high-energy bursts and test the in-flight trigger and localization software of GECAM before the launch, a portable GRB simulator device is designed and implemented based on grid controlled X-ray tube (GCXT) and direct digital synthesis (DDS) technologies. The design of this GRB simulator which modulates X-ray flux powered by high voltage up to 20 kV is demonstrated, and the time jitter (FWHM) of the device is about 0.9 $\mu$s. Before the launch in December, 2020, both two GECAM satellites were irradiated by different types of GRBs (including short and long bursts in duration) generated by this GRB simulator. The light curves detected with GECAM/GRDs are consistent with the programmed input functions within statistical uncertainties, indicating the good performance of both the GRDs and the GRB simulator.

arXiv comment15 pages, 12 figures, accepted to be published in Experimental Astronomy on 09 July 2021

References in corpus (13)

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• Pulse Width Evolution of Late Time X-rays Flares in GRBs: Evidence For Internal Shocks

Cited by in corpus (4)

• The 100-m X-ray Test Facility at IHEP
• CubeSats for Gamma-Ray Astronomy
• The Second Catalog of Interplanetary Network Localizations of Konus Short Duration Gamma-Ray Bursts
• Pulsar and Magnetar Navigation with Fermi/GBM and GECAM