MAXIM science and technology

Cash, Webster; Gendreau, Keith C.

doi:10.1117/12.551966

Cited by 9 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…-Mirrors: X-ray mirrors require grazing incidence for effective reflection, where incidence angles θ g of typically less than a degree are needed, depending on photon energy and mirror material. Various studies have been performed, ranging from a single spacecraft approach [73] with a relatively modest resolution of 100 μas, a basic two spacecraft configuration [13] at a separation of a few hundred km, to a full constellation of collecting spacecraft plus a detector spacecraft [12], extending over 20,000 km and providing an angular resolution of 0.1 μas. The latter separations sound extreme but might be significantly mitigated by the optics design (see below).…”

Section: Interferometry Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

The high energy Universe at ultra-high resolution: the power and promise of X-ray interferometry

et al. 2021

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We propose the development of X-ray interferometry (XRI), to reveal the Universe at high energies with ultra-high spatial resolution. With baselines which can be accommodated on a single spacecraft, XRI can reach 100 μ as resolution at 10 Å (1.2 keV) and 20 μ as at 2 Å (6 keV), enabling imaging and imaging-spectroscopy of (for example) X-ray coronae of nearby accreting supermassive black holes (SMBH) and the SMBH ‘shadow’; SMBH accretion flows and outflows; X-ray binary winds and orbits; stellar coronae within $\sim $ ∼ 100 pc and many exoplanets which transit across them. For sufficiently luminous sources XRI will resolve sub-pc scales across the entire observable Universe, revealing accreting binary SMBHs and enabling trigonometric measurements of the Hubble constant with X-ray light echoes from quasars or explosive transients. A multi-spacecraft ‘constellation’ interferometer would resolve well below 1 μ as, enabling SMBH event horizons to be resolved in many active galaxies and the detailed study of the effects of strong field gravity on the dynamics and emission from accreting gas close to the black hole.

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Section: Interferometry Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

The high energy Universe at ultra-high resolution: the power and promise of X-ray interferometry

et al. 2021

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“…• Mirrors: X-ray mirrors require grazing incidence for effective reflection, where incidence angles θ g of typically less than a degree are needed, depending on photon energy and mirror material. Various studies have been performed, ranging from a single spacecraft approach [71] with a relatively modest resolution of 100 µas, a basic two spacecraft configuration [13] at a separation of a few 100 km, to a full constellation of collecting spacecraft plus a detector spacecraft [12], extending over 20,000 km and providing an angular resolution of 0.1 µas. The latter separations sound extreme but might be significantly mitigated by the optics design (see below).…”

Section: Interferometry Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

The high energy universe at ultra-high resolution: the power and promise of X-ray interferometry

Uttley,

Hartog,

Bambi

et al. 2019

Preprint

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“…At the expense of an extra reflection, the size of the optical constellation can be brought down from the focal length (depending on desired angular resolution several 10's to 10's of thousands km, see e.g. [5] and [6]). An optical test of the concept was already performed in 2005 [7], but a proper X-ray demonstration has never taken place.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The development of a testbed for the x-ray interferometry mission

Hartog

Uttley

Willingale

et al. 2020

Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2020: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray

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An X-ray Interferometer (XRI) has recently been proposed as a theme for ESA's Voyage 2050 planning cycle, with the eventual goal to observe the X-ray sky with an unprecedented angular resolution better than 1 micro arcsec (5 prad) [1]. A scientifically very interesting mission is possible on the basis of a single spacecraft [2], owing to the compact 'telephoto' design proposed earlier by Willingale [3]. Between the practical demonstration of X-ray interferometry at 1 keV by Cash et al. [4] with a 1 mm baseline and 0.1 arcsec effective resolution to a mission flying an interferometer with a baseline of one or more meters, an effective collecting area of square meters and micro arcsec resolution lie many milestones. The first important steps to scale up from a laboratory experiment to a viable mission concept will have to be taken on a scalable and flexible testbed set-up. Such a testbed cannot singularly focus on the optical aspects, but should simultaneously address the thermal and mechanical stability of the interferometer. A particular challenge is the coherent X-ray source, which should provide a wavefront at the entrance of the interferometer that is transversely coherent over a distance at least equal to the baseline, and bright enough.In this paper, we will explore the build-up of a testbed in several stages, with increasing requirements on optical quality and associated thermo-mechanical control and source sophistication, with the intent to guide the technological development of X-ray interferometry from the lab to space in a sequence of achievable milestones.

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MAXIM science and technology

Cited by 9 publications

References 17 publications

The high energy Universe at ultra-high resolution: the power and promise of X-ray interferometry

The high energy Universe at ultra-high resolution: the power and promise of X-ray interferometry

The high energy universe at ultra-high resolution: the power and promise of X-ray interferometry

The development of a testbed for the x-ray interferometry mission

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