The Large Observatory For x-ray Timing

0481978 - ASÚ 2018 RIV US eng C - Conference Paper (international conference)
Feroci, M. - den Herder, J.W. - Bozzo, E. - Barret, D. - Brandt, S. - Hernanz, M. - van der Klis, M. - Pohl, M. - Santangelo, A. - Stella, L. - Hudec, René - Karas, Vladimír - Sochora, Vjačeslav … Total 344 authors
The Large Observatory For x-ray Timing.
Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2014: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray. Bellingham: SPIE, 2014, 91442T/1-91442T/20. Proceedings of SPIE, 9144. ISBN 9780819496126. ISSN 0277-786X.
[Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2014. Montreal (CA), 22.06.2014-26.06.2014]
Institutional support: RVO:67985815
Keywords : X-ray timing * X-ray spectroscopy * compact objects
OECD category: Astronomy (including astrophysics,space science)

The Large Observatory For x-ray Timing (LOFT) was studied within ESA M3 Cosmic Vision framework and participated in the final downselection for a launch slot in 2022-2024. Thanks to the unprecedented combination of effective area and spectral resolution of its main instrument, LOFT will study the behaviour of matter under extreme conditions, such as the strong gravitational field in the innermost regions of accretion flows close to black holes and neutron stars, and the supranuclear densities in the interior of neutron stars. The science payload is based on a Large Area Detector (LAD, 10 m(2) effective area, 2-30 keV, 240 eV spectral resolution, 1 degrees collimated field of view) and a Wide Field Monitor (WFM, 2-50 keV, 4 steradian field of view, 1 arcmin source location accuracy, 300 eV spectral resolution). The WFM is equipped with an on-board system for bright events (e.g. GRB) localization. The trigger time and position of these events are broadcast to the ground within 30 s from discovery. In this paper we present the status of the mission at the end of its Phase A study.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0277397