High-Resolution X-ray Spectroscopy

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA's XMM-Newton Observatory have been the pioneering satellites for studying the Universe with X-rays and the cornerstone of X-ray spectroscopy since their launches more than 20 years ago. The onboard gratings provide us a unique opportunity to distinguish individual spectral lines from different atoms thanks to their high energy resolutions. Enormous discoveries have been achieved by these two missions when observing a variety of X-ray-emitting astronomical objects, such as black holes, supernova remnants, clusters of galaxies, and stars. However, the data are limited to fairly bright X-ray sources. The recent JAXA's mission Hitomi opened a new window of high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy thanks to its onboard X-ray calorimeter. Although this mission was shortly terminated due to a mishap, Hitomi left behind a few sets of observations awaiting more data mining. The first half of this book introduces the history of high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy and different generations of X-ray spectrometers. A tutorial guide on how to reduce, analyze, and understand the astronomical data from Chandra, XMM-Newton, and Hitomi is also included. The second half of the book reviews past results obtained by the high-resolution spectrometers on these missions on multiple topics and discusses possible discoveries by upcoming missions in the next decade.

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA's XMM-Newton Observatory have been the pioneering satellites for studying the Universe with X-rays and the cornerstone of X-ray spectroscopy since their launches more than 20 years ago. The onboard gratings provide us a unique opportunity to distinguish individual spectral lines from different atoms thanks to their high energy resolutions. Enormous discoveries have been achieved by these two missions when observing a variety of X-ray-emitting astronomical objects, such as black holes, supernova remnants, clusters of galaxies, and stars. However, the data are limited to fairly bright X-ray sources. The recent JAXA's mission Hitomi opened a new window of high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy thanks to its onboard X-ray calorimeter. Although this mission was shortly terminated due to a mishap, Hitomi left behind a few sets of observations awaiting more data mining. 

Part I: Instrumentation and data analysis.- 1. History, present and future of high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy .- 2. X-ray Diffraction Grating Spectrometers .- 3. XMM-Newton grating .- - Introduction to RGS.- - Data reduction for RGS data.- 4. Chandra grating.- - Introduction to LETG/HETG.- - Data reduction for Chandra data.- 5. High-resolution grating spectral analysis .- - Statistics and spectral grouping.- - Line search.- - Spectral analysis with SPEX.- 6. Micro-calorimeters with transition edge sensors .- 7. Hitomi micro-calorimeter .- - Introduction to the micro-calorimeter on Hitomi.- - Data reduction for SXT data.- 8. High-resolution spectral analysis of Hitomi data.- Part II: Science.- 9. Overview of astrophysical plasmas.- 10. Clusters of galaxies.- 11. Active galactic nuclei.- 12. Circumgalactic and intergalactic medium.- 13. Solar wind and charge exchange.- 14. Galactic black hole X-ray binaries.- 15. Supernova remnants.- 16. Galactic cataclysmic variables.- 17. Dynamics of gas and plasma in cool and hot stars