Notes of the 20th teleconference of the IACHEC Working Group Chairs WebEX 10 February 2015 Participants: V.Burwitz (VB), A.Foster (AP), C.Grant (CG), M.Guainazzi (MG), V.Kashyap (VP), X.Li (XL), E.Miller (EM), H.Marshall (HM), L.Natalucci (LN), J.Nevalainen (JN), P.Plucinsky (PP), S.Zhang (SZ) Apologies: Y.Terada (YT) 1. IACHEC meeting logistics --------------------------- 12 non-local colleagues have registered so far. It's the right time to send the usual reminder. ACTION 150210/1 on MG: Send a reminder on the IACHEC registration through the IACHEC mailing list Deadline: 13/2/2015 The procedure for the request of letters of invitation to CAS has been clarified, and it should be faster now. However, prospective participants should send their applications as soon as possible (this has to be made clear in the reminder as well). 2. Activity of the WGs, and goals for the next meeting ------------------------------------------------------ WD and INS: . Analysis of a long Chandra/LETG observation of RXJ1856-3754, and comparison with an older (2001) observation of the same target. This experiment could of interest for the IACHEC community as a whole. A presentation to the plenary and/or to other WGs (contamination, effective area ...) could be envisaged . WD is co-Chair of the ATHENA inter-calibration WG (together with S.Sembay). A presentation on the scopes of this group may be of interest for the IACHEC community Thermal SNR . More work to refine the Chandra contamination model, that uses 1E0102-72 as a verification target . The paper on 1E0102-72 has been enriched with analysis on the EPIC-MOS and Suzaku/XIS contamination history. It should be wrapped-up for publication at the IACHEC meeting . MG (M.Smith) and PP will discuss off-line the extent of the improvement on the energy scale of EPIC-pn double events with SASv14 Non-Thermal SNR . Simultaneous INTEGRAL/NuSTAR/XMM-Newton observation of the Crab Nebula in September 2014 (6 hours of EPIC-pn/Burst Mode exposure time). A specific paper on this observation is being prepared . The Crab "historical" (with observations until 2011) paper is still in the making. NuSTAR is willing to join by adding recent observations and INTEGRAL will make it too (still to be checked for Suzaku) . The status of the NuSTAR paper on G21.5-0.9 is unknown, to be investigated High-resolution . A list of lines from various objects is being compiled. It will be discussed at the IACHEC meeting Heritage . A Research Note for the Instrument & Method section of A&A is being being written on X-ray in-flight calibration. The goal is submitting it about one month before the IACHEC meeting, to have the referee report available hopefully by the meeting . The expert consultation to draft a IACHEC White Paper on photo-electric absorption, cross-section, abundances, and thermal collisionally ionized plasma model has been started. The goal is to write a draft of the WP by mid-March, and discuss/approve it at the IACHEC meeting . The compilation of calibration documentation (to be ultimately posted on the WG Wiki) is still largely incomplete. Lost of inputs from Chandra, nothing from other missions Effective area . Chandra/XMM-Newton cross-calibration paper with blazar: interesting discoveries on the impact of chi-squared versus Cash statistics on the determination of the broad-band fluxes will be presented at the IACHEC . A new cross-calibration campaign on 3C273 (Chandra/Swift/NuSTAR/XMM-Newton), as agreed at the IACHEC 2014, has just started . The paper on the PKS2155-304 (led by K.Madsen) is in an unknown state. To be investigated ACTION 150203/2 on HM: send MG a list of possible power-law AGN for broad-band calibration, that could be weak enough not to be affected by pile-up in the ASTRO-H SXI (~1 mCrab), but at the same time hard enough to provide sufficient signal in the HXI band Contamination . A teleconference to be held soon to resume work . Main goal for the IACHEC meeting: write the skeleton of a WP on contamination, and assign tasks for each section . Work on a paper on the history of Suzaku contamination started Galaxy cluster . Chandra/XMM-Newton paper by Schellenberg published . Results used for another paper on cluster mass determination, published . Work of the NuSTAR vs. XMM-Newton comparison on Coma, complicated by the intricacies of the NuSTAR effective area for extended sources . Main goals for the IACHEC: - advance on the multi-mission archive paper - organize a session on X-ray determination of galaxy cluster masses, to understand: a) where we stand as far as the differences between Chandra/ACIS and XMM-Newton/EPIC are concerned; b) whether the cosmological implications can be used as a gauge for absolute effective area calibration. 8 colleagues will attend, either in person or remotely JN to contact XL/SZ for the technical logistics. CCD . A teleconference to be held soon to resume work . Scope extended to cover NICER and NuSTAR detectors . CG cannot attend the IACHEC. She will arrange for another WG member to lead the WG meeting, and report the conclusions in the final plenary session Calibration uncertainties . E-mails will be sent to the WG participants to find out the status of various planned activities . Paper on "A Fully Bayesian Method for Jointly Fitting Instrumental Calibration and X-Ray Spectral Models" published (ApJ, 794, 97) . J.Drake may release his code for effective area generation shortly ACTION150210/3 on MG: contact AF, VK, and HM after the registration deadline and before the next teleconference to discuss the organization of the special sessions Deadline: 15 March 2015 Invited speakers for the IACHEC ------------------------------- - SS will contact D.van Dyk (copy AF and VK) for the session on "Data challenges for high-resolution spectroscopy" -> SUPERSEDED by VK contacts with Xiao-Li Meng - LN will contact the colleagues of the Athena "Inter-calibration" Working Group -> DONE - MG will contact the ASTRO-H Calibration Advisory Board, as well as the eRosita and Astrosat missions for "In-Flight Calibration Plans for future mission" session -> DONE. No answer from Astrosat, MG will ask the ASTRO-H Instrument Teams again at the next calibration meeting in the first week of March - MG will coordinate with JN an invitation to the research teams, who have worked on comparing the galaxy cluster mass determination with Chandra/ACIS and XMM-Newton/EPIC -> DONE (see above) - EM and PP will contact research teams involved in the detection of unidentified lines at ~3.something keV -> DONE. A.Foster will present the EPIC/ACIS paper, EM will ask again Tamura-san if an author of the Suzaku paper can come - SS will contact A.Read on the axion paper, as well as to transmit an invitation to the FP7 ExtraS project -> UNKNOWN, MG will follow-up Next meeting ------------ After the registration deadline, to finalize the science program. A Doodle will be circulated.