The Athena X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU)

TL;DR

The Athena X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU) is a high-resolution spectrometer designed for the Athena space observatory, enabling detailed spatial and spectral X-ray observations to advance astrophysical research.

Contribution

This paper reviews the core scientific objectives, design, and predicted performance of the X-IFU instrument for the Athena mission, highlighting potential improvements.

Findings

Spectral resolution of 2.5 eV up to 7 keV

Field of view of 5 arc minutes with 5 arc second pixels

International collaboration from multiple countries

Abstract

The X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU) on board the Advanced Telescope for High-ENergy Astrophysics (Athena) will provide spatially resolved high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy from 0.2 to 12 keV, with 5 arc second pixels over a field of view of 5 arc minute equivalent diameter and a spectral resolution of 2.5 eV up to 7 keV. In this paper, we first review the core scientific objectives of Athena, driving the main performance parameters of the X-IFU, namely the spectral resolution, the field of view, the effective area, the count rate capabilities, the instrumental background. We also illustrate the breakthrough potential of the X-IFU for some observatory science goals. Then we briefly describe the X-IFU design as defined at the time of the mission consolidation review concluded in May 2016, and report on its predicted performance. Finally, we discuss some options to improve the instrument performance while not increasing its complexity and resource demands (e.g. count rate capability, spectral resolution). The X-IFU will be provided by an international consortium led by France, The Netherlands and Italy, with further ESA member state contributions from Belgium, Finland, Germany, Poland, Spain, Switzerland and two international partners from the United States and Japan.