arXiv subjects

Didier Barret

Publications and source records attributed to Didier Barret.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Future Detections of the Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medium using Bright Power Law Sources with NewAthena

Context. Hydrodynamical cosmological simulations based on the $\Lambda$-Cold Dark Matter ($\Lambda$CDM) model predict that $\sim$40% of the baryons in the local Universe are missing. These missing baryons are predicted to lie in low-density filamentary structures that trace connections between galaxies. This so-called warm-hot intergalactic medium (WHIM) is predicted to be observable in the far-ultraviolet (FUV) and soft X-ray regimes, and detectable in ion species with transitions in these bands. Aims. We investigate the capability of the X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU) on NewAthena to detect this WHIM through O vii absorption lines imprinted on bright power-law sources in soft X-rays (0.3-1.0 keV) by examining the parameter space of different observing conditions. Methods. Through advanced simulations of the X-IFU detector, a multidimensional approach is taken to investigate the relationship between source parameters and their impacts on the significance of detection of a single absorption feature. By first studying the effect of line placement (redshift) for an observation of fixed length, followed by varying the observation length, the required counts for 3$\sigma$ and 5$\sigma$ detections are calculated for various photon indices and local Galactic absorptions. The rest-frame equivalent widths of the imprinted absorption features are then varied, and the same requirements are calculated for each line strength. Results. We discuss the detection and recovery of the imprinted WHIM features. Another method is used to derive count requirements for detecting these features at different levels of significance, which is then compared to the previously obtained requirements. Using publicly available data from the Swift archives, various non-transient sources are analysed for their suitability to detect WHIM features in absorption.

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arXiv2026

SF2A Environmental Transition Commission: Summary of the 2025 workshop

During its annual conference in 2025, the French Society of Astronomy \& Astrophysics (SF2A) hosted, for the fifth time, a special session dedicated to discussing the environmental transition within the French A\&A research community. During the 2025 workshop, the goal was to review four contemporary topics within the context of environmental transition actions and discussions: (1) institutional actions, (2) the early-career researchers singularity, (3) research infrastructures and tools, and (4) the geopolitical conditions under which A\&A research remains possible. The workshop concluded with a round-table discussion that brought together the various speakers so that every participant could express their ideas.

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arXiv2025

Simulation-based inference with neural posterior estimation applied to X-ray spectral fitting -- III Deriving exact posteriors with dimension reduction and importance sampling

Simulation-based inference (SBI) with neural posterior estimation (NPE) provides rapid X-ray spectral fitting in both Gaussian and Poisson regimes by learning approximate parameter posteriors from simulations. We investigate auto-encoders for compressing high-resolution X-ray spectra, motivated by newAthena X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU), and use likelihood-based importance sampling to refine NPE outputs. Our auto-encoder maps spectra to a low-dimensional latent space and is trained with a custom loss equal to the Cash statistic (C-stat) between simulated and reconstructed spectra. A neural density estimator is then trained on the latent representations. Both models are trained in multiple rounds: at each round, new simulations are drawn from a truncated proposal concentrated around the observation, improving efficiency as the proposal contracts. After NPE convergence, we apply likelihood-based importance sampling to correct the learned posterior. To assess information retention, we train a diagnostic network that predicts the original spectral parameters from the latent space, and we also train a network to learn the likelihood directly to accelerate importance sampling. On X-IFU-like simulations, the auto-encoder and multi-round NPE outperforms PCA and hand-crafted spectral summaries in accuracy and robustness. After importance sampling, the resulting posteriors are statistically indistinguishable from those obtained with nested sampling. On a standard laptop, the full pipeline (simulation, compression, inference, correction) delivers 10x speedups. We further demonstrate the approach on XRISM/Resolve and on lower-resolution NICER and XMM-Newton EPIC-pn data, confirming applicability across instruments and resolutions. Overall, NPE on compressed spectra paired with likelihood-based importance sampling offers an exact yet efficient alternative for Bayesian X-ray spectral fitting.

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arXiv2025

Ground calibration plan for the Athena/X-IFU microcalorimeter spectrometer

The X-ray Integral Field Unit is the X-ray imaging spectrometer on-board one of ESA's next large missions, Athena. Athena is set to investigate the theme of the Hot and Energetic Universe, with a launch planned in the late-2030s. Based on a high sensitivity Transition Edge Sensor (TES) detector array operated at very low temperature (50 mK), X-IFU will provide spatially resolved high resolution spectroscopy of the X-ray sky in the 0.2-12 keV energy band, with an energy resolution goal of 4 eV up to 7 keV [3 eV design goal]. This paper presents the current calibration plan of the X-IFU. It provides the requirements applicable to the X-IFU calibration, describes the overall calibration strategy, and details the procedure and sources needed for the ground calibration of each parameter or characteristics of the X-IFU.

