The Athena X-ray Integral Field Unit: a consolidated design for the system requirement review of the preliminary definition phase

Didier Barret (1) , Vincent Albouys , Jan-Willem Den Herder (2) , Luigi Piro , Massimo Cappi , Juhani Huovelin (3) , Richard Kelley , J. Miguel Mas-Hesse , Stéphane Paltani , Gregor Rauw (4) , Agata Rozanska (5) , Jiri Svoboda (6) , Joern Wilms , Noriko Yamasaki , Marc Audard (7) , Simon Bandler (8) , Marco Barbera , Xavier Barcons , Enrico Bozzo , Maria Teresa Ceballos , Ivan Charles , Elisa Costantini , Thomas Dauser , Anne Decourchelle , Lionel Duband , Jean-Marc Duval , Fabrizio Fiore , Flavio Gatti , Andrea Goldwurm (9) , Roland Den Hartog , Brian Jackson , Peter Jonker , Caroline Kilbourne , Seppo Korpela , Claudio Macculi , Mariano Mendez , Kazuhisa Mitsuda , Silvano Molendi , François Pajot , Etienne Pointecouteau , Frederick Porter , Gabriel W. Pratt , Damien Prêle (9) , Laurent Ravera , Kosuke Sato , Joop Schaye , Keisuke Shinozaki , Konrad Skup , Jan Soucek , Tanguy Thibert , Jacco Vink , Natalie Webb , Laurence Chaoul , Desi Raulin , Aurora Simionescu , Jose Miguel Torrejon , Fabio Acero , Graziella Branduardi-Raymont , Stefano Ettori , Alexis Finoguenov , Nicolas Grosso , Jelle Kaastra , Pasquale Mazzotta , Jon Miller , Giovanni Miniutti , Fabrizio Nicastro , Salvatore Sciortino , Hiroya Yamaguchi , Sophie Beaumont , Edoardo Cucchetti , Matteo d'Andrea , Megan Eckart , Philippe Ferrando , Elias Kammoun , Simone Lotti , Jean-Michel Mesnager , Lorenzo Natalucci , Philippe Peille , Jelle de Plaa , Florence Ardellier (9) , Andrea Argan , Elise Bellouard , Jérôme Carron , Elisabetta Cavazzuti , Mauro Fiorini , Pourya Khosropanah , Sylvain Martin , James Perry , Frederic Pinsard , Alice Pradines , Manuela Rigano , Peter Roelfsema , Denis Schwander , Guido Torrioli , Joel Ullom , Isabel Vera , Eduardo Medinaceli Villegas , Monika Zuchniak , Frank Brachet , Ugo Lo Cicero , William Doriese , Malcom Durkin , Valentina Fioretti , Hervé Geoffray , Lionel Jacques , Christian Kirsch , Stephen Smith , Joseph Adams , Emilie Gloaguen , Ruud Hoogeveen , Paul van der Hulst , Mikko Kiviranta , Jan van der Kuur , Aurélien Ledot , Bert-Joost van Leeuwen , Dennis van Loon , Bertrand Lyautey , Yann Parot , Kazuhiro Sakai , Henk van Weers , Shariefa Abdoelkariem , Thomas Adam , Christophe Adami , Corinne Aicardi , Hiroki Akamatsu , Pablo Eleazar Merino Alonso , Roberta Amato , Jérôme André , Matteo Angelinelli , Manuel Anon-Cancela , Shebli Anvar , Ricardo Atienza , Anthony Attard , Natalia Auricchio , Ana Balado , Florian Bancel , Lorenzo Ferrari Barusso , Vivian Bernard , Alicia Berrocal , Sylvie Blin (9) , Donata Bonino , François Bonnet , Patrick Bonny , Peter Boorman , Charles Boreux , Ayoub Bounab , Martin Boutelier , Kevin Boyce , Daniele Brienza , Marcel Bruijn , Andrea Bulgarelli , Simona Calarco , Paul Callanan , Thierry Camus , Florent Canourgues , Vito Capobianco , Nicolas Cardiel , Florent Castellani , Oscar Cheatom , James Chervenak , Fabio Chiarello , Nicolas Clerc , Laurent Clerc , Beatriz Cobo , Odile Coeur-Joly , Alexis Coleiro (9) , Stéphane Colonges (9) , Leonardo Corcione , Mickael Coriat , Alexandre Coynel , Francesco Cuttaia , Antonino d'Ai , Fabio d'Anca , Mauro Dadina , Christophe Daniel , Natalie Denigris , Johannes Dercksen , Michael Dipirro , Eric Doumayrou , Luc Dubbeldam , Michel Dupieux , Simon Dupourqué , Jean Louis Durand , Dominique Eckert , Valvanera Eiriz , Eric Ercolani , Christophe Etcheverry , Fred Finkbeiner , Mariateresa Fiocchi , Hervé Fossecave , Philippe Franssen , Martin Frericks , Stefano Gabici (9) , Florent Gant , Jian-Rong Gao , Fabio Gastaldello , Ludovic Genolet , Simona Ghizzardi , M Angeles Alcacera Gil , Elisa Giovannini , Olivier Godet , Javier Gomez-Elvira , Manuel Gonzalez (9) , Raoul Gonzalez , Luciano Gottardi , Dolorès Granat , Michel Gros , Nicolas Guignard , Paul Hieltjes , Adolfo Jesus Hurtado , Kent Irwin , Christian Jacquey , Agnieszka Janiuk , Jean Jaubert , Maria Jiménez , Antoine Jolly , Thierry Jourdan , Sabine Julien , Bartosz Kedziora , Andrew Korb , Ingo Kreykenbohm , Ole König , Mathieu Langer (10) , Philippe Laudet , Philippe Laurent , Monica Laurenza , Jean Lesrel (9) , Sebastiano Ligori , Maximilian Lorenz , Alfredo Luminari , Bruno Maffei , Océane Maisonnave , Lorenzo Marelli , Didier Massonet , Irwin Maussang , Alejandro Gonzalo Melchor , Isabelle Le Mer , Lea Michalski , Jean-Pierre Millerioux , Teresa Mineo , Gabriele Minervini , Alexeï Molin , David Monestes , Nicola Montinaro , Baptiste Mot , David Murat , Kenichiro Nagayoshi , Yaël Nazé , Loïc Noguès , Damien Pailot (9) , Francesca Panessa , Luigi Parodi , Pascal Petit , Enrico Piconcelli , Ciro Pinto , Jose Miguel Encinas Plaza , David Poyatos , Thomas Prouvé , Andy Ptak , Simonetta Puccetti , Elena Puccio , Pascale Ramon , Manuel Reina , Guillaume Rioland , Louis Rodriguez , Anton Roig , Bertrand Rollet , Mauro Roncarelli , Gilles Roudil , Tomasz Rudnicki , Julien Sanisidro , Luisa Sciortino , Vitor Silva , Michael Sordet , Javier Soto-Aguilar , Pierre Spizzi , Christian Surace , Miguel Fernández Sánchez , Emanuele Taralli , Guilhem Terrasa , Régis Terrier (9) , Michela Todaro , Pietro Ubertini , Michela Uslenghi , Jan Geralt Bij de Vaate , Davide Vaccaro , Salvatore Varisco , Peggy Varnière (9) , Laurent Vibert , María Vidriales , Fabrizio Villa , Boris Martin Vodopivec , Angela Volpe , Cor de Vries , Nicholas Wakeham , Gavin Walmsley , Michael Wise , Martin de Wit , Grzegorz Woźniak

