Simulations and Measurements of the Background Encountered by a High-Altitude Balloon-Borne Experiment for Hard X-ray Astronomy

Abstract

We have modelled the hard X-ray background expected for a high-altitude balloon flight of the Energetic X-ray Telescope Experiment (EXITE2), an imaging phoswich detector/telescope for the 20--600 keV energy range. Photon and neutron-induced contributions to the background are considered. We describe the code and the results of a series of simulations with different shielding configurations. The simulated hard X-ray background for the actual flight configuration agrees reasonably well (within a factor of $\sim$ 2) with the results measured on the first flight of EXITE2 from Palestine, Texas. The measured background flux at 100 keV is $\sim$ 4 $\times$ 10${}^{-4}$ counts cm${}^{-2}$ s${}^{-1}$ keV${}^{-1}$.

arXiv comment17 pages Latex (uses aaspp4.sty) plus 7 postscript figures: available in file figs.tar.gz

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