A broadband X-ray imaging spectroscopy in the 2030s: the FORCE mission
Abstract
In this multi-messenger astronomy era, all the observational probes are improving their sensitivities and overall performance. The Focusing on Relativistic universe and Cosmic Evolution (FORCE) mission, the product of a JAXA/NASA collaboration, will reach a 10 times higher sensitivity in the hard X-ray band ( 10~keV) in comparison with any previous hard X-ray missions, and provide simultaneous soft X-ray coverage. FORCE aims to be launched in the early 2030s, providing a perfect hard X-ray complement to the ESA flagship mission Athena. FORCE will be the most powerful X-ray probe for discovering obscured/hidden black holes and studying high energy particle acceleration in our Universe and will address how relativistic processes in the universe are realized and how these affect cosmic evolution. FORCE, which will operate over 1--79 keV, is equipped with two identical pairs of supermirrors and wideband X-ray imagers. The mirror and imager are connected by a high mechanical stiffness extensible optical bench with alignment monitor systems with a focal length of 12~m. A light-weight silicon mirror with multi-layer coating realizes a high angular resolution of in half-power diameter in the broad bandpass. The imager is a hybrid of a brand-new SOI-CMOS silicon-pixel detector and a CdTe detector responsible for the softer and harder energy bands, respectively. FORCE will play an essential role in the multi-messenger astronomy in the 2030s with its broadband X-ray sensitivity.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2303.07577,
title = {A broadband X-ray imaging spectroscopy in the 2030s: the FORCE mission},
author = {Koji Mori and Takeshi G. Tsuru and Kazuhiro Nakazawa and Yoshihiro Ueda and Shin Watanabe and Takaaki Tanaka and Manabu Ishida and Hironori Matsumoto and Hisamitsu Awaki and Hiroshi Murakami and Masayoshi Nobukawa and Ayaki Takeda and Yasushi Fukazawa and Hiroshi Tsunemi and Tadayuki Takahashi and Ann Hornschemeier and Takashi Okajima and William W. Zhang and Brian J. Williams and Tonia Venters and Kristin Madsen and Mihoko Yukita and Hiroki Akamatsu and Aya Bamba and Teruaki Enoto and Yutaka Fujita and Akihiro Furuzawa and Kouichi Hagino and Kosei Ishimura and Masayuki Itoh and Tetsu Kitayama and Shogo Kobayashi and Takayoshi Kohmura and Aya Kubota and Misaki Mizumoto and Tsunefumi Mizuno and Hiroshi Nakajima and Kumiko K. Nobukawa and Hirofumi Noda and Hirokazu Odaka and Naomi Ota and Toshiki Sato and Megumi Shidatsu and Hiromasa Suzuki and Hiromitsu Takahashi and Atsushi Tanimoto and Yukikatsu Terada and Yuichi Terashima and Hiroyuki Uchida and Yasunobu Uchiyama and Hiroya Yamaguchi and Yoichi Yatsu},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2303.07577},
year = {2023}
}
Comments
12 pages, 8 figures. Proceedings of SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation 2022