A broadband x-ray imaging spectroscopy with high-angular resolution: the FORCE mission

We are proposing FORCE (Focusing On Relativistic universe and Cosmic Evolution) as a future Japan-lead Xray observatory to be launched in the mid 2020s. Hitomi (ASTRO-H) possesses a suite of sensitive instruments enabling the highest energy-resolution spectroscopy in soft X-ray band, a broadband X-ray imaging spectroscopy in soft and hard X-ray bands, and further high energy coverage up to soft gamma-ray band. FORCE is the direct successor to the broadband X-ray imaging spectroscopy aspect of Hitomi (ASTRO-H) with significantly higher angular resolution. The current design of FORCE defines energy band pass of 1-80 keV with angular resolution of < 15 in half-power diameter, achieving a 10 times higher sensitivity above 10 keV compared to any previous missions with simultaneous soft X-ray coverage. Our primary scientific objective is to trace the cosmic formation history by searching for "missing black holes" in various mass-scales: "buried supermassive black holes (SMBHs)" (> 104 M☉) residing in the center of galaxies in a cosmological distance, "intermediate-mass black holes" (102–104 M☉) acting as the possible seeds from which SMBHs grow, and "orphan stellar-mass black holes" (< 102 M☉) without companion in our Galaxy. In addition to these missing BHs, hunting for the nature of relativistic particles at various astrophysical shocks is also in our scope, utilizing the broadband X-ray coverage with high angular-resolution. FORCE are going to open a new era in these fields. The satellite is proposed to be launched with the Epsilon vehicle that is a Japanese current solid-fuel rocket. FORCE carries three identical pairs of Super-mirror and wide-band X-ray detector. The focal length is currently planned to be 10 m. The silicon mirror with multi-layer coating is our primary choice to achieve lightweight, good angular optics. The detector is a descendant of hard X-ray imager onboard Hitomi (ASTRO-H) replacing its silicon strip detector with SOI-CMOS silicon pixel detector, allowing an extension of the low energy threshold down to 1 keV or even less.

[1]  Leon P. Van Speybroeck.  Grazing Incidence Optics For The U.S. High-Resolution X-Ray Astronomy Program , 1988, Optics & Photonics.

[2]  Hideyo Kunieda,et al.  The X-ray telescope on board ASCA , 1995 .

[3]  Naomi Ota,et al.  X-ray spectroscopy of clusters of galaxies , 2012, 1211.0679.

[4]  Yoshiharu Namba,et al.  Characterization of the supermirror hard-x-ray telescope for the InFOCmuS balloon experiment. , 2002, Applied optics.

[5]  Kai-Wing Chan,et al.  Production and performance of the inFOCmicroS 20-40-keV graded multilayer mirror. , 2013, Applied optics.

[6]  Makoto Sawada,et al.  Synchrotron X-ray diagnostics of cutoff shape of nonthermal electron spectrum at young supernova remnants , 2013, 1301.7499.

[7]  G. Neugebauer,et al.  Ultraluminous infrared galaxies and the origin of quasars , 1988 .

[8]  Takao Nakagawa,et al.  A Spitzer IRS Low-Resolution Spectroscopic Search for Buried AGNs in Nearby Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies: A Constraint on Geometry between Energy Sources and Dust , 2007, astro-ph/0702136.

[9]  P. Hopkins,et al.  Determining the Properties and Evolution of Red Galaxies from the Quasar Luminosity Function , 2005, astro-ph/0508167.

[10]  P A de Korte.  High-throughput replica optics. , 1988, Applied optics.

[11]  Aya Kubota,et al.  The Nature of Ultraluminous Compact X-Ray Sources in Nearby Spiral Galaxies , 2000, astro-ph/0001009.

[12]  M. Turler,et al.  INTEGRAL hard X-ray spectra of the cosmic X-ray background and Galactic ridge emission , 2010, 1001.2110.

[13]  Riccardo Giacconi,et al.  A “telescope” for soft X‐ray astronomy , 1960 .

[14]  William W. Zhang,et al.  Lightweight and high-resolution single crystal silicon optics for x-ray astronomy , 2016, Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[15]  Motohide Kokubun,et al.  The hard x-ray imager (HXI) onboard ASTRO-H , 2016, Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[16]  Yoshiharu Namba,et al.  The ASTRO-H X-ray astronomy satellite , 2014, Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation.

