Speaker
Description
HiZ-GUNDAM is a candidate for JAXA’s competitive medium-class mission program, with its concept approved by ISAS/JAXA in 2018. This proposed satellite aims to play a leading role in time-domain astronomy in the 2030s by pursuing two primary scientific goals: (1) probing the early universe through the detection of high-redshift gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and (2) enabling the rapid identification of X-ray and optical-near-infrared counterparts of multimessenger sources. To achieve these objectives, HiZ-GUNDAM is equipped with two key instruments.
A wide-field X-ray monitor, EAGLE, utilizes a micropore optics array and a focal plane imaging sensor to observe transients across ∼0.5 sr in the 0.4 to 4 keV energy range. To follow up on this observation, an optical–near-infrared telescope, MONSTER, features a 30 cm aperture and conducts simultaneous five-band photometry over the 0.5 to 2.5 μm wavelength range. It employs a Kösters-type prism for multi-band photometry to follow up on transients detected by the EAGLE. A sunsynchronous dawn–dusk orbit has been selected to ensure thermal stability for the MONSTER. We present a comprehensive overview of the HiZ-GUNDAM mission concept. The mission is expected to make a significant contribution to our understanding of cosmic evolution through observations of high-redshift GRBs, as well as to the identification of the multiwavelength properties of multimessenger sources by enhancing the observational capabilities for transient searches. The specifications and concepts discussed herein are subject to refinement as the mission progresses.
