Creating the Response Matrices (RMFs)

Response matrices (RMFs) are not inlcuded in the Pipepline Processed package, and must be made prior to analyzing data. This can be done with the package rgsrmfgen. While these should only be used with point sources, they can be modified for use with extended sources; this is discussed in §8.7.2.

To make the RMFs using the GUI:

1)

Call the rgsrmfgen task in Available Tools panel.

2)

Next to ``input events and exposure map extensions'', enter the name of the filtered event list, rgs1_filt.fits. Next to ``output response file'', enter the name of the output file, r1_o1_rmf.fits. Next to ``extracted spectrum file'', enter the name of the spectrum file; it has the form *SRSPEC*, and in our case, is P0134520301R1S001SRSPEC1001.FIT. Next to ``maximum output energy'', enter 2.5; for the minimum output energy, enter 0.4. Next to ``number of energy bins'', enter 5000.

3)

Click ``Run''.

To make the RMFs from the Command Window, type:

rgsrmfgen spectrumset=P0134520301R1S001SRSPEC1001.FIT rmfset=r1_o1_rmf.fits
$$ evlist=r1_filt.fits emin=0.4 emax=2.5 rows=5000

where

spectrumset - spectrum file
evlist - event file
emin - lower energy limit of the response file
emax - upper energy limit of the response file
rows - number of energy bins; this should be greater than 3000
rmfset - output FITS file