Hernanz, Margarita and Feroci, Marco and Evangelista, Yuri and Meuris, Aline and Schanne, Stephane and Zampa, Gianluigi and Tenzer, Chris and Bayer, Jörg and Nowosielski, Witold and Michalska, Malgorzata and Kalemci, Emrah and Sungur, Müberra and Brandt, Soren and Kuvvetli, İrfan and Franco, Daniel Alvarez and Carmona, Alex and Gálvez, José-Luis and Patruno, Alessandro and Zand, Jean in' t and Zwart, Frans and Santangelo, Andrea and Bozzo, Enrico and Zhang, Shuang-Nan and Lu, Fangjun and Xu, Yupeng and Campana, Riccardo and Del Monte, Ettore and Ceraudo, Francesco and Nuti, Alessio and Della Casa, Giovanni and Argan, Andrea and Minervini, Gabriele and Antonelli, Matias and Bonvicini, Valter and Boezio, Mirko and Cirrincione, Daniela and Munini, Riccardo and Rachevski, Alexandre and Vacchi, Andrea and Zampa, Nicola and Rashevskaya, Irina and Ficorella, Francesco and Picciotto, Antonino and Zorzi, Nicola and Baudin, David and Bouyjou, Florent and Gevin, Olivier and Limousin, Olivier and Hedderman, Paul and Pliego, Samuel and Xiong, Hao and De la Rie, Rob and Laubert, Phillip and Aitink-Kroes, Gabby and Kuiper, Lucien and Orleanski, Piotr and Skup, Konrad and Tcherniak, Denis and Turhan, Onur and Bozkurt, Ayhan and Onat, Ahmet
(2024)
The wide field monitor (WFM) of the China-Europe eXTP (enhanced x-ray timing and polarimetry) mission.
In: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation,
Yokohoma, Japan
Abstract
The eXTP (enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry) mission is a major project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), with a large involvement of Europe. Its scientific payload includes four instruments: SFA (Spectroscopy Focusing Array), PFA (Polarimetry Focusing Array), LAD (Large Area Detector) and WFM (Wide Field Monitor). They offer an unprecedented simultaneous wide-band Xray timing and polarimetry sensitivity. A large European consortium is contributing to the eXTP study, both for the science and the instrumentation. Europe is expected to provide two of the four instruments: LAD and WFM; the LAD is led by Italy and the WFM by Spain. The WFM for eXTP is based on the design originally proposed for the LOFT ESA M3 mission, that underwent a Phase A feasibility study. It will be a wide field of view X-ray monitor instrument working in the 2-50 keV energy range, achieved with large-area Silicon Drift Detectors (SDDs), similar to the ones used for the LAD but with better spatial resolution. The WFM will consist of 3 pairs of coded mask cameras with a total combined field of view (FoV) of 90x180 degrees at zero response and a source localisation accuracy of ~1 arc min. The main goal of the WFM onboard eXTP is to provide triggers for the target of opportunity observations of the narrow field of view instruments (SFA, PFA and LAD), in order to perform the core science observation programme, dedicated to the study of matter under extreme conditions of density, gravity and magnetism. In addition, the unprecedented combination of large field of view and imaging capability, down to 2 keV, of the WFM will allow eXTP to make important discoveries of the variable and transient X-ray sky, and provide X-ray coverage of a broad range of astrophysical objects covered under 'observatory science', such as gamma-ray bursts, fast radio bursts, gravitational wave electromagnetic counterparts. In this paper we provide an overview of the WFM instrument, explaining its design, configuration, and anticipated performance. Right now, eXTP is in phase B2, after a successful I-SRR (Instrument System Requirements Review). It is waiting for the adoption of the whole eXTP mission in China. Details about the current work in Phase B2, including the manufacturing and testing of the demonstration models of the WFM subsystems, will be presented, paying also a special emphasis on the collaboration with space dedicated industrial partners.
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