Abstract. We present the catalogue resulting from the ESO Nearby Abell Cluster Survey (the ENACS), which contains redshifts and magnitudes for 5634 galaxies in the directions of 107 rich, nearby southern Abell cluster candidates. We describe the contents of the catalogue and discuss the results of a comparison between the ENACS catalogue and the COSMOS Galaxy Catalogue.When cross-correlating the two catalogues we find that, at least in the areas of the ENACS clusters, the completeness of the COSMOS catalogue is somewhat lower than was estimated previously for the carefully analyzed and well-calibrated part of the COSMOS catalogue known as the Edinburgh-Durham Southern Galaxy Survey (EDSGC).The galaxy positions in the COSMOS and ENACS catalogues are found to be on the same system to within about one arcsecond.For the clusters for which the photometry in the ENACS and COSMOS catalogues is based on the same survey plates, the two magnitude scales agree very well. We confirm that the photometric calibration in the EDSGC subset of the COSMOS catalogue is of higher quality than in the EDSGC complement.The ENACS galaxy samples are unbiased subsets of the COSMOS catalogue as far as the projected galaxy distribution is concerned, except in only a few cases. We summarize how the ENACS galaxy samples are subsets of the COSMOS catalogues in the ENACS apertures, with reSend offprint requests to: P. Katgert Based on observations collected at the European Southern Observatory (La Silla, Chile).http://www.astrsp-mrs.fr/www/enacs.html Tables 2 and 5, as well as the full ENACS catalogue are only available in electronic form at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsweb.ustrasbg.fr/Abstract.html spect to magnitude. For the ENACS catalogue as a whole, we describe the apparent incompleteness at faint magnitudes and towards higher redshifts. Finally, we provide some detailed information about the ENACS catalogue that is essential for its proper statistical use and we summarize some facts that must be remembered when selecting subsets of galaxies from it.

We have developed a theory of quasiparticle and phonon energy downconversion in nonequilibrium superconductors following the absorption of an energetic photon. This stage of energy downconversion cascade is important for the production of quasiparticles and is shown to split into two phases. The first is controlled by the evolution of the phonon distribution while the second is dominated by quasiparticle downconversion. The relative durations of the two phases and hence the rates of quasiparticle generation depend on material parameters, and most common superconductors could be classified into three different groups. For typical superconductors used for x-ray detection the downconversion cascade was shown to be fast compared to various time scales in the tunneling regime.

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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 briefly 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).The X-IFU will be provided by an international consortium led by France, The Netherlands and Italy, with further ESA member state contributions from Belgium, Finland, Germany, Poland, Spain, Switzerland and two international partners from the United States and Japan.

Context. Earth-sized planets around nearby stars are being detected for the first time by ground-based radial velocity and space-based transit surveys. This milestone is opening the path toward the definition of instruments able to directly detect the light from these planets, with the identification of bio-signatures as one of the main objectives. In that respect, both the European Space Agency (ESA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have identified nulling interferometry as one of the most promising techniques. The ability to study distant planets will however depend on the amount of exozodiacal dust in the habitable zone of the target stars. Aims. We assess the impact of exozodiacal clouds on the performance of an infrared nulling interferometer in the Emma X-array configuration. The first part of the study is dedicated to the effect of the disc brightness on the number of targets that can be surveyed and studied by spectroscopy during the mission lifetime. In the second part, we address the impact of asymmetric structures in the discs such as clumps and offset which can potentially mimic the planetary signal. Methods. We use the DarwinSIM software which was designed and validated to study the performance of space-based nulling interferometers. The software has been adapted to handle images of exozodiacal discs and to compute the corresponding demodulated signal. Results. For the nominal mission architecture with 2-m aperture telescopes, centrally symmetric exozodiacal dust discs about 100 times denser than the solar zodiacal cloud can be tolerated in order to survey at least 150 targets during the mission lifetime. Considering modeled resonant structures created by an Earth-like planet orbiting at 1 AU around a Sun-like star, we show that this tolerable dust density goes down to about 15 times the solar zodiacal density for face-on systems and decreases with the disc inclination. Conclusions. Whereas the disc brightness only affects the integration time, the presence of clumps or offset is more problematic and can hamper the planet detection. Based on the worst-case scenario for debris disc structures, the upper limit on the tolerable exozodiacal dust density is approximately 15 times the density of the solar zodiacal cloud. This gives the typical sensitivity that we will need to reach on exozodiacal discs in order to prepare the scientific programme of future Earth-like planet characterisation missions.