EXIST's Gamma-Ray Burst Sensitivity
Abstract
We use semi-analytic techniques to evaluate the burst sensitivity of designs for the EXIST hard X-ray survey mission. Applying these techniques to the mission design proposed for the Beyond Einstein program, we find that with its very large field-of-view and faint gamma-ray burst detection threshold, EXIST will detect and localize approximately two bursts per day, a large fraction of which may be at high redshift. We estimate that EXIST's maximum sensitivity will be ~4 times greater than that of Swift's Burst Alert Telescope. Bursts will be localized to better than 40 arcsec at threshold, with a burst position as good as a few arcsec for strong bursts. EXIST's combination of three different detector systems will provide spectra from 3 keV to more than 10 MeV. Thus, EXIST will enable a major leap in the understanding of bursts, their evolution, environment, and utility as cosmological probes.
Cite
@article{arxiv.0710.4602,
title = {EXIST's Gamma-Ray Burst Sensitivity},
author = {D. L. Band and J. E. Grindlay and J. Hong and G. Fishman and D. H. Hartmann and A. Garson and H. Krawczynski and S. Barthelmy and N. Gehrels and G. Skinner},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0710.4602},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
25 pages, 10 figures, accepted by ApJ