The Athena X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU)
Creators: name: Barret, Didier
name: Trong, Thien Lam
name: Herder, Jan-Willem den
name: Piro, Luigi
name: Barcons, Xavier
name: Huovelin, Juhani
name: Kelley, Richard
name: Mas-Hesse, J. Miguel
name: Mitsuda, Kazuhisa
name: Paltani, Stéphane
name: Rauw, Gregor
name: Rożanska, Agata
name: Wilms, Joern
name: Barbera, Marco
name: Bozzo, Enrico
name: Ceballos, Maria Teresa
name: Charles, Ivan
name: Decourchelle, Anne
name: Hartog, Roland den
name: Duval, Jean-Marc
name: Fiore, Fabrizio
name: Gatti, Flavio
name: Goldwurm, Andrea
name: Jackson, Brian
name: Jonker, Peter
name: Kilbourne, Caroline
name: Macculi, Claudio
name: Mendez, Mariano
name: Molendi, Silvano
name: Orleanski, Piotr
name: Pajot, François
name: Pointecouteau, Etienne
name: Porter, Frederick
name: Pratt, Gabriel W.
name: Prêle, Damien
name: Ravera, Laurent
name: Renotte, Etienne
name: Schaye, Joop
name: Shinozaki, Keisuke
name: Valenziano, Luca
name: Vink, Jacco
name: Webb, Natalie
name: Yamasaki, Noriko
name: Delcelier-Douchin, Françoise
name: Du, Michel Le
name: Mesnager, Jean-Michel
name: Pradines, Alice
name: Branduardi-Raymont, Graziella
name: Dadina, Mauro
name: Finoguenov, Alexis
name: Fukazawa, Yasushi
name: Janiuk, Agnieszka
name: Miller, Jon
name: Nazé, Yaël
name: Nicastro, Fabrizio
name: Sciortino, Salvatore
name: Torrejon, Jose Miguel
name: Geoffray, Hervé
name: Hernandez, Isabelle
name: Luno, Laure
name: Peille, Philippe
name: André, Jérôme
name: Daniel, Christophe
name: Etcheverry, Christophe
name: Gloaguen, Emilie
name: Hassin, Jérémie
name: Hervet, Gilles
name: Maussang, Irwin
name: Moueza, Jérôme
name: Paillet, Alexis
name: Vella, Bruno
name: Garrido, Gonzalo Campos
name: Damery, Jean-Charles
name: Panem, Chantal
name: Panh, Johan
name: Bandler, Simon
name: Biffi, Jean-Marc
name: Boyce, Kevin
name: Clénet, Antoine
name: DiPirro, Michael
name: Jamotton, Pierre
name: Lotti, Simone
name: Schwander, Denis
name: Smith, Stephen
name: van Leeuwen, Bert-Joost
name: van Weers, Henk
name: Brand, Thorsten
name: Cobo, Beatriz
name: Dauser, Thomas
name: de Plaa, Jelle
name: Cucchetti, Edoardo
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2016
Subjects: subject: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)
subject: Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO)
subject: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)
subject: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: 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 arc second 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.
description: 41 pages, 18 Figures