Paper
17 August 2016 The Athena X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU)
Didier Barret, Thien Lam Trong, Jan-Willem den Herder, Luigi Piro, Xavier Barcons, Juhani Huovelin, Richard Kelley, J. Miguel Mas-Hesse, Kazuhisa Mitsuda, Stéphane Paltani, Gregor Rauw, Agata Rożanska, Joern Wilms, Marco Barbera, Enrico Bozzo, Maria Teresa Ceballos, Ivan Charles, Anne Decourchelle, Roland den Hartog, Jean-Marc Duval, Fabrizio Fiore, Flavio Gatti, Andrea Goldwurm, Brian Jackson, Peter Jonker, Caroline Kilbourne, Claudio Macculi, Mariano Mendez, Silvano Molendi, Piotr Orleanski, François Pajot, Etienne Pointecouteau, Frederick Porter, Gabriel W. Pratt, Damien Prêle, Laurent Ravera, Etienne Renotte, Joop Schaye, Keisuke Shinozaki, Luca Valenziano, Jacco Vink, Natalie Webb, Noriko Yamasaki, Françoise Delcelier-Douchin, Michel Le Du, Jean-Michel Mesnager, Alice Pradines, Graziella Branduardi-Raymont, Mauro Dadina, Alexis Finoguenov, Yasushi Fukazawa, Agnieszka Janiuk, Jon Miller, Yaël Nazé, Fabrizio Nicastro, Salvatore Sciortino, Jose Miguel Torrejon, Hervé Geoffray, Isabelle Hernandez, Laure Luno, Philippe Peille, Jérôme André, Christophe Daniel, Christophe Etcheverry, Emilie Gloaguen, Jérémie Hassin, Gilles Hervet, Irwin Maussang, Jérôme Moueza, Alexis Paillet, Bruno Vella, Gonzalo Campos Garrido, Jean-Charles Damery, Chantal Panem, Johan Panh, Simon Bandler, Jean-Marc Biffi, Kevin Boyce, Antoine Clénet, Michael DiPirro, Pierre Jamotton, Simone Lotti, Denis Schwander, Stephen Smith, Bert-Joost van Leeuwen, Henk van Weers, Thorsten Brand, Beatriz Cobo, Thomas Dauser, Jelle de Plaa, Edoardo Cucchetti
Author Affiliations +
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" 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 brie y 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).
© (2016) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Didier Barret, Thien Lam Trong, Jan-Willem den Herder, Luigi Piro, Xavier Barcons, Juhani Huovelin, Richard Kelley, J. Miguel Mas-Hesse, Kazuhisa Mitsuda, Stéphane Paltani, Gregor Rauw, Agata Rożanska, Joern Wilms, Marco Barbera, Enrico Bozzo, Maria Teresa Ceballos, Ivan Charles, Anne Decourchelle, Roland den Hartog, Jean-Marc Duval, Fabrizio Fiore, Flavio Gatti, Andrea Goldwurm, Brian Jackson, Peter Jonker, Caroline Kilbourne, Claudio Macculi, Mariano Mendez, Silvano Molendi, Piotr Orleanski, François Pajot, Etienne Pointecouteau, Frederick Porter, Gabriel W. Pratt, Damien Prêle, Laurent Ravera, Etienne Renotte, Joop Schaye, Keisuke Shinozaki, Luca Valenziano, Jacco Vink, Natalie Webb, Noriko Yamasaki, Françoise Delcelier-Douchin, Michel Le Du, Jean-Michel Mesnager, Alice Pradines, Graziella Branduardi-Raymont, Mauro Dadina, Alexis Finoguenov, Yasushi Fukazawa, Agnieszka Janiuk, Jon Miller, Yaël Nazé, Fabrizio Nicastro, Salvatore Sciortino, Jose Miguel Torrejon, Hervé Geoffray, Isabelle Hernandez, Laure Luno, Philippe Peille, Jérôme André, Christophe Daniel, Christophe Etcheverry, Emilie Gloaguen, Jérémie Hassin, Gilles Hervet, Irwin Maussang, Jérôme Moueza, Alexis Paillet, Bruno Vella, Gonzalo Campos Garrido, Jean-Charles Damery, Chantal Panem, Johan Panh, Simon Bandler, Jean-Marc Biffi, Kevin Boyce, Antoine Clénet, Michael DiPirro, Pierre Jamotton, Simone Lotti, Denis Schwander, Stephen Smith, Bert-Joost van Leeuwen, Henk van Weers, Thorsten Brand, Beatriz Cobo, Thomas Dauser, Jelle de Plaa, and Edoardo Cucchetti "The Athena X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU)", Proc. SPIE 9905, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2016: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray, 99052F (17 August 2016); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2232432
Lens.org Logo
CITATIONS
Cited by 123 scholarly publications.
Advertisement
Advertisement
RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS
Get copyright permission  Get copyright permission on Copyright Marketplace
KEYWORDS
X-rays

Spectral resolution

Stars

Electronics

Galactic astronomy

Sensors

Iron

RELATED CONTENT

The OGRESS sounding rocket payload
Proceedings of SPIE (September 26 2013)
The Constellation-X Observatory
Proceedings of SPIE (July 16 2008)
SMART-X: Square Meter Arcsecond Resolution x-ray Telescope
Proceedings of SPIE (September 17 2012)
The Chandra X-Ray Observatory: progress report and highlights
Proceedings of SPIE (September 25 2012)

Back to Top