Parameter | Science Issues | Design Impact |
---|---|---|
Maximum energy | AGN and BH physics; polarization Blazar spectral breaks GRB redshifts (lumnosity-lag) |
600 keV for Emax requires thick masks and depth-sensing detectors. Lower Emax (100-300 keV) could reduce mission mass by factor of ~2 and simplify detectors |
Minimum energy | Absorption signature QPO BH signature |
To go below 10 keV, ASIC readout noise must be reduced, along with the thickness (i.e., absorption) of the thermal shield/optical blocking layer |
Angular Resolution* | AGN counterpart IDs GRB counterpart IDs |
≤10' required, ≤2%#39; desirable (at <20 keV) and required small (0.5 mm) CZT pixels possible, but total channel count scales as square of angular resolution, and small pixels increase mask auto-collimation |
FoV* | Systematic limits on sensitivity GRB low-E sensitivity |
Large total FoV required to catch rare events and to monitor BH transients on orbital time-scale, but the FoV for individual imaging elements must be <30 degrees or background emission will ruin S/N. Smaller FoV also increases low-E sensitivity. |
Number of telescopes | Instantaneous vs. full-sky survey coverage | Mass change |
* Possibly different in different telescopes.
More will be added to this, with text descriptions.