AAS 207th Meeting, 8-12 January 2006
Session 36 Extreme Physics from Compact Objects
Special Session, Monday, 10:00-11:30am, January 9, 2006, Maryland

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[36.05] The Exteme Physics Explorer

M. Elvis (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)

A new lightweight X-ray mirror technology allows a MIDEX class mission with 10 times the area of Rossi-XTE. This mirror would supply photons to a microcalorimeter with 100 times the spectral resolution of Rossi-XTE. (Count rates are acceptable.) 10microsecond timing is inherent to microcalorimeters.

This combination of area with spectral and timing resolution will allow accurate measurements of atmoic lines leading to precision gravitational redshifts, Doppler shifts, QED induced shifts of line energy in magnetars, and other tests of physics. The possible addition of a polarimeter would add another new dimension to these tests.


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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 37 #4
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