Context. We present the results from Suzaku of the hottest Abell galaxy cluster A2163 at z = 0.2. Aims. To study the physics of gas heating in cluster mergers, we investigated hard X-ray emission from the merging cluster A2163, which hosts the brightest synchrotron radio halo. Methods. We analyzed hard X-ray emission spectra accumulated from two-pointed Suzaku observations. Non-thermal hard X-ray emission should result from the inverse Compton scattering of relativistic electrons by photons in the cosmic microwave background. To measure this emission, the dominant thermal emission in the hard X-ray band must be modeled in detail. To this end, we analyzed the combined broadband X-ray data of A2163 collected by Suzaku and XMM-Newton, assuming single-and multi-temperature models for thermal emission and the power-law model for non-thermal emission. Comparing the non-thermal hard X-ray flux to radio synchrotron emission, we also estimated the magnetic field in the cluster. Results. From the Suzaku data, we detected significant hard X-ray emission from A2163 in the 12-60 keV band at the 28σ level (or at the 5.5σ level if a systematic error of the non-X-ray background model is considered). The Suzaku HXD spectrum alone is consistent with the single-temperature thermal model of gas temperature kT = 14 keV. From the XMM-Newton data, we constructed a multi-temperature model including a very hot (kT = 18 keV) component in the north-east region. Incorporating the multi-temperature and the power-law models into a two-component model with a radio-band photon index, where Γ = 2.18, the 12-60 keV energy flux of non-thermal emission is constrained within 5.3 ± 0.9 (±3.8) × 10 −12 erg s −1 cm −2 (the first and second errors refer to the 1σ statistical and systematic uncertainties, respectively). The 90% upper limit of detected inverse Compton emission is marginal (F NT < 1.2 × 10 −11 erg s −1 cm −2 in the 12-60 keV band). The estimated magnetic field in A2163 is B > 0.098 μG. While the present results represent a three-fold increase in the accuracy of the broadband (0.3-60 keV) spectral model of A2163, more sensitive hard X-ray observations are needed to decisively test for the presence of hard X-ray emission due to inverse Compton emission.

We are developing large TES arrays in combination with FDM readout for the next generation of X-ray space observatories. For operation under AC-bias, the TESs have to be carefully designed and optimized. In particular, the use of high aspect ratio devices will help to mitigate non-ideal behaviour due to the weak-link effect. In this paper, we present a full characterization of a TES array containing five different device geometries, with aspect ratios (width:length) ranging from 1:2 up to 1:6. The complex impedance of all geometries is measured in different bias configurations to study the evolution of the small-signal limit superconducting transition parameters α and β , as well as the excess noise. We show that high aspect ratio devices with properly tuned critical temperatures (around 90 mK) can achieve excellent energy resolution, with an array average of 2.03 ± 0.17 eV at 5.9 keV and a best achieved resolution of 1.63 ± 0.17 eV. This demonstrates that AC-biased TESs can achieve a very competitive performance compared to DC-biased TESs. The results have motivated a push to even more extreme device geometries currently in development.

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We report very-low-noise, fast-response, middle-scale multiplexing in a microwave superconducting quantum interference device multiplexer (MW-Mux) as a transition-edge sensor (TES) readout. Our MW-Mux is able to read 40 channels with 500 kHz sampling and has a low readout noise of 0.9 μΦ0/Hz (where Φ0 is the magnetic flux quantum), equivalent to 9 pA/Hz. By contrast, a multiplexer of less than 10 pixels with 500 kHz sampling and ∼2 μΦ0/Hz readout noise has so far been reported in the literature. Owing to the 500 kHz sampling, our MW-Mux exhibits a fast response to detect a TES pulse with a rise time around 12 μs. We demonstrated simultaneous readout of 38 pixels from an array of x-ray TES microcalorimeters. The measured full-width values at half-maximum spectral resolution ranged from 2.79 to 4.56 eV, with a median value of 3.30 eV at 5.9 keV, including a ∼10% contribution of readout noise, i.e., 0.9–1.7 eV.