Related papers: Active X-ray Optics for Generation-X, the Next Hig…
HEX-P is a probe-class mission concept that will combine high spatial resolution X-ray imaging ($<10"$ FWHM) and broad spectral coverage (0.2-80 keV) with an effective area far superior to current facilities' (including XMM-Newton and…
Cosmic objects emit throughout the electro-magnetic spectrum, from radio waves to very high-energy gamma rays. Some spectral regions can be observed from the ground, but space instrumentation is needed for most of them. Some spectral…
We have been conducting a comprehensive survey of stellar coronae with the XMM-Newton Reflection Grating Spectrometers during the commissioning, calibration, verification, and guaranteed time phases of the mission, accompanied by…
I briefly describe a few important scientific issues that could be addressed effectively via the combination of data from JDEM and X-ray missions. The topics covered are largely focused on active galactic nuclei (AGN) and include (1) the…
We outline scientific objectives for monitoring X-ray sources and transients with wide-angle, coded mask cameras. It is now possible to instantaneously view half of the sky over long time intervals, gaining access to events of extraordinary…
The features and make up of the population of X-ray sources in Galactic star clusters reflect the properties of the underlying stellar environment. Cluster age, mass, stellar encounter rate, binary frequency, metallicity, and maybe other…
The hard x-ray (10-600 keV) sky is inherently time variable and yet has neither been surveyed nor monitored with a sensitive imaging telescope. The Energetic X-ray Imaging Survey Telescope (EXIST) is a mission concept, proposed for MIDEX,…
X-ray imaging allows for a non-invasive image of the internal structure of an object. The most common form of X-ray imaging, projectional radiography, is simply a projection or "shadow" of the object rather than a point-to-point image…
Recent X-ray surveys have now resolved most of the X-ray background (XRB) into discrete sources. While this represents a break- through in the understanding of the XRB, the astrophysical nature of these sources still remains mysterious. In…
A breakthrough in the sensitivity level of the hard X-/gamma-ray telescopes, which today are based on detectors that view the sky through (or not) coded masks, is expected when focusing optics will be available also in this energy range.…
Using simultaneous optical (VLT/FORS2) and X-ray (XMM-Newton) data of NGC 5408, we present the first ever attempt to search for a reverberation signal in an ultraluminous X-ray source (NGC 5408 X-1). The idea is similar to AGN broad line…
Phase Fresnel lenses have the same imaging properties as zone plates, but with the possibility of concentrating all of the incident power into the primary focus, increasing the maximum theoretical efficiency from 11% to close to 100%. For…
With the launch of the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) and the advent of microcalorimeter detectors, X-ray astrophysics is entering in a new era of spatially resolved high resolution spectroscopy. But while this new…
With its ability to look at bright galactic X-ray sources with sub-millisecond time resolution, the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) discovered that the X-ray emission from accreting compact stars shows quasi-periodic oscillations on the…
X-ray imaging can be efficiently used for high-throughput in-line inspection of industrial products. However, designing a system that satisfies industrial requirements and achieves high accuracy is a challenging problem. The effect of many…
Hard X-ray observations are the most efficient way to discriminate accretion-powered sources from star-light. Furthermore, hard X-rays are less affected than other bands by obscuration. For these reasons the advent of imaging instruments…
I present the science goals and give a brief summary of the Wide Angle X-ray survey with a Wide Field X-ray Telescope (WAXS/WFXT) mission proposal (Phase A) which will be submitted to the Italian Space Agency (ASI) following the call for…
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…
We search for unresolved X-ray emission from lensed sources in the FOV of 11 CLASH clusters with Chandra data. We consider the solid angle in the lens plane corresponding to a magnification $\mu>1.5$, that amounts to a total of ~100…
X-ray binaries provide exceptional laboratories for understanding the physics of matter under the most extreme conditions. Until recently, there were few, if any, observational constraints on the circumbinary environments of X-ray binaries…