STROBE-X: X-ray Timing and Spectroscopy on Dynamical Timescales from Microseconds to Years
Abstract
We present the Spectroscopic Time-Resolving Observatory for Broadband Energy X-rays (STROBE-X), a probe-class mission concept selected for study by NASA. It combines huge collecting area, high throughput, broad energy coverage, and excellent spectral and temporal resolution in a single facility. STROBE-X offers an enormous increase in sensitivity for X-ray spectral timing, extending these techniques to extragalactic targets for the first time. It is also an agile mission capable of rapid response to transient events, making it an essential X-ray partner facility in the era of time-domain, multi-wavelength, and multi-messenger astronomy. Optimized for study of the most extreme conditions found in the Universe, its key science objectives include: (1) Robustly measuring mass and spin and mapping inner accretion flows across the black hole mass spectrum, from compact stars to intermediate-mass objects to active galactic nuclei. (2) Mapping out the full mass-radius relation of neutron stars using an ensemble of nearly two dozen rotation-powered pulsars and accreting neutron stars, and hence measuring the equation of state for ultradense matter over a much wider range of densities than explored by NICER. (3) Identifying and studying X-ray counterparts (in the post-Swift era) for multiwavelength and multi-messenger transients in the dynamic sky through cross-correlation with gravitational wave interferometers, neutrino observatories, and high-cadence time-domain surveys in other electromagnetic bands. (4) Continuously surveying the dynamic X-ray sky with a large duty cycle and high time resolution to characterize the behavior of X-ray sources over an unprecedentedly vast range of time scales. STROBE-X's formidable capabilities will also enable a broad portfolio of additional science.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1903.03035,
title = {STROBE-X: X-ray Timing and Spectroscopy on Dynamical Timescales from Microseconds to Years},
author = {Paul S. Ray and Zaven Arzoumanian and David Ballantyne and Enrico Bozzo and Soren Brandt and Laura Brenneman and Deepto Chakrabarty and Marc Christophersen and Alessandra DeRosa and Marco Feroci and Keith Gendreau and Adam Goldstein and Dieter Hartmann and Margarita Hernanz and Peter Jenke and Erin Kara and Tom Maccarone and Michael McDonald and Michael Nowak and Bernard Phlips and Ron Remillard and Abigail Stevens and John Tomsick and Anna Watts and Colleen Wilson-Hodge and Kent Wood and Silvia Zane and Marco Ajello and Will Alston and Diego Altamirano and Vallia Antoniou and Kavitha Arur and Dominic Ashton and Katie Auchettl and Tom Ayres and Matteo Bachetti and Mislav Balokovic and Matthew Baring and Altan Baykal and Mitch Begelman and Narayana Bhat and Slavko Bogdanov and Michael Briggs and Esra Bulbul and Petrus Bult and Eric Burns and Ed Cackett and Riccardo Campana and Amir Caspi and Yuri Cavecchi and Jerome Chenevez and Mike Cherry and Robin Corbet and Michael Corcoran and Alessandra Corsi and Nathalie Degenaar and Jeremy Drake and Steve Eikenberry and Teruaki Enoto and Chris Fragile and Felix Fuerst and Poshak Gandhi and Javier Garcia and Adam Goldstein and Anthony Gonzalez and Brian Grefenstette and Victoria Grinberg and Bruce Grossan and Sebastien Guillot and Tolga Guver and Daryl Haggard and Craig Heinke and Sebastian Heinz and Paul Hemphill and Jeroen Homan and Michelle Hui and Daniela Huppenkothen and Adam Ingram and Jimmy Irwin and Gaurava Jaisawal and Amruta Jaodand and Emrah Kalemci and David Kaplan and Laurens Keek and Jamie Kennea and Matthew Kerr and Michiel van der Klis and Daniel Kocevski and Mike Koss and Adam Kowalski and Dong Lai and Fred Lamb and Silas Laycock and Joseph Lazio and Davide Lazzati and Dana Longcope and Michael Loewenstein and Dipankair Maitra and Walid Majid and W. Peter Maksym and Christian Malacaria and Raffaella Margutti and Adrian Martindale and Ian McHardy and Manuel Meyer and Matt Middleton and Jon Miller and Cole Miller and Sara Motta and Joey Neilsen and Tommy Nelson and Scott Noble and Paul O'Brien and Julian Osborne and Rachel Osten and Feryal Ozel and Nipuni Palliyaguru and Dheeraj Pasham and Alessandro Patruno and Vero Pelassa and Maria Petropoulou and Maura Pilia and Martin Pohl and David Pooley and Chanda Prescod-Weinstein and Dimitrios Psaltis and Geert Raaijmakers and Chris Reynolds and Thomas E. Riley and Greg Salvesen and Andrea Santangelo and Simone Scaringi and Stephane Schanne and Jeremy Schnittman and David Smith and Krista Lynne Smith and Bradford Snios and Andrew Steiner and Jack Steiner and Luigi Stella and Tod Strohmayer and Ming Sun and Thomas Tauris and Corbin Taylor and Aaron Tohuvavohu and Andrea Vacchi and Georgios Vasilopoulos and Alexandra Veledina and Jonelle Walsh and Nevin Weinberg and Dan Wilkins and Richard Willingale and Joern Wilms and Lisa Winter and Michael Wolff and Jean in 't Zand and Andreas Zezas and Bing Zhang and Abdu Zoghbi},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1903.03035},
year = {2019}
}
Comments
50 pages, Probe class mission concept study report submitted to NASA for Astro2020 Decadal Survey