2002/10/30 by J. R. Peterson, Peterson, J. R., J. G. Jernigan +3
Decision Sciences · Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Calibration and Measurement Techniques #Scientific Measurement and Uncertainty Evaluation #X-ray Spectroscopy and Fluorescence Analysis #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0210664
12 pages, 11 figures, Contribution for Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation, August 2002, Waikoloa, HI, SPIE Vol. 4847, Printed with the permission of SPIE
arxiv created 2002/10/30 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
We discuss multivariate Monte Carlo methods appropriate for X-ray dispersive spectrometers. Dispersive spectrometers have many advantages for high resolution spectroscopy in the X-ray band. Analysis of data from these instruments is complicated by the fact that the instrument response functions are multi-dimensional and relatively few X-ray photons are detected from astrophysical sources. Monte Carlo methods are the natural solution to these challenges, but techniques for their use are not well developed. We describe a number of methods to produce a highly efficient and flexible multivariate Monte Carlo. These techniques include multi-dimensional response interpolation and multi-dimensional event comparison. We discuss how these methods have been extensively used in the XMM-Newton Reflection Grating Spectrometer in-flight calibration program. We also show several examples of a Monte Carlo applied to observations of clusters of galaxies and elliptical galaxies with the XMM-Newton observatory.