The Athena X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU)
Abstract
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 arc second 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 briefly 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). The X-IFU will be provided by an international consortium led by France, The Netherlands and Italy, with further ESA member state contributions from Belgium, Finland, Germany, Poland, Spain, Switzerland and two international partners from the United States and Japan.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1608.08105,
title = {The Athena X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU)},
author = {Didier Barret and Thien Lam Trong and Jan-Willem den Herder and Luigi Piro and Xavier Barcons and Juhani Huovelin and Richard Kelley and J. Miguel Mas-Hesse and Kazuhisa Mitsuda and Stéphane Paltani and Gregor Rauw and Agata Rożanska and Joern Wilms and Marco Barbera and Enrico Bozzo and Maria Teresa Ceballos and Ivan Charles and Anne Decourchelle and Roland den Hartog and Jean-Marc Duval and Fabrizio Fiore and Flavio Gatti and Andrea Goldwurm and Brian Jackson and Peter Jonker and Caroline Kilbourne and Claudio Macculi and Mariano Mendez and Silvano Molendi and Piotr Orleanski and François Pajot and Etienne Pointecouteau and Frederick Porter and Gabriel W. Pratt and Damien Prêle and Laurent Ravera and Etienne Renotte and Joop Schaye and Keisuke Shinozaki and Luca Valenziano and Jacco Vink and Natalie Webb and Noriko Yamasaki and Françoise Delcelier-Douchin and Michel Le Du and Jean-Michel Mesnager and Alice Pradines and Graziella Branduardi-Raymont and Mauro Dadina and Alexis Finoguenov and Yasushi Fukazawa and Agnieszka Janiuk and Jon Miller and Yaël Nazé and Fabrizio Nicastro and Salvatore Sciortino and Jose Miguel Torrejon and Hervé Geoffray and Isabelle Hernandez and Laure Luno and Philippe Peille and Jérôme André and Christophe Daniel and Christophe Etcheverry and Emilie Gloaguen and Jérémie Hassin and Gilles Hervet and Irwin Maussang and Jérôme Moueza and Alexis Paillet and Bruno Vella and Gonzalo Campos Garrido and Jean-Charles Damery and Chantal Panem and Johan Panh and Simon Bandler and Jean-Marc Biffi and Kevin Boyce and Antoine Clénet and Michael DiPirro and Pierre Jamotton and Simone Lotti and Denis Schwander and Stephen Smith and Bert-Joost van Leeuwen and Henk van Weers and Thorsten Brand and Beatriz Cobo and Thomas Dauser and Jelle de Plaa and Edoardo Cucchetti},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1608.08105},
year = {2016}
}
Comments
41 pages, 18 Figures