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Session 8 - The X-Ray Background.
Display session, Monday, January 13
Metropolitan Ballroom,
The CUBIC instrument is ideally suited to observing extended diffuse X-ray emission of scale size a few degrees, while daily observations of the North Ecliptic Pole allow detailed modelling and subtraction of the long-term and short-term changes in the non-instrumental background. We expect the CCD spectra from the Vela-Puppis region to be a complicated blend of the two SNRs including different phases from within each remnant. The angular resolution will not be sufficient to completely separate the Vela and Puppis SNRs but because the interstellar column to Puppis is much larger, the spectra will also be separated within the energy band of the detector. The region is bright and will yield excellent statistics allowing spectral fitting involving many free parameters. It is expected that non-equilibrium plasma models will be required to fit the observed lines and continuum. Direct comparison, without fitting, between the SNRs, the NEP diffuse background spectrum and the surrounding galactic background spectrum will also be possible. The CUBIC data will be complementary to existing higher spatial but lower spectral resolution observations made with the ROSAT PSPC and WFC. Comparison with these data will be crucial to the interpretation of the integrated spectrum.