[17]  S. Reynolds,et al.  Maximum Energies of Shock-accelerated Electrons in Young Shell Supernova Remnants , 1999 .

[18]  Shunsaku Okada,et al.  The X-Ray Telescope onboard Suzaku , 2007 .

[19]  Kristin K. Madsen,et al.  NuSTAR OBSERVATIONS OF THE BULLET CLUSTER: CONSTRAINTS ON INVERSE COMPTON EMISSION , 2014, 1403.2722.

[20]  Laura Brenneman,et al.  THE BROAD-BAND X-RAY SPECTRUM OF IC 4329A FROM A JOINT NuSTAR/SUZAKU OBSERVATION , 2014, 1404.7486.

[21]  Philippe Gondoin,et al.  X-ray multi-mirror (XMM) telescope , 1994, Optics & Photonics.

[22]  Aya Bamba,et al.  Small-Scale Structure of the SN 1006 Shock with Chandra Observations , 2003 .

[23]  Motohide Kokubun,et al.  Suzaku Detection of Extended/Diffuse Hard X-Ray Emission from the Galactic Center , 2007, 0709.1580.

[24]  Luigi Gallo,et al.  The Canadian Astro-H metrology system , 2012, Other Conferences.

[25]  Ronald A. Remillard,et al.  X-Ray Properties of Black-Hole Binaries , 2006, astro-ph/0606352.

[26]  Hideyuki Mori,et al.  First peek of ASTRO-H Soft X-ray Telescope (SXT) in-orbit performance , 2016, Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[27]  R. Petre,et al.  Evidence for shock acceleration of high-energy electrons in the supernova remnant SN1006 , 1995, Nature.

[28]  Shoji Kawahito,et al.  Development and performance of Kyoto's x-ray astronomical SOI pixel (SOIPIX) sensor , 2014, Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation.

[29]  Takamitsu Miyaji,et al.  TOWARD THE STANDARD POPULATION SYNTHESIS MODEL OF THE X-RAY BACKGROUND: EVOLUTION OF X-RAY LUMINOSITY AND ABSORPTION FUNCTIONS OF ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI INCLUDING COMPTON-THICK POPULATIONS , 2014 .

[30]  Yoshiharu Namba,et al.  Performance of ASTRO-H hard x-ray telescope (HXT) , 2016, Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[31]  Joern Wilms,et al.  THE REFLECTION COMPONENT FROM CYGNUS X-1 IN THE SOFT STATE MEASURED BY NuSTAR AND SUZAKU , 2013, 1310.3830.

[32]  Paolo Conconi,et al.  Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) Conference Series , 2012 .

[33]  Felix A. Aharonian,et al.  Extremely fast acceleration of cosmic rays in a supernova remnant , 2007, Nature.

[34]  William W. Zhang,et al.  Manufacture of mirror glass substrates for the NuSTAR mission , 2009, Optical Engineering + Applications.

[35]  Kristin K. Madsen,et al.  Extended hard-X-ray emission in the inner few parsecs of the Galaxy , 2015, Nature.

[36]  D. J. Walton,et al.  A rapidly spinning supermassive black hole at the centre of NGC 1365 , 2013, Nature.

[37]  Gordon Tajiri,et al.  Fabrication of the NuSTAR flight optics , 2011, Optical Engineering + Applications.

[38]  Mark J. Devlin,et al.  First light of a hard-x-ray imaging experiment: the InFOCμS balloon flight , 2005, SPIE Optics + Photonics.

[39]  T. Nakamura,et al.  Emission from Isolated Black Holes and MACHOs Accreting from the Interstellar Medium , 1997, astro-ph/9712284.

[40]  Hiroshi Tsunemi,et al.  Thermal X-ray emission with intense 6.7-keV iron line from the galactic ridge. , 1986 .

[41]  Bernd Aschenbach.  Design, Construction, And Performance Of The ROSAT High-Resolution X-Ray Mirror Assembly , 1988, Optics & Photonics.

[42]  P J Serlemitsos.  Conical foil x-ray mirrors: performance and projections. , 1988, Applied optics.

[43]  Van Speybroeck.  Design, Fabrication And Expected Performance Of The HEAO-B X-Ray Telescope , 1977 .