The Scientific Performance of the Microchannel X-ray Telescope on board the SVOM Mission

TL;DR

The MXT on the SVOM mission is a compact, Lobster-Eye X-ray telescope designed for gamma-ray burst and time-domain astrophysics, with expected high sensitivity in the 0.2-10 keV range based on calibration tests.

Contribution

This paper presents the design and expected scientific performance of the first Lobster-Eye X-ray telescope on a space mission, including calibration results.

Findings

Calibration confirms the telescope's sensitivity in the 0.2-10 keV range.

Expected to detect and study gamma-ray bursts effectively.

Demonstrates the feasibility of Lobster-Eye optics for space X-ray telescopes.

Abstract

The Microchannel X-ray Telescope (MXT) will be the first focusing X-ray telescope based on a "Lobster-Eye" optical design to be flown on Sino-French mission SVOM. SVOM will be dedicated to the study of Gamma-Ray Bursts and more generally time-domain astrophysics. The MXT telescope is a compact (focal length ~ 1.15 m) and light (< 42 kg) instrument, sensitive in the 0.2--10 keV energy range. It is composed of an optical system, based on micro-pore optics (MPOs) of 40 micron pore size, coupled to a low-noise pnCDD X-ray detector. In this paper we describe the expected scientific performance of the MXT telescope, based on the End-to-End calibration campaign performed in fall 2021, before the integration of the SVOM payload on the satellite.