TY - GEN
T1 - Large Observatory for x-ray Timing (LOFT-P)
T2 - Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2016: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray
AU - behalf of the LOFT Consortium, the US-LOFT SWG, and the LOFT-P collaboration
AU - Wilson-Hodge, Colleen A.
AU - Ray, Paul S.
AU - Chakrabarty, Deepto
AU - Feroci, Marco
AU - Alvarez, Laura
AU - Baysinger, Michael
AU - Becker, Chris
AU - Bozzo, Enrico
AU - Brandt, Soren
AU - Carson, Billy
AU - Chapman, Jack
AU - Dominguez, Alexandra
AU - Fabisinski, Leo
AU - Gangl, Bert
AU - Garcia, Jay
AU - Griffith, Christopher
AU - Hernanz, Margarita
AU - Hickman, Robert
AU - Hopkins, Randall
AU - Hui, Michelle
AU - Ingram, Luster
AU - Jenke, Peter
AU - Korpela, Seppo
AU - Maccarone, Tom
AU - Michalska, Malgorzata
AU - Pohl, Martin
AU - Santangelo, Andrea
AU - Schanne, Stephane
AU - Schnell, Andrew
AU - Stella, Luigi
AU - Van Der Klis, Michiel
AU - Watts, Anna
AU - Winter, Berend
AU - Zane, Silvia
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 SPIE.
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - LOFT-P is a mission concept for a NASA Astrophysics Probe-Class (<$1B) X-ray timing mission, based on the LOFT M-class concept originally proposed to ESAs M3 and M4 calls. LOFT-P requires very large collecting area, high time resolution, good spectral resolution, broad-band spectral coverage (2-30 keV), highly flexible scheduling, and an ability to detect and respond promptly to time-critical targets of opportunity. It addresses science questions such as: What is the equation of state of ultra dense matter? What are the effects of strong gravity on matter spiraling into black holes? It would be optimized for sub-millisecond timing of bright Galactic X-ray sources including X-ray bursters, black hole binaries, and magnetars to study phenomena at the natural timescales of neutron star surfaces and black hole event horizons and to measure mass and spin of black holes. These measurements are synergistic to imaging and high-resolution spectroscopy instruments, addressing much smaller distance scales than are possible without very long baseline X-ray interferometry, and using complementary techniques to address the geometry and dynamics of emission regions. LOFT-P would have an effective area of >6 m2, > 10x that of the highly successful Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE). A sky monitor (2-50 keV) acts as a trigger for pointed observations, providing high duty cycle, high time resolution monitoring of the X-ray sky with ∼20 times the sensitivity of the RXTE All-Sky Monitor, enabling multi-wavelength and multimessenger studies. A probe-class mission concept would employ lightweight collimator technology and large-area solid-state detectors, segmented into pixels or strips, technologies which have been recently greatly advanced during the ESA M3 Phase A study of LOFT. Given the large community interested in LOFT (>800 supporters∗, the scientific productivity of this mission is expected to be very high, similar to or greater than RXTE (∼ 2000 refereed publications). We describe the results of a study, recently completed by the MSFC Advanced Concepts Office, that demonstrates that such a mission is feasible within a NASA probe-class mission budget.
AB - LOFT-P is a mission concept for a NASA Astrophysics Probe-Class (<$1B) X-ray timing mission, based on the LOFT M-class concept originally proposed to ESAs M3 and M4 calls. LOFT-P requires very large collecting area, high time resolution, good spectral resolution, broad-band spectral coverage (2-30 keV), highly flexible scheduling, and an ability to detect and respond promptly to time-critical targets of opportunity. It addresses science questions such as: What is the equation of state of ultra dense matter? What are the effects of strong gravity on matter spiraling into black holes? It would be optimized for sub-millisecond timing of bright Galactic X-ray sources including X-ray bursters, black hole binaries, and magnetars to study phenomena at the natural timescales of neutron star surfaces and black hole event horizons and to measure mass and spin of black holes. These measurements are synergistic to imaging and high-resolution spectroscopy instruments, addressing much smaller distance scales than are possible without very long baseline X-ray interferometry, and using complementary techniques to address the geometry and dynamics of emission regions. LOFT-P would have an effective area of >6 m2, > 10x that of the highly successful Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE). A sky monitor (2-50 keV) acts as a trigger for pointed observations, providing high duty cycle, high time resolution monitoring of the X-ray sky with ∼20 times the sensitivity of the RXTE All-Sky Monitor, enabling multi-wavelength and multimessenger studies. A probe-class mission concept would employ lightweight collimator technology and large-area solid-state detectors, segmented into pixels or strips, technologies which have been recently greatly advanced during the ESA M3 Phase A study of LOFT. Given the large community interested in LOFT (>800 supporters∗, the scientific productivity of this mission is expected to be very high, similar to or greater than RXTE (∼ 2000 refereed publications). We describe the results of a study, recently completed by the MSFC Advanced Concepts Office, that demonstrates that such a mission is feasible within a NASA probe-class mission budget.
KW - Black Holes
KW - Mission Concepts
KW - Neutron Stars
KW - Silicon Drift Detectors
KW - X-ray Timing
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85003520721&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1117/12.2232944
DO - 10.1117/12.2232944
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85003520721
T3 - Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
BT - Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2016
A2 - den Herder, Jan-Willem A.
A2 - Takahashi, Tadayuki
A2 - Bautz, Marshall
PB - SPIE
Y2 - 26 June 2016 through 1 July 2016
ER -