In-orbit timing calibration of the Insight-Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope

Abstract

We describe the timing system and the timing calibration results of the three payloads on-board the Insight-Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (Insight-HXMT). These three payloads are the High Energy X-ray telescope (HE, 20-250 keV), the Medium Energy X-ray telescope (ME, 5-30 keV) and the low Energy X-ray telescope (LE, 1-10 keV). We present a method to correct the temperature-dependent period response and the long-term variation of the on-board crystal oscillator, especially for ME that does not carry a temperature-compensated crystal oscillator. The time of arrivals (ToAs) of the Crab pulsar are measured to evaluate the accuracy of the timing system. As the ephemeris of the Crab pulsar given by Jodrell Bank observatory has systematic errors around 40 μs (Rots et al. 2014), we use the quasi-simultaneous observations of the X-ray Timing Instrument (XTI) on-board the Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) to produce the Crab ephemerides and to verify the timing system of Insight-HXMT. The energy-dependent ToAs' offsets relative to the NICER measurements including physical and instrumental origins are about 24.7μs, 10.1μs and 864.7μs, and the systematic errors of the timing system are determined as 12.1μs, 8.6μs, and 15.8μs, for HE, ME and LE respectively.

arXiv comment29 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in ApJS

References in corpus (13)

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• Overview to the Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (Insight-HXMT) Satellite
• Detection of Pulsed Gamma Rays Above 100 GeV from the Crab Pulsar
• The Medium Energy (ME) X-ray telescope onboard the Insight-HXMT astronomy satellite
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• NICER X-ray Observations of Seven Nearby Rotation-Powered Millisecond Pulsars
• In-orbit demonstration of X-ray pulsar navigation with the Insight-HXMT satellite
• Absolute timing with IBIS, SPI and JEM-X aboard INTEGRAL
• X-ray Phase-Resolved Spectroscopy of PSRs B0531+21, B1509-58, and B0540-69 with RXTE
• In Orbit Timing Calibration of the Hard X-Ray Detector on Board Suzaku
• Absolute timing of the Crab pulsar with the INTEGRAL/SPI telescope
• Enhanced X-ray Emission Coinciding with Giant Radio Pulses from the Crab Pulsar
• The influence of the Insight-HXMT/LE time response on timing analysis

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• Discovery of the first anti-glitch event in the rotation-powered pulsar PSR B0540-69
• Discovery of the linear energy-dependence of the spectral lag of X-ray bursts from SGR J1935+2154
• Simultaneous and panchromatic observations of the Fast Radio Burst FRB 20180916B
• Neutral Atmospheric Density Measurement Using Insight-HXMT Data by Earth Occultation Technique
• Pulsar and Magnetar Navigation with Fermi/GBM and GECAM
• In-orbit performance of LE onboard Insight-HXMT in the first 5 years
• Timing and spectral studies of SRGA J144459.2$-$604207 with NICER, Einstein Probe, IXPE, NuSTAR, Insight-HXMT and INTEGRAL during its 2024 outburst
• A simple, flexible method for timing cross-calibration of space missions
• In-flight Timing Calibration of the Follow-up X-Ray Telescope on Board the Einstein Probe