1 IRAP - Institut de recherche en astrophysique et planétologie
2 SRON - SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research
3 Department of Physics [Helsinki]
4 Institut d'Astrophysique et de Géophysique [Liège]
5 CAMK - Centrum Astronomiczne im. M. Kopernika, Warszawa
6 FSV CTU - Faculty of Civil Engineering [Prague]
7 CAL - Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory
8 GSFC - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
9 APC (UMR_7164) - AstroParticule et Cosmologie
10 IAS - Institut d'astrophysique spatiale

The Athena X-ray Integral Unit (X-IFU) is the high resolution X-ray spectrometer, studied since 2015 for flying in the mid-30s on the Athena space X-ray Observatory, a versatile observatory designed to address the Hot and Energetic Universe science theme, selected in November 2013 by the Survey Science Committee. Based on a large format array of Transition Edge Sensors (TES), it aims to provide spatially resolved X-ray spectroscopy, with a spectral resolution of 2.5 eV (up to 7 keV) over an hexagonal field of view of 5 arc minutes (equivalent diameter). The X-IFU entered its System Requirement Review (SRR) in June 2022, at about the same time when ESA called for an overall X-IFU redesign (including the X-IFU cryostat and the cooling chain), due to an unanticipated cost overrun of Athena. In this paper, after illustrating the breakthrough capabilities of the X-IFU, we describe the instrument as presented at its SRR, browsing through all the subsystems and associated requirements. We then show the instrument budgets, with a particular emphasis on the anticipated budgets of some of its key performance parameters. Finally we briefly discuss on the ongoing key technology demonstration activities, the calibration and the activities foreseen in the X-IFU Instrument Science Center, and touch on communication and outreach activities, the consortium organisation, and finally on the life cycle assessment of X-IFU aiming at minimising the environmental footprint, associated with the development of the instrument. It is expected that thanks to the studies conducted so far on X-IFU, along the design-to-cost exercise requested by ESA, the X-IFU will maintain flagship capabilities in spatially resolved high resolution X-ray spectroscopy, enabling most of the original X-IFU related scientific objectives of the Athena mission to be retained (abridged).

Domains: Cosmology and Extra-Galactic Astrophysics [astro-ph.CO]; General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology [gr-qc]

Didier Barret, Vincent Albouys, Jan-Willem Den Herder, Luigi Piro, Massimo Cappi, et al.. The Athena X-ray Integral Field Unit: a consolidated design for the system requirement review of the preliminary definition phase. 2022. ⟨hal-03865381⟩