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arXiv2025

Simulation-based inference with neural posterior estimation applied to X-ray spectral fitting II -- High-resolution spectroscopy with the X-ray Integral Field Unit

X-ray spectral fitting in high-energy astrophysics can be reliably accelerated using Machine Learning. In particular, Simulation-based Inference (SBI) produces accurate posterior distributions in the Gaussian and Poisson regime for low-resolution spectra, much faster than other exact approaches such as Monte Carlo Markov Chains or Nested Sampling. We now aim to highlight the capabilities of SBI for high-resolution spectra, as what will be provided by the newAthena X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU). The large number of channels encourages us to use compressed representations of the spectra, taking advantage of the likelihood-free inference aspect of SBI. Two compression schemes are explored, using either simple summary statistics, such as the counts in arbitrary bins or ratios between these bins. We benchmark the efficiency of these approaches using simulated X-IFU spectra with various spectral models, including smooth comptonised spectra, relativistic reflexion models and plasma emission models. We find that using simple and meaningful summary statistics is much more efficient than working directly with the full spectrum, and can derive posterior distributions comparable to those from exact computation using nested sampling. Multi-round inference converges quickly to the good solution. Amortized single round inference requires more simulations, hence longer training time, but can be used to infer model parameters from many observations afterwards. Information from the emission lines must be accounted for using dedicated summary statistics. SBI for X-ray spectral fitting is a robust technique that delivers well calibrated posteriors. This approach shows great promises for high-resolution spectra, offering its potential for the scientific exploitation of the X-IFU. We now plan to apply it to the current era of high-resolution telescopes, and further challenge this approach with real data.

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arXiv2025

Towards sustainable space research in France

During the 2024's quinquennial scientific roadmap of CNES, a specific group worked on setting recommendations to decrease the environmental footprint of space science activities. This correspondence to Nature Astronomy highlights the efforts of the french space research to move towards sustainability. It relies on two complementary methods: decarbonisation and frugality.

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arXiv2025

The X-ray Integral Field Unit at the end of the Athena reformulation phase

The Athena mission entered a redefinition phase in July 2022, driven by the imperative to reduce the mission cost at completion for the European Space Agency below an acceptable target, while maintaining the flagship nature of its science return. This notably called for a complete redesign of the X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU) cryogenic architecture towards a simpler active cooling chain. Passive cooling via successive radiative panels at spacecraft level is now used to provide a 50 K thermal environment to an X-IFU owned cryostat. 4.5 K cooling is achieved via a single remote active cryocooler unit, while a multi-stage Adiabatic Demagnetization Refrigerator ensures heat lift down to the 50 mK required by the detectors. Amidst these changes, the core concept of the readout chain remains robust, employing Transition Edge Sensor microcalorimeters and a SQUID-based Time-Division Multiplexing scheme. Noteworthy is the introduction of a slower pixel. This enables an increase in the multiplexing factor (from 34 to 48) without compromising the instrument energy resolution, hence keeping significant system margins to the new 4 eV resolution requirement. This allows reducing the number of channels by more than a factor two, and thus the resource demands on the system, while keeping a 4' field of view (compared to 5' before). In this article, we will give an overview of this new architecture, before detailing its anticipated performances. Finally, we will present the new X-IFU schedule, with its short term focus on demonstration activities towards a mission adoption in early 2027.

