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Session 32 - All Sky Imaging Surveys of Black Hole Candidates & AGN - II.
Oral session, Tuesday, June 10
North Main Hall A,
An all-sky hard x-ray imaging survey has never been conducted. At energies above the \sim10 keV limit planned for ABRIXAS, an all sky survey is needed to study the population of accreting black holes in binaries and AGN, which are particularly conspicous by their hard x-ray emission extending to beyond 100 keV. To extend the galactic plane survey planned for INTEGRAL, and to reach 10-100\times the all-sky sensitivity now achieved with BATSE or RXTE, an all-sky hard x-ray imaging survey should reach sensitivity levels below \sim0.3mCrab and should achieve angular resolution of at least 10 arcmin. Hard x-ray spectra recently detected from neutron stars, and the plausible hard spectra of certain CVs, can then be studied to constrain both accretion disks and emission models. With a sensitivity extending to beyond 511 keV, and broad spatial as well as temporal coverage, the hard x-ray cutoffs as well as possible annihilation line features in both compact binaries and AGN can also be studied in detail. The study of transients can be extended to much fainter limits than possible with our current ongoing survey of the galactic plane with BATSE, for which results will be presented. The broad scientific objectives and needs for such a survey, and the mission design to achieve them, are being investigated with the Energetic X-ray Imaging Survey Telescope (EXIST) mission concept study which will be described.
