The LOFT Wide Field Monitor
S. Brandt, M. Hernanz, L. Alvarez, P. Azzarello, D. Barret, E. Bozzo,, Budtz-J{\o}rgensen, R. Campana, E. del Monte, I. Donnarumma, Y. Evangelista,, M. Feroci, J.L. Galvez Sanchez, D. G\"otz, F. Hansen, J.W. den Herder, R., Hudec, J. Huovelin, D. Karelin, S. Korpela, N. Lund

TL;DR
The LOFT Wide Field Monitor is a highly sensitive X-ray instrument designed to detect and monitor transient phenomena and long-term variability in the X-ray sky, supporting the larger LOFT mission for studying extreme astrophysical objects.
Contribution
This paper presents the design, configuration, and capabilities of the LOFT WFM instrument, highlighting its novel wide field coverage and high sensitivity for transient detection.
Findings
Wide field coverage of more than 1/3 of the sky.
Sensitivity of 2.1 mCrab in one day.
Ability to detect and localize gamma ray bursts within 30 seconds.
Abstract
LOFT (Large Observatory For x-ray Timing) is one of the four missions selected in 2011 for assessment study for the ESA M3 mission in the Cosmic Vision program, expected to be launched in 2024. The LOFT mission will carry two instruments with their prime sensitivity in the 2-30 keV range: a 10 m^2 class large area detector (LAD) with a <1{\deg} collimated field of view and a wide field monitor (WFM) instrument based on the coded mask principle, providing coverage of more than 1/3 of the sky. The LAD will provide an effective area ~20 times larger than any previous mission and will by timing studies be able to address fundamental questions about strong gravity in the vicinity of black holes and the equation of state of nuclear matter in neutron stars. The prime goal of the WFM will be to detect transient sources to be observed by the LAD. However, with its wide field of view and good…
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