The Wide Field Monitor (WFM) of the China-Europe eXTP (enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry) mission
Creators: name: Hernanz, Margarita
name: Feroci, Marco
name: Evangelista, Yuri
name: Meuris, Aline
name: Schanne, Stéphane
name: Zampa, Gianluigi
name: Tenzer, Chris
name: Bayer, Jörg
name: Nowosielski, Witold
name: Michalska, Malgorzata
name: Kalemci, Emrah
name: Sungur, Müberra
name: Brandt, Søren
name: Kuvvetli, Irfan
name: Franco, Daniel Alvarez
name: Carmona, Alex
name: Gálvez, José-Luis
name: Patruno, Alessandro
name: Zand, Jean in' t
name: Zwart, Frans
name: Santangelo, Andrea
name: Bozzo, Enrico
name: Zhang, Shuang-Nan
name: Lu, Fangjun
name: Xu, Yupeng
name: Campana, Riccardo
name: Del Monte, Ettore
name: Ceraudo, Francesco
name: Nuti, Alessio
name: Della Casa, Giovanni
name: Argan, Andrea
name: Minervini, Gabriele
name: Antonelli, Matias
name: Bonvicini, Valter
name: Boezio, Mirko
name: Cirrincione, Daniela
name: Munini, Riccardo
name: Rachevski, Alexandre
name: Vacchi, Andrea
name: Zampa, Nicola
name: Rashevskaya, Irina
name: Ficorella, Francesco
name: Picciotto, Antonino
name: Zorzi, Nicola
name: Baudin, David
name: Bouyjou, Florent
name: Gevin, Olivier
name: Limousin, Olivier
name: Hedderman, Paul
name: Pliego, Samuel
name: Xiong, Hao
name: de la Rie, Rob
name: Laubert, Phillip
name: Aitink-Kroes, Gabby
name: Kuiper, Lucien
name: Orleanski, Piotr
name: Skup, Konrad
name: Tcherniak, Denis
name: Turhan, Onur
name: Bozkurt, Ayhan
name: Onat, Ahmet
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)
subject: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: The eXTP mission is a major project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), with a large involvement of Europe. Its scientific payload includes four instruments: SFA, PFA, LAD and WFM. They offer an unprecedented simultaneous wide-band Xray timing and polarimetry sensitivity. A large European consortium is contributing to the eXTP study, both for the science and the instrumentation. Europe is expected to provide two of the four instruments: LAD and WFM; the LAD is led by Italy and the WFM by Spain. The WFM for eXTP is based on the design originally proposed for the LOFT ESA M3 mission, that underwent a Phase A feasibility study. It will be a wide field of view X-ray monitor instrument working in the 2-50 keV energy range, achieved with large-area Silicon Drift Detectors (SDDs), similar to the ones used for the LAD but with better spatial resolution. The WFM will consist of 3 pairs of coded mask cameras with a total combined field of view (FoV) of 90x180 degrees at zero response and a source localisation accuracy of ~1 arc min. The main goal of the WFM is to provide triggers for the target of opportunity observations of the SFA, PFA and LAD, in order to perform the core science programme, dedicated to the study of matter under extreme conditions of density, gravity and magnetism. In addition, the unprecedented combination of large field of view and imaging capability, down to 2 keV, of the WFM will allow eXTP to make important discoveries of the variable and transient X-ray sky, and provide X-ray coverage of a broad range of astrophysical objects covered under 'observatory science', such as gamma-ray bursts, fast radio bursts, gravitational wave electromagnetic counterparts. In this paper we provide an overview of the WFM instrument, explaining its design, configuration, and anticipated performance.
description: 15 pages, 13 figures, Proceedings of SPIE 13093, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2024: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray; Proceedings Volume 13093, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2024: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray; 130931Y (2024); doi: 10.1117/12.3020020