Science objectives of the Einstein Probe mission
Abstrak
The Einstein Probe (EP) is an interdisciplinary mission of time-domain and X-ray astronomy. Equipped with a wide-field lobster-eye X-ray focusing imager, EP will discover cosmic X-ray transients and monitor the X-ray variability of known sources in 0.5-4 keV, at a combination of detecting sensitivity and cadence that is not accessible to the previous and current wide-field monitoring missions. EP can perform quick characterisation of transients or outbursts with a Wolter-I X-ray telescope onboard. In this paper, the science objectives of the Einstein Probe mission are presented. EP is expected to enlarge the sample of previously known or predicted but rare types of transients with a wide range of timescales. Among them, fast extragalactic transients will be surveyed systematically in soft X-rays, which include γ-ray bursts and their variants, supernova shock breakouts, and the predicted X-ray transients associated with binary neutron star mergers. EP will detect X-ray tidal disruption events and outbursts from active galactic nuclei, possibly at an early phase of the flares for some. EP will monitor the variability and outbursts of X-rays from white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes in our and neighbouring galaxies at flux levels fainter than those detectable by the current instruments, and is expected to discover new objects. A large sample of stellar X-ray flares will also be detected and characterised. In the era of multi-messenger astronomy, EP has the potential of detecting the possible X-ray counterparts of gravitational wave events, neutrino sources, and ultra-high energy γ-ray and cosmic ray sources. EP is expected to help advance the studies of extreme objects/phenomena and their underlying physical processes revealed in the dynamic X-ray universe, as well as studies in other areas of X-ray astronomy.
Topik & Kata Kunci
Penulis (96)
Weimin Yuan
Lixin Dai
Hua Feng
Chichuan Jin
Peter Jonker
Erik Kuulkers
Yuan Liu
Kirpal Nandra
Paul O'Brien
Luigi Piro
Arne Rau
Nanda Rea
Jeremy Sanders
Lian Tao
Junfeng Wang
Xuefeng Wu
Bing Zhang
Shuangnan Zhang
Shunke Ai
Johannes Buchner
Esra Bulbul
Hechao Chen
Minghua Chen
Yong Chen
Yu-Peng Chen
Alexis Coleiro
Francesco Coti Zelati
Zigao Dai
Xilong Fan
Zhou Fan
Susanne Friedrich
He Gao
Chong Ge
Mingyu Ge
Jinjun Geng
Giancarlo Ghirlanda
Giulia Gianfagna
Lijun Gou
Sébastien Guillot
Xian Hou
Jingwei Hu
Yongfeng Huang
Long Ji
Shumei Jia
S. Komossa
Albert K. H. Kong
Lin Lan
An Li
Ang Li
Chengkui Li
Dongyue Li
Jian Li
Zhaosheng Li
Zhixing Ling
Ang Liu
Jinzhong Liu
Liangduan Liu
Zhu Liu
Jiawei Luo
Ruican Ma
Pierre Maggi
Chandreyee Maitra
Alessio Marino
Stephen Chi-Yung Ng
Haiwu Pan
Surangkhana Rukdee
Roberto Soria
Hui Sun
Pak-Hin Thomas Tam
Aishwarya Linesh Thakur
Hui Tian
Eleonora Troja
Wei Wang
Xiangyu Wang
Yanan Wang
Junjie Wei
Sixiang Wen
Jianfeng Wu
Ting Wu
Di Xiao
Dong Xu
Renxin Xu
Yanjun Xu
Yu Xu
Haonan Yang
Bei You
Heng Yu
Yunwei Yu
Binbin Zhang
Chen Zhang
Guobao Zhang
Liang Zhang
Wenda Zhang
Yu Zhang
Ping Zhou
Zecheng Zou
Akses Cepat
- Tahun Terbit
- 2025
- Bahasa
- en
- Sumber Database
- arXiv
- Akses
- Open Access ✓