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The THESEUS space mission concept: science case, design and expected performances

2018; Elsevier BV; Volume: 62; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.asr.2018.03.010

1879-1948

L. Amati, P. T. O’Brien, D. Götz, E. Bozzo, C. Tenzer, F. Frontera, G. Ghirlanda, C. Labanti, J. P. Osborne, G. Stratta, N. R. Tanvir, R. Willingale, Primo Attinà, R. Campana, A. J. Castro‐Tirado, Cristiano Contini, F. Fuschino, A. Gomboc, R. Hudec, P. Orleański, E. Renotte, Tomaž Rodič, Z. Bagoly, A. W. Blain, Paul X. Callanan, S. Covino, Andrea Ferrara, E. Le Floc’h, M. Marisaldi, S. Mereghetti, P. Rosati, A. Vacchi, P. D’Avanzo, P. Giommi, S. Piranomonte, L. Piro, V. Reglero, A. Rossi, A. Santangelo, R. Salvaterra, G. Tagliaferri, S. D. Vergani, S. Vinciguerra, M. S. Briggs, E. Campolongo, R. Ciolfi, V. Connaughton, B. Cordier, B. Morelli, M. Orlandini, C. Adami, A. Argan, J. L. Atteia, N. Auricchio, L. G. Balázs, G. Baldazzi, S. Basa, Rupal Basak, P. Bellutti, M. G. Bernardini, G. Bertuccio, J. Braga, M. Branchesi, S. Brandt, E. Brocato, C. Budtz‐Jørgensen, A. Bulgarelli, L. Burderi, J. B. Camp, Salvatore Capozziello, Joseph Caruana, P. Casella, B. Cenko, P. Chardonnet, B. Ciardi, S. Colafrancesco, Maria Giovanna Dainotti, V. D’Elia, D. de Martino, M. De Pasquale, E. Del Monte, M. Della Valle, A. Drago, Y. Evangelista, M. Feroci, F. Finelli⋆, M. Fiorini, J. P. U. Fynbo, A. Gal‐Yam, B. Gendre, G. Ghisellini, A. Grado, C. Guidorzi, M. Hafizi, L. Hanlon, J. Hjorth, L. Izzo, L. L. Kiss, P. Kumar, I. Kuvvetli, Michèle Lavagna, T. Li, F. Longo, Maxim Lyutikov, Umberto Maio, E. Maiorano, P. Malcovati, D. Malesani, R. Margutti, A. Martín-Carrillo, N. Masetti, S. McBreen, R. Mignani, G. Morgante, C. G. Mundell, H.U. Nargaard-Nielsen, L. Nicastro, E. Palazzi, S. Paltani, F. Panessa, Giovanni Pareschi, Asaf Pe’er, A. V. Penacchioni, E. Pian, E. Piedipalumbo, Tsvi Piran, G. Rauw, M. Razzano, A. Read, L. Rezzolla, P. Romano, R. Ruffini, S. Savaglio, V. Sguera, P. Schady, Warrent Skidmore, L. M. Song, E. R. Stanway, R. L. C. Starling, M. Topinka, E. Troja, M. van Putten, E. Vanzella, S. Vercellone, C. Wilson‐Hodge, Daisuke Yonetoku, G. Zampa, Nicola Zampa, B. Zhang, B.B. Zhang, S. Zhang, Shuang‐Nan Zhang, L. A. Antonelli, Federica Bianco, Sonila Boçi, M. Boër, M. T. Botticella, O. Boulade, R. C. Butler, S. Campana, Fiamma Capitanio, A. Celotti, Y. Chen, M. Colpi, A. Comastri, Jean-Gabriel Cuby, M. Dadina, A. De Luca, Yuxin 雨欣 Dong 董, S. Ettori, P. Gandhi, E. Geza, J. Greiner, S. Guiriec, J. Harms, M. Hernanz, A. Hornstrup, Ian Hutchinson, G. L. Israel, P. G. Jonker, Yuki Kaneko, N. Kawai, K. Wiersema, Seppo A. Korpela, V. LeBrun, F. J. Lu, Andrew MacFadyen, G. Malaguti, L. Maraschi, A. Melandri, M. Modjaz, David C. Morris, N. Omodei, A. Paizis, Petr Páta, V. Petrosian, A. Rachevski, James E. Rhoads, F. Ryde, L. Sabau-Graziati, N. Shigehiro, M. R. Sims, J. Soomin, Dorottya Szécsi, Y. Urata, M. Uslenghi, L. Valenziano, G. Vianello, S. Vojtech, D. Watson, Jan H. Zicha,

Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena

THESEUS is a space mission concept aimed at exploiting Gamma-Ray Bursts for investigating the early Universe and at providing a substantial advancement of multi-messenger and time-domain astrophysics. These goals will be achieved through a unique combination of instruments allowing GRB and X-ray transient detection over a broad field of view (more than 1sr) with 0.5-1 arcmin localization, an energy band extending from several MeV down to 0.3 keV and high sensitivity to transient sources in the soft X-ray domain, as well as on-board prompt (few minutes) follow-up with a 0.7 m class IR telescope with both imaging and spectroscopic capabilities. THESEUS will be perfectly suited for addressing the main open issues in cosmology such as, e.g., star formation rate and metallicity evolution of the inter-stellar and intra-galactic medium up to redshift $\sim$10, signatures of Pop III stars, sources and physics of re-ionization, and the faint end of the galaxy luminosity function. In addition, it will provide unprecedented capability to monitor the X-ray variable sky, thus detecting, localizing, and identifying the electromagnetic counterparts to sources of gravitational radiation, which may be routinely detected in the late '20s / early '30s by next generation facilities like aLIGO/ aVirgo, eLISA, KAGRA, and Einstein Telescope. THESEUS will also provide powerful synergies with the next generation of multi-wavelength observatories (e.g., LSST, ELT, SKA, CTA, ATHENA).