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

Kenneth S. K. Lum·Joseph J. Mohr·Didier Barret·Jonathan E. Grindlay·Raj P. Manandhar
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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$^{-1}$.

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Kenneth S. K. Lum, Joseph J. Mohr, Didier Barret, Jonathan E. Grindlay, Raj P. Manandhar. 1997-12-31. Simulations and Measurements of the Background Encountered by a High-Altitude Balloon-Borne Experiment for Hard X-ray Astronomy. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0168-9002(97)00785-7

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