Abstract
The death of massive stars, manifested as gamma-ray bursts and core-collapse supernovae, critically influence how the universe formed and evolves. Despite their fundamental importance, our understanding of these enigmatic objects is severely limited. We have performed a concept study of an Astrophysical Transient Observatory (ATO) that will rapidly facilitate an expansion of our understanding of these objects. ATO combines a very wide-field X-ray telescope, a near-infrared telescope, a multi-mode ultraviolet instrument, and a rapidly slewing spacecraft to realize two primary goals: (1) characterize the highest-redshift massive stars and their environments, and (2) constrain the poorly understood explosion mechanism of massive stars. The goals are met by observing the first massive stars to explode as gamma-ray bursts and to probe their environments, and by observing the shock breakout of core-collapse supernovae to measure the outer envelope parameters of massive stars. Additionally, ATO will observe the shock breakout of Type Ia supernovae and their shock interaction with a companion, electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational wave sources, kilonovae, tidal disruption events, cataclysmic variables, X-ray transients, flares from exoplanet host stars, and the escape of ionizing radiation from star-forming galaxies. A description of the ATO instruments, the mission simulation, and technology readiness level is provided.
Highlights
The death of massive stars is a fundamental process in the shaping of the universe
We find that a cumulative fraction of 12% for z = 5, 6.4% for z = 6, 3.4% for z = 7, 1.8% for z = 8, 0.9% for z = 9, 0.4% for z = 10, 0.01% for z = 11, 0.07% for z = 12, 0.03% for z = 13, and 0.02% for z = of Astrophysical Transient Observatory (ATO) bursts; beyond z = the Lyα break redshifts beyond the NIRT bandpass so that a redshift measurement is not assured; 0.07% of WFXT bursts fall beyond this cutoff
The motivation behind the ATO concept is to significantly expand our understanding of the death of massive stars, which are key to our understanding of many other aspects of astrophysics
Summary
The death of massive stars is a fundamental process in the shaping of the universe. The first massive stars are considered a significant contributor to reionization and the dispersal of the first metals. Later generations continue the production and dissemination of heavy elements, which shape planets, solar systems, future generations of stars, and galaxies They form the neutron stars and black holes in the universe, dictating the characteristics and formation rates of X-ray binaries, X-ray bursts, kilonovae, and gravitational wave sources (e.g., Fryer et al, 1999; Belczynski et al, 2014; Dominik et al, 2015; Regimbau et al, 2015; Abbott et al, 2016). Their explosions as GRBs may be the best, if not the only way to study these distant objects (Tanvir and Jakobsson, 2007; Roming et al, 2012; Tanvir et al, 2012). Essentially every Large Synoptic Survey Telescope transient will have an X-ray measurement at multiple times, by stacking X-ray data we can search for weak SBOs (or place limits on the time of the event)
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