The Wide Field X-ray Telescope (WFXT) is a proposed mission with a high survey speed, due to the combination of large field of view (FOV) and effective area, i.e. grasp, and sharp PSF across the whole FOV. These characteristics make it suitable to detect a large number of variable and transient X-ray sources during its operating lifetime. Here we present estimates of the WFXT capabilities in the time domain, allowing to study the variability of thousands of AGNs with significant detail, as well as to constrain the rates and properties of hundreds of distant, faint and/or rare objects such as XRF/faint GRBs, Tidal Disruption Events, ULXs, Type-I bursts etc. The planned WFXT extragalactic surveys will thus allow to trace variable and transient X-ray populations over large cosmological volumes.
X-ray variability with WFXT: AGNs, transients and more / Paolillo, Maurizio; C., Pinto; V., Allevato; D., de Martino; M., della Valle; I., Papadakis; R., Gilli; P., Tozzi; the WFXT, Collaboration. - In: MEMORIE DELLA SOCIETÀ ASTRONOMICA ITALIANA. - ISSN 1824-016X. - STAMPA. - 17:(2011), pp. 95-105.
X-ray variability with WFXT: AGNs, transients and more
PAOLILLO, MAURIZIO;
2011
Abstract
The Wide Field X-ray Telescope (WFXT) is a proposed mission with a high survey speed, due to the combination of large field of view (FOV) and effective area, i.e. grasp, and sharp PSF across the whole FOV. These characteristics make it suitable to detect a large number of variable and transient X-ray sources during its operating lifetime. Here we present estimates of the WFXT capabilities in the time domain, allowing to study the variability of thousands of AGNs with significant detail, as well as to constrain the rates and properties of hundreds of distant, faint and/or rare objects such as XRF/faint GRBs, Tidal Disruption Events, ULXs, Type-I bursts etc. The planned WFXT extragalactic surveys will thus allow to trace variable and transient X-ray populations over large cosmological volumes.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
