Office: NE80-6053
Mailing Address:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
NE80-6053, 77 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02139-4307
Phone: (617) 253-0797
FAX: (617) 253-8084
email: cgrant @ space.mit.edu
Chandra First Light! (That's me up front)
Currently I'm a member of the ACIS Instrument team. My instrument work has concentrated on measuring and monitoring ACIS performance, particularly radiation damage and contamination, including designing and testing hardware and software CTI mitigation strategies. I also support ACIS operations and calibration efforts, including developing the CCD CTI simulator used by CXC Calibration to create response products for science analysis. For more on my technical ACIS instrument work go here.
X-ray detectors, CCDs, Gravitational Lenses, Hot Interstellar Medium, Galaxy Groups, X-ray Shadows, Diffuse Emission
My thesis was a study of the three-dimensional structure of the hot interstellar medium using X-ray shadows. These shadows are created when hot (million degree) plasma in our Galaxy is absorbed by foreground cold (a few degrees) molecular clouds. In theory, the distribution of hot gas along a line of sight to a cold cloud can be determined by measuring the amount of absorption caused by the molecular cloud and therefore the percentage of the X-ray emitting gas that is in front of or behind the cloud. Unfortunately, some of these cold molecular clouds have poor or no distance estimates. My thesis involves analysis of ROSAT data towards thirteen molecular clouds, comparison to IRAS 100 um data, and optical observations to determine the distances to the clouds where necessary. By combining the results from many different lines of sight, I put limits on models of the temperature, pressure and overall distribution of hot gas in our galaxy. The final version of my thesis can be downloaded here (5.9 Gb postscript). My thesis advisor was Dr. David Burrows .
Bautz, M., Prigozhin, G., Kissel, S., LaMarr, B., Grant, C., & Brown, S. 2005, `Anomalous Annealing of a High-resistivity CCD Irradiated at Low Temperature', IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, 52, 519 | PDF |
Grant, C.E., Bautz, M.W., Chartas, G., & Garmire, G. 2004, `Detection of x-rays from galaxy groups associated with the gravitationally lensed systems PG 1115+080 and B1422+231', ApJ, 610, 686 (astro-ph/0305137) | ADS |
Weisskopf, M. et al. 2003, `An Overview of the Performance of the Chandra X-ray Observatory', Experimental Astronomy, 16, 1 (astro-ph/0503319) | ADS |
Markevitch, M. et al. 2003, `Chandra Spectra of the Soft X-ray Diffuse Background', ApJ, 583, 70 (astro-ph/0209441) | ADS |
Carney, B.W., Latham, D.W., Laird, J.B., Grant, C.E., & Morse, J.A. 2001, `A Survey of Proper Motion Stars. XIV. Spectroscopic Binaries Among Metal-Poor Field Blue Stragglers', AJ, 122, 3419 | ADS |
Grant, C.E. & Burrows, D.N. 1999, `Distances to the High Galactic Latitude Molecular Clouds G192-67 and MBM 23-24', ApJ, 516, 243 (astro-ph/9902083) | ADS |
O'Dell, S.L. et al. 2007, `Managing radiation degradation of CCDs on the Chandra X-ray Observatory II', in UV, X-ray, and Gamma-Ray Space Instrumentation for Astronomy XV, Proc. SPIE, 6686 in press
Grant, C.E. & Bautz, M.W. 2007, `Finding galaxy groups and clusters in the fields of lensed quasars', in The Extreme Universe in the Suzaku Era, in press | Compressed Postscript | PDF |
Grant, C.E., Bautz, M.W., Kissel, S., LaMarr, B., & Prigozhin, G.Y. 2006, `Temperature dependence of charge transfer inefficiency in Chandra X-ray CCDs', in High Energy, Optical, and Infrared Detectors for Astronomy II, ed. D.A. Dorn & A.D. Holland, Proc. SPIE, 6276, 62761O (astro-ph/0606178) | astro-ph |
Grant, C.E., Bautz, M.W., Kissel, S.E., LaMarr, B., & Prigozhin, G.Y. 2005, `Long-term trends in radiation damage of Chandra X-ray CCDs', in UV, X-Ray, and Gamma-Ray Space Instrumentation for Astronomy XIV, ed. O.H.W. Siegmund, Proc. SPIE, 5898, 201 (astro-ph/0509035) | Compressed Postscript | PDF |
