Abstract

Abstract To obtain the best possible scientific result, astronomers must understand the properties of the available instrumentation well. This is important both when designing new instruments and when using existing instruments close to the limits of their specified capabilities or beyond. Ray-tracing is a technique for numerical simulations where the path of many light rays is followed through the system to understand how individual system components influence the observed properties, such as the shape of the point-spread-function. In instrument design, such simulations can be used to optimize the performance. For observations with existing instruments, this helps to discern instrumental artefacts from a true signal. Here, we describe MARXS, a new python package designed to simulate X-ray instruments on satellites and sounding rockets. MARXS uses probability tracking of photons and has polarimetric capabilities.

Keywords

Python (programming language)Modular designRay tracing (physics)Computer scienceInstrumentation (computer programming)TracingSoftwareSystems engineeringAerospace engineeringOpticsPhysicsEngineeringProgramming language

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Publication Info

Year
2017
Type
article
Volume
154
Issue
6
Pages
243-243
Citations
24
Access
Closed

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Cite This

Hans Moritz Günther, Jason Frost, Adam Theriault-Shay (2017). MARXS: A Modular Software to Ray-trace X-Ray Instrumentation. The Astronomical Journal , 154 (6) , 243-243. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/aa943b

Identifiers

DOI
10.3847/1538-3881/aa943b
arXiv
1710.05226

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Data completeness: 84%