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Arcus: The Soft X-ray Grating Explorer
Conference proceeding

Arcus: The Soft X-ray Grating Explorer

Randall K Smith, Margaret Abraham, Grace Baird, Marshall Bautz, Jay Bookbinder, Joel Bregman, Laura Brenneman, Nancy Brickhouse, David Burrows, Vadim Burwitz, …
Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering, Vol.111180W, pp.111180W-111180W-13
SPIE Optical Engineering & Applications
09/09/2019
DOI: 10.1117/12.2529499

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Abstract

Arcus provides high-resolution soft X-ray spectroscopy in the 12-50 Å bandpass with unprecedented sensitivity, including spectral resolution > 2500 and effective area > 250 cm2. The three top science goals for Arcus are (1) to measure the effects of structure formation imprinted upon the hot baryons that are predicted to lie in extended halos around galaxies, (2) to trace the propagation of outflowing mass, energy, and momentum from the vicinity of the black hole to extragalactic scales as a measure of their feedback, and (3) to explore how stars form and evolve. Arcus uses the same 12 m focal length grazing-incidence Silicon Pore X-ray Optics (SPOs) that ESA has developed for the Athena mission; the focal length is achieved on orbit via an extendable optical bench. The focused X-rays from these optics are diffracted by high-efficiency Critical-Angle Transmission (CAT) gratings, and the results are imaged with flight-proven CCD detectors and electronics. Combined with the high-heritage NGIS LEOStar-2 spacecraft and launched into 4:1 lunar resonant orbit, Arcus provides high sensitivity and high efficiency observing of a wide range of astrophysical sources.
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