[Astro] Lunch talks next week

[Joseph Butler]

Hi all,

Next week we will be having two lunch talks - the first will be at 1pm on Monday (17/11/25) in A113, and will be given by Esin Gulbahar, a first-year PhD student visiting from FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg (Germany). The second will be in our usual 1pm slot on Thursday (20/11/25) in A113, and will be given by Helen Russell. Title and abstracts for both are below.

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Monday 17/11/25 - Esin Gulbahar

Title: The SIXTE Simulator

Abstract: SIXTE (Simulation of X-ray Telescopes) is a modular end-to-end software package for X-ray telescope observation simulations developed at the Remeis Observatory (ECAP). It allows to undertake instrument performance analyses and to produce simulated event files for mission and analysis studies. The software simulates the full detection chain from the astrophysical source through imaging and detection while finding a balance between exactness of the simulation and speed. For many cases, by using calibration files such as the PSF, RMF and ARF, efficient simulations are possible at comparably high speed, even though they include nonlinear effects such as pileup. In this talk I will give an introduction to the software, while demonstrating example usage of SIXTE in High Energy Astrophysics.

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Thursday 20/11/25 - Helen Russell

Title: XRISM's first results

Abstract: The X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) was launched by JAXA and NASA in late 2023.  XRISM carries onboard the next generation of X-ray instrumentation - the X-ray microcalorimeter.  With nearly two orders of magnitude improvement in spectral resolution over current CCD spectroscopy, XRISM is now revealing the dynamics of hot atmospheres in galaxy clusters.  I will review the first results from the performance verification phase and present our Cycle 1 observations of gas motions driven by AGN feedback in the Ophiuchus cluster.

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Thanks,
Joe

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