Related papers: Proportional counters and microchannel plates
Astrometry as a technique has so far proved of limited utility when employed as either a follow-up tool or to independently search for planetary mass companions orbiting nearby stars. However, this is bound to change during the next decade.…
The Spherical gaseous detector (or Spherical Proportional Counter, SPC) has a broad range of applications. In this work, we will focus on the light WIMP Dark Matter particle search, that is, below a few GeV. The NEWS-G collaboration…
(ABRIDGED) This dissertation concerns the use of CCDs for for X-ray astronomy. Part I of this thesis focuses on the calibration of the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS), one of the two primary focal plane instruments on the Chandra…
Interferometry provides one of the possible routes to ultra-high angular resolution for X-ray and gamma-ray astronomy. Sub-micro-arc-second angular resolution, necessary to achieve objectives such as imaging the regions around the event…
A centenary after the invention of the basic principle of gas amplification, gaseous detectors - are still the first choice whenever the large area coverage with low material budget is required. Advances in photo-lithography and…
The Gas Pixel Detector was designed and built as a focal plane instrument for X-ray polarimetry of celestial sources, the last unexplored subtopics of X-ray astronomy. It promises to perform detailed and sensitive measurements resolving…
We examine the performance of a TPC as a gamma-ray telescope above the pair-creation threshold. The contributions to the photon angular resolution are studied and their dependence on energy is obtained. The effective area per detector unit…
Since the first microlensing planet discovery in 2003, more than 200 planets have been detected with gravitational microlensing, in addition to several free-floating planet and black hole candidates. In this chapter the microlensing theory…
The applications of Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) have recently been extended by the development of counters with time resolution below 100 ps sigma for minimum ionising particles. Applications to HEP experiments have already taken place…
Micro-channel plate (MCP) detectors, when used at pulsed-neutron-source instruments, offer the possibility of high spatial resolution and high contrast imaging with pixel-level spectroscopic information. Here we demonstrate the possibility…
X-ray astronomy is a mature area of observational astronomy. After the discovery of the first non-solar X-ray source in 1962, X-ray astronomy proliferated during the Apollo era's space race. Then, it matured as an established area of…
Within 40 years of the detection of the first extrasolar X-ray source in 1962,NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has achieved an increase in sensitivity of 10 orders of magnitude, comparable to the gain in going from naked-eye observations to…
The development of the first X-ray polarimeter, based on the photoelectric effect 20 years ago and implemented thanks to advances in gas amplification structures and readout techniques, had a significant impact in opening a new window for…
The launch of several sensitive X-ray and gamma-ray instruments during the last decade heralded a new era in the research of millisecond pulsars. The current number of millisecond pulsars detected in the X-ray spectral window is about 30,…
In the last decade, several new imaging gaseous detectors, called micro-pattern gaseous detectors, have been conceived and rapidly developed. In this paper, the most popular designs of these detectors and their applications to high energy…
For its physics program with a high-intensity hadron beam of up to 2e7 particles/s, the COMPASS experiment at CERN requires tracking of charged particles scattered by very small angles with respect to the incident beam direction. While good…
The detection, in 1998, of the first Accreting Millisecond Pulsar, started an exciting season of continuing discoveries in the fashinating field of compact binary systems harbouring a neutron star. Indeed, in these last three lustres,…
X-ray observatories contribute fundamental advances in Solar System studies by probing Sun-object interactions, developing planet and satellite surface composition maps, probing global magnetospheric dynamics, and tracking astrochemical…
The discovery of X-ray emission from cosmic sources in the 1960s has opened a new powerful observing window on the Universe. In fact, the exploration of the X-ray sky during the 70s-90s has established X-ray astronomy as a fundamental field…
A tracking detector system has been constructed with an innovative approach to the classical multi-wire proportional chamber concept, using contemporary technologies. The detectors, covering an area of 0.58 square meters each, are optimized…