Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope

Kanazawa-SAT^{3}: Microsatellite-borne X-ray Transient Localization Experiment Searching for Electromagnetic Counterparts of Gravitational-wave Sources

Tatsuya Sawano
(Tatsuya Sawano, Daisuke Yonetoku, Tatehiro Mihara, Makoto Arimoto, Kazuki Yoshida, Yasuaki Kagawa, Kaichi Ota, Yusuke Takao, Daichi Suzuki, Koga Miyao, Shota Watanabe, Hirokazu Ikeda)

Abstract:

Coalescences of binary neutron stars are thought to promising candidates of progenitors of short duration gamma-ray bursts, like GW 170817/GRB 170817A. In such a context, they emit not only a gravitational wave and a prompt gamma-ray emission with an energy of ~ MeV, but also possibly X-ray extended emission, optical/NIR macronovae, and even GeV gamma-rays. To discuss the whole picture of those events, localization information in early phase is essential to follow-up observations for narrow filed telescopes. Therefore, we have been developing a 50-kg-class microsatellite, named Kanzawa-SAT^{3}, and its objective is to detect X-ray transients and alert the trigger time and coordinates of those transients to promote follow-up observation of gravitational-wave sources. We plan to launch it in about 2020. There are two mission instruments aboard the satellite. The one is a wide field X-ray imaging detector, named T-LEX, based on a coded aperture system with a FoV of 1 sr, a localization accuracy of 15 arcmin, and an energy range in 2 - 20 keV. The other is a small gamma-ray detector, named KGD, with a scintillator and SiPMs. So far, we have developed a thermal structure model of the bus system and a flight model of T-LEX. In this talk, we introduce the mission concept and report the current status of the development.