The Gamow Explorer: A gamma-ray burst observatory to study the high redshift universe and enable multi-messenger astrophysics
Abstract
The Gamow Explorer will use Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) to: 1) probe the high redshift universe (z > 6) when the first stars were born, galaxies formed and Hydrogen was reionized; and 2) enable multi-messenger astrophysics by rapidly identifying Electro-Magnetic (IR/Optical/X-ray) counterparts to Gravitational Wave (GW) events. GRBs have been detected out to z ~ 9 and their afterglows are a bright beacon lasting a few days that can be used to observe the spectral fingerprints of the host galaxy and intergalactic medium to map the period of reionization and early metal enrichment. Gamow Explorer is optimized to quickly identify high-z events to trigger follow-up observations with JWST and large ground-based telescopes. A wide field of view Lobster Eye X-ray Telescope (LEXT) will search for GRBs and locate them with arc-minute precision. When a GRB is detected, the rapidly slewing spacecraft will point the 5 photometric channel Photo-z Infra-Red Telescope (PIRT) to identify high redshift (z > 6) long GRBs within 100s and send an alert within 1000s of the GRB trigger. An L2 orbit provides > 95% observing efficiency with pointing optimized for follow up by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and ground observatories. The predicted Gamow Explorer high-z rate is >10 times that of the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory. The instrument and mission capabilities also enable rapid identification of short GRBs and their afterglows associated with GW events. The Gamow Explorer will be proposed to the 2021 NASA MIDEX call and if approved, launched in 2028.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2111.06497,
title = {The Gamow Explorer: A gamma-ray burst observatory to study the high redshift universe and enable multi-messenger astrophysics},
author = {N. E. White and F. E. Bauer and W. Baumgartner and M. Bautz and E. Berger and S. B. Cenko and T. -C. Chang and A. Falcone and H. Fausey and C. Feldman and D. Fox and O. Fox and A. Fruchter and C. Fryer and G. Ghirlanda and K. Gorski and K. Grant and S. Guiriec and M. Hart and D. Hartmann and J. Hennawi and D. A. Kann and D. Kaplan and J. and A. Kennea and D. Kocevski and C. Kouveliotou and C. Lawrence and A. J. Levan and A. Lidz and A. Lien and T. B. Littenberg and L. Mas-Ribas and M. Moss and P. O'Brien and J. O'Meara and D. M. Palmer and D. Pasham and J. Racusin and R. Remillard and O. J. Roberts and P. Roming and M. Rud and R. Salvaterra and R. Sambruna and M. Seiffert and G. Sun and N. R. Tanvir and R. Terrile and N. Thomas and A. van der Horst and W. T. Verstrand and P. Willems and C. Wilson-Hodge and E. T. Young and L. Amati and E. Bozzo and O. Ł. Karczewski and C. Hernandez-Monteagudo and R. Rebolo Lopez and R. Genova-Santos and J. A. Rubino-Martin and J. Granot and P. Bemiamini and R. Gill and E. Burns},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2111.06497},
year = {2021}
}
Comments
14 pages, 8 Figures