The Extreme Physics Explorer (EPE) is a concept timing/spectroscopy mission that would use micro-channel plate optics (MCPO) to provide 4 square meters effective area focused to ~1 arc-min onto an X-ray calorimeter. We describe science drivers for such a mission, possible designs for the large area MCPO needed for EPE, and the challenges of the large area MCPO design.
@article{arxiv.1109.3194,
title = {The Extreme Physics Explorer and Large Area Micro-Channel Plate Optics},
author = {Michael Garcia and Martin Elvis and Jon Chappell and Laura Brenneman and Daniel Patnaude and Ian Evans and Ricardo Bruni and Suzanne Romaine and Eric Silver and Richard Willingale and George Fraser and T. J. Turner and Brian Ramsey},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1109.3194},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
12 pages, 9 figures, to appear in proceedings of SPIE V8147, "Optics for EUV, X-ray, and Gamma-Ray Astronomy V"