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arXiv2024

jaxspec : a fast and robust Python library for X-ray spectral fitting

Context. Inferring spectral parameters from X-ray data is one of the cornerstones of high-energy astrophysics, and is achieved using software stacks that have been developed over the last twenty years and more. However, as models get more complex and spectra reach higher resolutions, these established software solutions become more feature-heavy, difficult to maintain and less efficient. Aims. We present jaxspec, a Python package for performing this task quickly and robustly in a fully Bayesian framework. Based on the JAX ecosystem, jaxspec allows the generation of differentiable likelihood functions compilable on core or graphical process units (resp. CPU and GPU), enabling the use of robust algorithms for Bayesian inference. Methods. We demonstrate the effectiveness of jaxspec samplers, in particular the No U-Turn Sampler, using a composite model and comparing what we obtain with the existing frameworks. We also demonstrate its ability to process high-resolution spectroscopy data and using original methods, by reproducing the results of the Hitomi collaboration on the Perseus cluster, while solving the inference problem using variational inference on a GPU. Results. We obtain identical results when compared to other softwares and approaches, meaning that jaxspec provides reliable results while being $\sim 10$ times faster than existing alternatives. In addition, we show that variational inference can produce convincing results even on high-resolution data in less than 10 minutes on a GPU. Conclusions. With this package, we aim to pursue the goal of opening up X-ray spectroscopy to the existing ecosystem of machine learning and Bayesian inference, enabling researchers to apply new methods to solve increasingly complex problems in the best possible way. Our long-term ambition is the scientific exploitation of the data from the newAthena X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU).

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arXiv2024

A systematic study of the ultra-fast outflow responses to luminosity variations in active galactic nuclei

The extreme velocities and high ionization states of ultra-fast outflows (UFOs) make them a promising candidate for AGN feedback on the evolution of the host galaxy. However, their exact underlying driving mechanism is not yet fully understood. Given that the variability of UFOs may be used to distinguish among different launching mechanisms, we aim to search for and characterize the responses of the UFO properties to the variable irradiating luminosity. We performed a high-resolution spectroscopy of archival XMM-Newton observations on six highly-accreting NLS1 galaxies. The state-of-the-art methods of the blind Gaussian line scan and photoionization model scan are used to identify UFO solutions. We search for ionized winds and investigate the structure of ionized winds and their responses to the luminosity variations. The powerful photoionization model scan reveals three previously unreported UFOs in RE J1034+396, PG 1244+026 and I ZW 1, and two new WAs in RE J1034+396. The entrained UFOs are discovered in 4 (66%) AGN, supporting the shocked outflow interpretation for AGN ionized winds. 2 out of 7 (28%) UFOs seem to respond to the continuum and 3 (43%) UFOs hint at a radiatively accelerated nature. Combined with published works, we do not find any correlations between UFO responses and AGN properties except for a tentative ($\sim1.8\sigma$) anti-correlation between the UFO acceleration and the Eddington ratio, to be confirmed by further observations and an enlarged sample. The kinetic energy of UFOs, mostly detected in soft X-rays, is found to have a large uncertainty. We, therefore, cannot conclude whether soft X-ray UFOs have sufficient energy to drive the AGN feedback, although they are very promising based on some reasonable assumptions.

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arXiv2024

Life Cycle Assessment of the Athena X-ray Integral Field Unit

The X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU) is the high-resolution X-ray spectrometer to fly on board the Athena Space Observatory of the European Space Agency (ESA). It is being developed by an international Consortium led by France, involving twelve ESA member states, plus the United States. It is a cryogenic instrument, involving state of the art technology, such as micro-calorimeters, to be read out by low noise electronics. As the instrument was undergoing its system requirement review (in 2022), a life cycle assessment (LCA) was performed to estimate the environmental impacts associated with the development of the sub-systems that were under the responsibility of the X-IFU Consortium. The assessment included the supply, manufacturing and testing of sub systems, as well as involved logistics and manpower. We find that the most significant environmental impacts arise from testing activities, which is related to energy consumption in clean rooms, office work, which is related to energy consumption in office buildings, and instrument manufacturing, which is related to the use of mineral and metal resources. Furthermore, business travels is another area of concern, despite the policy to reduced flying adopted by the Consortium. As the instrument is now being redesigned to fit within the new boundaries set by ESA, the LCA will be updated, with a focus on the hot spots identified in the first iteration. The new configuration, consolidated in 2023, is significantly different from the previously studied version and is marked by an increase of the perimeter of responsibility for the Consortium. This will need to be folded in the updated LCA, keeping the ambition to reduce the environmental footprint of X-IFU, while complying with its stringent requirements in terms of performance and risk management.

