Studying the Cosmic Xray Background with XMMNewton.pdfVIP

1 STUDYING THE COSMIC X-RAY BACKGROUND WITH XMM-NEWTON. A. De Luca1,2 and S. Molendi1 1Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica, Via Bassini 15, I-20133 Milano, Italy 2Universit`a di Milano Bicocca, Dipartimento di Fisica, Piazza della Scienza 3, I-20126 Milano, Italy 2 0 Abstract range (0.2÷12 keV) and a wide field of view (≈ 15 ar- 0 We present a work in progress aimed at measuring the cmin radius). However these cameras suffer a rather high 2 spectrum of the Cosmic X-ray Background (CXB) with instrumental background (Non X-ray Background, NXB). b the EPIC detectors onboard XMM-Newton. Our study in- A correct characterization and subtraction of the NXB e component is thus the crucial step in order to study the F cludes a detailed characterization of the EPIC non X-ray lowest surface brighteness source of the sky. background, which is crucial in making a robust measure- 6 In this work we deal only with the EPIC MOS cameras; 2 ment of the spectrum of CXB. We present preliminary the pn camera, having different characteristics, will require results, based on the analysis of a set of Commissioning a different approach. 1 and Performance Verification high galactic latitude obser- v vations. 0 8 2. Characterization of Non X-ray Background 4 Key words: X-rays: diffuse background The EPIC NXB can be divided into two p