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One of the key aspects of a detector material for space-borne hard X-ray and gamma-ray telescopes is the rate of prompt and delayed background events generated inside the material by charged and neutral particles striking the detector.…
The Energetic X-ray Imaging Survey Telescope (EXIST) is a proposed next generation multi-wavelength survey mission. The primary instrument is a High Energy telescope (HET) that conducts the deepest survey for Gamma-ray Bursts (GRBs),…
Radio astronomy is entering the era of large surveys. This paper describes the plans for wide surveys with the LOw Frequency ARray (LOFAR) and their synergy with large surveys at higher frequencies (in particular in the 1-2 GHz band) that…
X-ray astronomy needs to set bold, science driven goals for the next decade. Only with defined science goals can we know what to work on, and a funding agency appreciate the need for significant technology developments. To be a forefront…
We recommend a conceptual design study for a spectroscopic facility in the southern hemisphere comprising a large diameter telescope, fiber system, and spectrographs collectively optimized for massively-multiplexed spectroscopy. As a…
We present a summary of the in-orbit performance of the soft X-ray imaging telescope Xtend onboard the XRISM mission, based on in-flight observation data, including first-light celestial objects, calibration sources, and results from the…
Future weak lensing surveys potentially hold the highest statistical power for constraining cosmological parameters compared to other cosmological probes. The statistical power of a weak lensing survey is determined by the sky coverage, the…
As new large-scale astronomical surveys greatly increase the number of objects targeted and discoveries made, the requirement for efficient follow-up observations is crucial. Adaptive optics imaging, which compensates for the image-blurring…
A large wide-field telescope and camera with optical throughput over 200 m^2 deg^2 -- a factor of 50 beyond what we currently have -- would enable the detection of faint moving or bursting optical objects: from Earth threatening asteroids…
We investigate the cosmological evolution of the hard X-ray luminosity function (HXLF) of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) in the 2-10 keV luminosity range of 10^{41.5} - 10^{46.5} erg s^-1 as a function of redshift up to 3. From a combination…
Real-time seeing and outer scale estimation at the location of the focus of a telescope is fundamental for the adaptive optics systems dimensioning and performance prediction, as well as for the operational aspects of instruments. This…
The Hard X-ray Imager (HXI) onboard Hitomi (ASTRO-H) is an imaging spectrometer covering hard X-ray energies of 5-80 keV. Combined with the hard X-ray telescope, it enables imaging spectroscopy with an angular resolution of $1^\prime.7$…
Five on-plane regions within +/- 0.8deg of the Galactic center were observed with the Hard X-ray Detector (HXD) and the X-ray Imaging Spectrometer (XIS) onboard Suzaku. From all regions, significant hard X-ray emission was detected with…
We report on BeppoSAX simultaneous X- and gamma-ray observations of the bright GRB 990123. We present the broad-band spectrum of the prompt emission, including optical, X- and gamma-rays, confirming the suggestion that the emission…
We present the status of the laue project devoted to develop a technology for building a 20 meter long focal length Laue lens for hard x-/soft gamma-ray astronomy (80 - 600 keV). The Laue lens is composed of bent crystals of Gallium…
Selene is the attempt to implement a new scheme for high-intensity specular reflectometry. Instead of a highly collimated beam one uses a convergent beam covering a large angular range. The angular resolution is then performed by a…
We predict the X-ray background (XRB) expected from the population of quasars detected by the JWST spectroscopic surveys over the redshift range $z \sim 4-7$. We find that the measured UV emissivities, in combination with a best-fitting…
We perform Monte Carlo simulations of cosmic ray-induced hard X-ray radiation from the Earth's atmosphere. We find that the shape of the spectrum emergent from the atmosphere in the energy range 25-300 keV is mainly determined by Compton…
Hard X-ray selection is the most efficient way to discriminate between accretion-powered sources, such as AGN, from sources dominated by starlight. Hard X-rays are also less affected than other bands by obscuration. We have then carried out…
We propose to search for biosignatures in the spectra of reflected light from about 100 Earth-sized planets that are already known to be orbiting in their habitable zones (HZ). For a sample of G and K type hosts, most of these planets will…