The Athena X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU)
Aug 17, 201641 pages
Published in:
- Proc.SPIE Int.Soc.Opt.Eng. 9905 (2016) 99052F
Contribution to:
- Published: Aug 17, 2016
e-Print:
- 1608.08105 [astro-ph.IM]
DOI:
View in:
Citations per year
Abstract: (International Society for Optics and Photonics)
The X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU) on board the Advanced Telescope for High-ENergy Astrophysics (Athena) will provide spatially resolved high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy from 0.2 to 12 keV, with ~ 5" pixels over a field of view of 5 arc minute equivalent diameter and a spectral resolution of 2.5 eV up to 7 keV. In this paper, we first review the core scientific objectives of Athena, driving the main performance parameters of the X-IFU, namely the spectral resolution, the field of view, the effective area, the count rate capabilities, the instrumental background. We also illustrate the breakthrough potential of the X-IFU for some observatory science goals. Then we brie y describe the X-IFU design as defined at the time of the mission consolidation review concluded in May 2016, and report on its predicted performance. Finally, we discuss some options to improve the instrument performance while not increasing its complexity and resource demands (e.g. count rate capability, spectral resolution).© (2016) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.Note:
- 41 pages, 18 Figures
- X-rays
- Spectral resolution
- Spectroscopy
- Telescopes
- Equipment and services
- High energy astrophysics
- Observatories
References(2)
Figures(22)
- [2]