The FORCE mission: science aim and instrument parameter for broadband x-ray imaging spectroscopy with good angular resolution

FORCE is a 1.2 tonnes small mission dedicated for wide-band fine-imaging x-ray observation. It covers from 1 to 80 keV with a good angular resolution of 15′′ half-power-diameter. It is proposed to be launched around mid2020s and designed to reach a limiting sensitivity as good as FX(10 − 40 keV) = 3 × 10−15 erg cm−2 s −1 keV−1 within 1 Ms. This number is one order of magnitude better than current best one. With its high-sensitivity wideband coverage, FORCE will probe the new science field of “missing BHs”, searching for families of black holes of which populations and evolutions are not well known. Other point-source and diffuse-source sciences are also considered. FORCE will also provide the “hard x-ray coverage” to forthcoming large soft x-ray observatories.

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