Hard x-ray telescope concentrator for astrophysical mission Spectrum-X-Gamma

The hard X-ray telescope-concentrator ART-XC on board the Spectrum-X-Gamma X-ray astrophysical observatory (launching in 2011) is one of the main instruments of the mission. The instrument will be used for an all-sky survey and then for pointed observations which are planned for the first four and the next three years of the Mission, respectively. ART-XC will be sensitive in the 4-30 keV energy range and will have an effective area of several hundred square centimeters at 10 keV. It will have a field of view of about ~28 arcmin, angular resolution better than 1 arcmin and will be an order of magnitude more sensitive than the current generation of collimated instruments and coded mask telescopes in the survey mode and a two or three orders of magnitude more sensitive in the pointing mode. With its high sensitivity in the hard X-ray band and good imaging capabilities, ART-XC will extend the operating energy range of the observatory (complementing the capabilities of the primary science instrument eROSITA), thus significantly enhancing the mission both in the all-sky survey over the energy band 4-10 keV and, especially, in pointed observations over the energy band 4-30 keV. During the 4-year survey, this ART-XC would detect more than ~10 4 sources over 4-10 keV. For a 10 5 second pointed observation, the telescope will provide better than 10 microCrab sensitivity in the 4-20 keV energy range.