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arXiv2024

Simulation-Based Inference with Neural Posterior Estimation applied to X-ray spectral fitting: Demonstration of working principles down to the Poisson regime

Neural networks are being extensively used for modelling data, especially in the case where no likelihood can be formulated. Although in the case of X-ray spectral fitting, the likelihood is known, we aim to investigate the neural networks ability to recover the model parameters but also their associated uncertainties, and compare its performance with standard X-ray spectral fitting, whether following a frequentist or Bayesian approach. We apply Simulation-Based Inference with Neural Posterior Estimation (SBI-NPE) to X-ray spectra. We train a network with simulated spectra, and then it learns the mapping between the simulated spectra and their parameters and returns the posterior distribution. The model parameters are sampled from a predefined prior distribution. To maximize the efficiency of the training of the neural network, yet limiting the size of the training sample to speed up the inference, we introduce a way to reduce the range of the priors, either through a classifier or a coarse and quick inference of one or multiple observations. SBI-NPE is demonstrated to work equally well as standard X-ray spectral fitting, both in the Gaussian and Poisson regimes, both on simulated and real data, yielding fully consistent results in terms of best fit parameters and posterior distributions. The inference time is comparable to or smaller than the one needed for Bayesian inference. On the other hand, once properly trained, an amortized SBI-NPE network generates the posterior distributions in no time. We show that SBI-NPE is less sensitive to local minima trapping than standard fit statistic minimization techniques. We find that the neural network can be trained equally well on dimension-reduced spectra, via a Principal Component Decomposition, leading to a shorter inference time. Neural posterior estimation thus adds up as a complementary tool for X-ray spectral fitting (abridged).

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arXiv2023

Environmental transition: overview of actions to reduce the environmental footprint of astronomy

To keep current global warming below 1.5°C compared with the pre-industrial era, measures must be taken as quickly as possible in all spheres of society. Astronomy must also make its contribution. In this proceeding, and during the workshop to which it refers, different levers of actions are discussed through various examples: individual efforts, laboratory-level actions, impact evaluation and mitigation in major projects, institutional level, and involvement through collectives.

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arXiv2023

Tidal disruption events and quasi periodic eruptions

Tidal disruption events (TDEs) occur when a star passes close to a massive black hole, so that the tidal forces of the black hole exceed the binding energy of a star and cause it to be ripped apart. Part of the matter will fall onto the black hole, causing a strong increase in the luminosity. Such events are often seen in the optical or the X-ray (or both) or even at other wavelengths such as in the radio, where the diversity of observed emission is still poorly understood. The XMM-Newton catalogue of approximately a million X-ray detections covering 1283$^2$ degrees of sky contains a number of these events. Here I will show the diverse nature of a number of TDEs discovered in the catalogue and discuss their relationship with quasi periodic eruptions.

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arXiv2023

A hard look at the X-ray spectral variability of NGC 7582

NGC 7582 (z = 0.005264; D = 22.5 Mpc) is a highly variable, changing-look AGN. In this work, we explore the X-ray properties of this source using XMM-Newton and NuSTAR archival observations in the 3-40 keV range, from 2001 to 2016. NGC 7582 exhibits a long-term variability between observations but also a short-term variability in two observations that has not been studied before. To study the variability, we perform a time-resolved spectral analysis using a phenomenological model and a physically-motivated model (uxclumpy). The spectral fitting is achieved using a nested sampling Monte Carlo method. uxclumpy enables testing various geometries of the absorber that may fit AGN spectra. We find that the best model is composed of a fully covering clumpy absorber. From this geometry, we estimate the velocity, size and distance of the clumps. The column density of the absorber in the line of sight varies from Compton-thin to Compton-thick between observations. Variability over the timescale of a few tens of kilo-seconds is also observed within two observations. The obscuring clouds are consistent with being located at a distance not larger than 0.6 pc, moving with a transverse velocity exceeding $\sim 700$ km s$^{-1}$. We could put only a lower limit on the size of the obscuring cloud being larger than $10^{13}$ cm. Given the sparsity of the observations, and the limited exposure time per observation available, we cannot determine the exact structure of the obscuring clouds. The results are broadly consistent with comet-like obscuring clouds or spherical clouds with a non-uniform density profile.

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arXiv2023

XMM2ATHENA, the H2020 project to improve XMM-Newton analysis software and prepare for Athena

XMM-Newton, a European Space Agency observatory, has been observing the X-ray, ultra-violet and optical sky for 23 years. During this time, astronomy has evolved from mainly studying single sources to populations and from a single wavelength, to multi-wavelength or messenger data. We are also moving into an era of time domain astronomy. New software and methods are required to accompany evolving astronomy and prepare for the next generation X-ray observatory, Athena. Here we present XMM2ATHENA, a programme funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. XMM2ATHENA builds on foundations laid by the XMM-Newton Survey Science Centre (XMM-SSC), including key members of this consortium and the Athena Science ground segment, along with members of the X-ray community. The project is developing and testing new methods and software to allow the community to follow the X-ray transient sky in quasi-real time, identify multi-wavelength or messenger counterparts of XMM-Newton sources and determine their nature using machine learning. We detail here the first milestone delivery of the project, a new online, sensitivity estimator. We also outline other products, including the forthcoming innovative stacking procedure and detection algorithms to detect the faintest sources. These tools will then be adapted for Athena and the newly detected or identified sources will enhance preparation for observing the Athena X-ray sky.

