Science with the XEUS High Time Resolution Spectrometer
Name
Barret-2009-Science with the XEUS High Time Resolution Spectrometer.pdf
Size
1.49 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
27b3419ce2303728ca5ce7f5b6507f00
Author(s)
Homan, Jeroen
Zdziarski, A. A.
Wilms, J.
Poutanen, J.
Paltani, Stephane
Mereghetti, S.
Miller, M. Coleman
Miller, J. M.
Mendez, M.
Gogus, E.
Date Issued
July 2008
Journal
Proceedings of SPIE
Publisher
The International Society for Optical Engineering
Citation
Barret, D. et al. “Science with the XEUS high time resolution spectrometer.” Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2008: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray. Ed. Martin J. L. Turner & Kathryn A. Flanagan. Marseille, France: SPIE, 2008. 70110E-10. © 2008 SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering
Version
Final published version
Abstract
XEUS has been recently selected by ESA for an assessment study. XEUS is a large mission candidate for the Cosmic Vision program, aiming for a launch date as early as 2018. XEUS is a follow-on to ESA's Cornerstone X-Ray Spectroscopy Mission (XMM-Newton). It will be placed in a halo orbit at L2, by a single Ariane 5 ECA, and comprises two spacecrafts. The Silicon pore optics assembly of XEUS is contained in the mirror spacecraft while the focal plane instruments are contained in the detector spacecraft, which is maintained at the focus of the mirror by formation flying. The main requirements for XEUS are to provide a focused beam of X-rays with an effective aperture of 5 m[superscript 2] at 1 keV, 2 m[superscript 2] at 7 keV, a spatial resolution better than 5 arcsec, a spectral resolution ranging from 2 to 6 eV in the 0.1-8 keV energy band, a total energy bandpass of 0.1-40 keV, ultra-fast timing, and finally polarimetric capabilities. The High Time Resolution Spectrometer (HTRS) is one of the five focal plane instruments, which comprises also a wide field imager, a hard X-ray imager, a cryogenic spectrometer, and a polarimeter. The HTRS is unique in its ability to cope with extremely high count rates (up to 2 Mcts/s), while providing sub-millisecond time resolution and good (CCD like) energy resolution. In this paper, we focus on the specific scientific objectives to be pursued with the HTRS: they are all centered around the key theme "Matter under extreme conditions" of the Cosmic Vision science program. We demonstrate the potential of the HTRS observations to probe strong gravity and matter at supra-nuclear densities. We conclude this paper by describing the current implementation of the HTRS in the XEUS focal plane.
MIT Department
MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research
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Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
http://dx.doi.org/10.1117/12.789278