O'Dell, S.L. et al. 2005, `Managing radiation degradation of CCDs on the Chandra X-ray Observatory II', in UV, X-ray, and Gamma-Ray Space Instrumentation for Astronomy XIV, ed. O.H.W. Siegmund, Proc. SPIE, 5898, 212
Grant, C.E., Bautz, M.W., Kissel, S.E., & LaMarr, B. 2004, `A charge transfer inefficiency correction model for the Chandra Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer', in High-Energy Detectors in Astronomy, ed. A.D. Holland, Proc. SPIE, 5501, 177 (astro-ph/0407199) | ADS |
Plucinsky, P.P. et al. 2004, `An Evaluation of a Bake-out of the ACIS Instrument on the Chandra X-ray Observatory', in UV and Gamma-Ray Space Telescope Systems, ed. G. Hasinger & M.J.L. Turner, Proc. SPIE, 5488, 251 | ADS |
Marshall, H.L., Tennant, A., Grant, C.E., Hitchcock, A.P., O'Dell, S., & Plucinsky, P.P. 2004, `Composition of the Chandra ACIS contaminant', in X-ray and Gamma-ray Instrumentation for Astronomy XIII, ed. K.A. Flanagan & O.H.W. Siegmund, Proc. SPIE, 5165, 497 (astro-ph/0308332) | ADS |
Grant, C.E., Prigozhin, G.Y, LaMarr, B., & Bautz, M.W. 2003, `Sacrificial charge and the spectral resolution performance of the Chandra Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer', in X-ray and Gamma-ray Telescopes and Instruments for Astronomy, ed. J.E. Truemper & H.D. Tananbaum, Proc. SPIE, 4851, 140 (astro-ph/0209126) | ADS |
Plucinsky, P.P. et al. 2003, `The Flight Spectral Response of the ACIS Instrument', in X-ray and Gamma-ray Telescopes and Instruments for Astronomy, ed. J.E. Truemper & H.D. Tananbaum, Proc. SPIE, 4851, 89 (astro-ph/0209161) | ADS |
Grant, C.E., Bautz, M.W., & Virani, S.N. 2002, 'The temporal characteristics of the Chandra X-ray Observatory high energy particle background', in High Energy Universe at Sharp Focus: Chandra Science Symposium, ed. E.M. Schlegel & S.D. Vrtilek, ASP Conf. Ser., 262, 401 (astro-ph/0202086) | ADS |
Virani, S.N., Plucinsky, P.P., Grant, C.E., & LaMarr, B. 2002, 'Analysis of On-Orbit ACIS Squeegee Mode Data on Chip I0', in High Energy Universe at Sharp Focus: Chandra Science Symposium, ed. E.M. Schlegel & S.D. Vrtilek, ASP Conf. Ser., 262, 409 (astro-ph/0112041) | ADS |
Grant, C.E. 2007, `CCD Detectors for X-ray Astronomy', lecture at Fifth International X-ray Astronomy School | PDF |
Grant, C.E. & Bautz, M.W. 2006, `Finding galaxy groups and clusters in the fields of lensed quasars', poster presented at HEAD 2006 | PDF |
Grant, C.E. & Bautz, M.W. 2005, `Finding Galaxy Groups in the Fields of Lensed Quasars', poster presented at the Six Years of Science with Chandra Symposium | Compressed Postscript |
Grant, C.E. 2005, `ACIS: Instrument Status and Performance Evolution', presentation at Chandra Calibration Workshop | PDF |
Grant, C.E. 2005, `CCD Detectors for X-ray Astronomy', lecture at Fourth International X-ray Astronomy School | PDF |
Grant, C.E. 2004, `Evolution of ACIS Performance', presentation at Chandra Calibration Workshop | PDF |
Grant, C.E. & Bautz, M.W. 2004, `Finding Groups and Clusters in the Fields of Lensed Quasars', poster presented at HEAD 2004
Grant, C.E. 2003, `Time-dependence of ACIS Contamination', presentation at Chandra Calibration Workshop | Compressed Postscript | PDF |
Grant, C.E. & Bautz, M.W. 2003, `Four Years of ACIS: Monitoring Detector Performance', poster presented at Four Years of Chandra Observations Symposium | Compressed Postscript | PDF |
Bautz, M., Grant, C., Kissel, S., LaMarr, B., Prigozhin, G., Brown, S., & Hill, J. 2003, `Effects of Room-Temperature Bakeout on the CTI of an ACIS CCD Irradiated at -100C', poster presented at HEAD 2003
Grant, C.E. & ACIS Instrument Team 2002, `Evolution of ACIS Response', presentation at Chandra Calibration Workshop | Compressed Postscript | PDF |