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arXiv2022

The Athena X-ray Integral Field Unit: a consolidated design for the system requirement review of the preliminary definition phase

The Athena X-ray Integral Unit (X-IFU) is the high resolution X-ray spectrometer, studied since 2015 for flying in the mid-30s on the Athena space X-ray Observatory, a versatile observatory designed to address the Hot and Energetic Universe science theme, selected in November 2013 by the Survey Science Committee. Based on a large format array of Transition Edge Sensors (TES), it aims to provide spatially resolved X-ray spectroscopy, with a spectral resolution of 2.5 eV (up to 7 keV) over an hexagonal field of view of 5 arc minutes (equivalent diameter). The X-IFU entered its System Requirement Review (SRR) in June 2022, at about the same time when ESA called for an overall X-IFU redesign (including the X-IFU cryostat and the cooling chain), due to an unanticipated cost overrun of Athena. In this paper, after illustrating the breakthrough capabilities of the X-IFU, we describe the instrument as presented at its SRR, browsing through all the subsystems and associated requirements. We then show the instrument budgets, with a particular emphasis on the anticipated budgets of some of its key performance parameters. Finally we briefly discuss on the ongoing key technology demonstration activities, the calibration and the activities foreseen in the X-IFU Instrument Science Center, and touch on communication and outreach activities, the consortium organisation, and finally on the life cycle assessment of X-IFU aiming at minimising the environmental footprint, associated with the development of the instrument. Thanks to the studies conducted so far on X-IFU, it is expected that along the design-to-cost exercise requested by ESA, the X-IFU will maintain flagship capabilities in spatially resolved high resolution X-ray spectroscopy, enabling most of the original X-IFU related scientific objectives of the Athena mission to be retained. (abridged).

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arXiv2022

Orbital decay in M82 X-2

M82 X-2 is the first pulsating ultraluminous X-ray source (PULX) discovered. The luminosity of these extreme pulsars, if isotropic, implies an extreme mass transfer rate. An alternative is to assume a much lower mass transfer rate, but with an apparent luminosity boosted by geometrical beaming. Only an independent measurement of the mass transfer rate can help discriminate between these two scenarios. In this Paper, we follow the orbit of the neutron star for seven years, measure the decay of the orbit ($\dot{P}_{orb}/{P}_{orb}\approx-8\cdot10^{-6}\mathrm{yr}^{-1}$), and argue that this orbital decay is driven by extreme mass transfer of more than 150 times the mass transfer limit set by the Eddington luminosity. If this is true, the mass available to the accretor is more than enough to justify its luminosity, with no need for beaming. This also strongly favors models where the accretor is a highly-magnetized neutron star.

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arXiv2022

Ejection-accretion connection in NLS1 AGN 1H 1934-063

Accretion and ejection of matter in active galactic nuclei (AGN) are tightly connected phenomena and represent fundamental mechanisms regulating the growth of the central supermassive black hole and the evolution of the host galaxy. However, the exact physical processes involved are not yet fully understood. We present a high-resolution spectral analysis of a simultaneous \xmm\ and \nustar\ observation of the narrow line Seyfert 1 (NLS1) AGN 1H 1934-063, during which the X-ray flux dropped by a factor of $\sim6$ and subsequently recovered within 140 kiloseconds. By means of the time-resolved and flux-resolved X-ray spectroscopy, we discover a potentially variable warm absorber and a relatively stable ultra-fast outflow (UFO, $v_\mathrm{UFO}\sim-0.075\,c$) with a mild ionization state ($\log(ξ/\mathrm{erg\,cm\,s^{-1})}\sim1.6$). The detected emission lines (especially a strong and broad feature around 1\,keV) are of unknown origin and cannot be explained with emission from plasmas in photo- or collisional-ionization equilibrium. Such emission lines could be well described by a strongly blueshifted ($z\sim-0.3$) secondary reflection off the base of the equatorial outflows, which may reveal the link between the reprocessing of the inner accretion flow photons and the ejection. However, this scenario although being very promising is only tentative and will be tested with future observations.

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