The Large Area Detector for the eXTP mission

Author(s)
Marco Feroci, Giovanni Ambrosi, Matias Antonelli, Andrea Argan, Viktor Babinec, Marco Barbera, Paolo Bastia, Joerg Bayer, Pierluigi Bellutti, Bruna Bertucci, Giuseppe Bertuccio, Federica Bonfitto, Valter Bonvicini, Enrico Bozzo, David Baudin, Florent Bouyjou, Daniele Brienza, Franck Cadoux, Riccardo Campana, Roberto Candia, Jiewei Cao, Elisabetta Cavazzuti, Francesco Ceraudo, Tianxiang Chen, Wen Chen, Artur Coimbra, Angelo Colucci, Xiaoqing Cong, Daniela Cirrincione, Nicolas De Angelis, Alessandra De Rosa, Giovanni Della Casa, Ettore Del Monte, Gaspare Di Cicca, Sergio Di Cosimo, Giuseppe Dilillo, Roman Dohnal, Immacolata Donnarumma, Yuri Evangelista, Peng Fan, Qingmei Fan, Yannick Favre, Emanuele Fiandrini, Francesco Ficorella, Na Gao, Olivier Gevin, Marco Grassi, Manuel Guedel, Alejandro Guzman Cabrera, Dong Han, Huilin He, Paul Hedderman, Jan Willem den Herder, Richard Hynek, Merlin Reynaard Kole, Vladimir Karas, Martin Komarek, Claudio Labanti, Daniel La Marra, Giuseppe Lesci, Gang Li, Loghui Li, Tiangtong Li, Olivier Limousin, Hongwei Liu, Rui Liu, Yichen Liu, Xiaojing Liu, Ugo Lo Cicero, Jens Loehring, Giovanni Lombardi, Fang Jun Lu, Tao Luo, Piero Malcovati, Andrea Marinucci, Filippo Mele, Vasco Mendes, Martin Merkl, Aline Meuris, Malgorzata Michalska, Alfredo Morbidini, Gianluca Morgante, Fabio Muleri, Riccardo Munini, Lorenzo Mussolin, Barbara Negri, Petr Novák, Witold Nowosielski, Alessio Nuti, Piotr Orleanski, Roland Ottensamer, Luigi Pacciani, Stephane Paltani, Teng Pan, Giancarlo Pepponi, Emanuele Perinati, Raffaele Piazzolla, Antonino Picciotto, Samuel Pliego, Andreas Putz, Alexandre Rachevski, Irina Rashevskaia, Alina Samusenko, Andrea Santangelo, Stephane Schanne, Roberto Serafinelli, Konrad Skup, Libor Sveda, Jiri Svoboda, Chris Tenzer, Michela Todaro, Gabriel Torok, Alessio Trois, Andrea Vacchi, Salvatore Varisco, Francesco Villa, Enrico Virgilli, Hongwen Xiang, Hao Xiong, Jian Wang, Xianqi Wang, Berend Winter, Zhenyu Wu, Xin Wu, Yupeng Xu, Ganluigi Zampa, Nicola Zampa, Andrzej A. Zdziarski, Long Zhang, Shu Zhang, Shuang Nan Zhang, Yonghe Zhang, Wenda Zhang, Qiao Zhao, Cheng Zhu, Xiaofei Zhu, Nicola Zorzi
Abstract

The Large Area Detector (LAD) is the high-throughput, spectral-timing instrument designed for the eXTP (enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry) mission, a major project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and China National Space Administration. The eXTP science case involves the study of matter under extreme conditions of gravity, density and magnetism. The eXTP mission is currently performing a phase B study, expected to be completed by the end of 2024. The target launch date is end-2029. Until recently, the eXTP scientific payload included four instruments (Spectroscopy Focusing Array, Polarimetry Focusing Array, Large Area Detector and Wide Field Monitor) offering unprecedented simultaneous wide-band X-ray timing and polarimetry sensitivity. The mission designed was however rescoped in early 2024 to meet the programmatic requirements of a final mission adoption in the context of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Negotiations are still ongoing at agency level to assess the feasibility of a European participation to the payload implementation, by providing the LAD and WFM instruments, through a European Consortium composed of institutes from Italy, Spain, Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland and Turkey. At the time of writing, the LAD instrument is thus a scientific payload proposed for inclusion on eXTP. The LAD instrument for eXTP is based on the design originally proposed for the LOFT mission within the ESA-M3 context. The eXTP/LAD envisages a deployed >3 m2 effective area in the 2-30 keV energy range, achieved through the technology of the large-area Silicon Drift Detectors - offering a spectral resolution of up to 200 eV FWHM at 6 keV - and of capillary plate collimators - limiting the field of view to about 1 degree. In this paper we provide an overview of the LAD instrument design and the status of its maturity when approaching nearly the end of its phase B study.

Organisation(s)
Department of Astrophysics
External organisation(s)
INAF-Osservatorio Astrofisico di Torino, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Roma, Université de Genève, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Perugia, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Sezione di Trieste, s.r.o., Università degli Studi di Palermo, Thales Alenia Space - Italy, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Mobile and Social Computing Lab (MobS), Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK), Trento, Italy., Università degli Studi di Perugia, Politecnico di Milano, Université Paris Saclay, Space Science Data Center (SSDC) - Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI), Instituto Nazionale die Astrofisica (INAF), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Innovation Academy for Microsatellites of CAS, North Night Vision Technology Co. Ltd, Università degli Studi di Udine, China Academy of Space Technology, Università degli studi di Pavia, University of Vienna, SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research , Czech Academy of Sciences, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology Chinese Academy of Sciences, Science and Operations Department - Science Division (SCI-SC), INAF -Osservatorio Astronomico di Cagliari, Polish Academy of Sciences (PAS), Frentech Aerospace s.r.o., Silesian University in Opava, University College London
Volume
13093
No. of pages
15
Publication date
10-2024
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
103003 Astronomy, 103004 Astrophysics
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials, Condensed Matter Physics, Computer Science Applications, Applied Mathematics, Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/f0fbd2ea-6705-4580-a156-60d47461f7e9