For Researchers

Farther, faster, wider

For Researchers

The three pillars of the AXIS Team Science Program are as follows:

What seeds supermassive black holes and how do they grow?
How do gas, metals, and dust flow into, through and out of galaxies?
What powers the diversity of explosive phenomena?

AXIS is a probe for the entire community. The sensitivity and angular resolution of AXIS also enable a broad range of General Observer science, and over 70% of observing time will be set aside for Guest Observers.

AXIS Surveys

The synergy of spatial resolution, large collecting area, astrometric accuracy and low background enables AXIS to probe farther, wider and faster: unprecedented deep surveys over a wide area (1-2 orders of magnitude deeper than previous surveys) enable studies of the earlier universe to understand the assembly of supermassive black holes and their co-evolution with their host galaxies.

The AXIS Deep Extragalactic Survey (ADES) and AXIS Wide Extragalactic Survey (AWES) will complete the first volume-limited sample of active galactic nuclei (AGN) up to z=10, essential for a comprehensive view of AGN evolution from before the Epoch of Reionization to today.

PILLAR 1:

What seeds supermassive black holes and how do they grow?

PILLAR 1: What seeds supermassive black holes and how do they grow?

AXIS will determine whether massive black holes originated from ‘heavy’ or ‘light’ seeds by conducting an unbiased census of accreting black holes at z=6-10.

AXIS SMBH Seeds — AXIS X-ray Luminosity Functions (XLFs) derived from identification of high-z AGN in the AXIS Deep and Wide Extragalactic Surveys will determine whether supermassive black holes originate from direct-collapse of >10^4-5 solar mass metal-free clouds (‘heavy seeds’) or rapid accretion on to the >10^2-3 solar mass remnants of Population III stars (‘light seeds’). Models predict divergence in the shape and normalization XLFs at z>8, and AXIS has the sensitivity to reach this pivotal redshift range.

AXIS will determine whether galaxy mergers are important in growing massive black holes by precisely measuring the dual AGN fraction across cosmic time from z=0 to z=3.5.

AXIS Mergers — The frequency of dual AGN compared to the total AGN population is a key diagnostic of the role that galaxy mergers play in enhancing SMBH growth across cosmic time. Chandra is limited to just the local universe z<0.1 (yellow point); while AXIS will measure hundreds of such systems out to z=3.5 to a precision of 1%.

PILLAR 2:

How do gas, metals and dust flow into, through and out of galaxies?

PILLAR 2: How do gas, metals and dust flow into, through and out of galaxies?

AXIS will discover how the kinetic energy injected by stellar winds and supernovae is transferred to the surrounding medium for star clusters spanning a range of masses, ages, metallicities and environments.

AXIS Stellar winds — AXIS will determine the stellar feedback energy input to galactic ecosystems by measuring their X-ray luminosity function in nearby galaxies. Left: 150 ks AXIS image of M83 with zoom region of an H II region/star cluster. Middle and Right: AXIS will survey 5,000 star clusters over a range of stellar ages, metallicities and masses, to determine the X-ray luminosity function beyond a luminosity of 0.3-2 keV L_X ~ 10^35.6 erg s^-1, where Hα scaling relations predict a break in the luminosity function due to the transition from normal H II regions to giant H II regions associated with superbubbles. The study of H II regions down to L_X ~ 3 x 10³⁴ erg s^-1 will enable the identification of the conditions necessary for superbubble formation and the launching of hot gas from galactic disks.

AXIS will quantify how energy from powerful active galactic nuclei outflows impact the surrounding interstellar medium in a representative sample of nearby galaxies.

AXIS outflows — Images of AGN feedback in NGC 5813 show the radio jet has carved out large cavities in the galaxy’s hot atmosphere, visible as depressions in X-ray surface brightness. Chandra (at launch; Left) and AXIS simulated images (Middle) of NGC 5813. Color bars are matched and units are counts arcsec^-2. On the right, we show a simulated temperature map in keV for the AXIS observation, which probes the thermodynamic properties on the scales of the bubble rims, weak shocks, cold fronts, and cool gas filaments. With 1500 counts per region, AXIS will map the gas temperature to an accuracy of 10%.

PILLAR 3:

What powers the diversity of explosive phenomena across the electromagnetic spectrum?

illustration-of-a-gravitational-wave-an-orange-red-explosion-surrounded-by-a-rippling-blue-grid-l

PILLAR 3: What powers the diversity of explosive phenomena across the electromagnetic spectrum?

AXIS will determine the nature of the progenitors of 50 core-collapse supernovae through real-time discoveries of supernova shock breakouts and will alert the astronomical community within 10 minutes.

AXIS core collapse — Left: AXIS identifies the massive star progenitors of core-collapse SNe, via the different luminosities and evolution of X-ray shock breakouts predicted for different progenitors. Right: AXIS’s sensitivity and FoV enable detecting shock breakouts beyond the local Universe, toward the peak of star-formation, where ~10x more core-collapse supernovae per unit volume are expected compared to z~0.

The AXIS Galactic Plane Survey (GPS) will be the most sensitive, high-resolution X-ray map of the Galactic plane ever made. Through the GPS, AXIS will determine the origin of Type la supernovae by discovering at least 60 new accreting ultracompact binaries (the most numerous sources of gravitational waves in the LISA era) and measuring their orbital evolution and merger rate.

AXIS GPS — AXIS will find ultracompact binary white dwarf pairs via their periodic light curves (inset) and measure their period evolution over the mission lifetime to determine what fraction will inspiral due to GW emission and eventually merge to become Type Ia SNe.

General Observer (GO) Science

General Observer (GO) Science

In addition to principal investigator-led science, AXIS will provide >68 Ms to the GO science program. With an improvement of 70x in high-resolution survey speed, ~30x faster response to targets of opportunity, and 4-9x improvement in effective area compared with Chandra, AXIS opens a unique multidimensional discovery space for GO science. High-throughput, high-spatial-resolution X-ray imaging is essential for resolving the critical physical spatial scales and counterpart associations with other major facilities of the 2030s (e.g., JWST, Roman, Euclid, Rubin, ELTs, ngVLA, SKA and CTA).

NASA Selects AXIS for Phase A Study

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AXIS Surveys

PILLAR 1:

What seeds supermassive black holes and how do they grow?

AXIS will determine whether massive black holes originated from ‘heavy’ or ‘light’ seeds by conducting an unbiased census of accreting black holes at z=6-10.

AXIS will determine whether galaxy mergers are important in growing massive black holes by precisely measuring the dual AGN fraction across cosmic time from z=0 to z=3.5.

PILLAR 2:

How do gas, metals and dust flow into, through and out of galaxies?

AXIS will discover how the kinetic energy injected by stellar winds and supernovae is transferred to the surrounding medium for star clusters spanning a range of masses, ages, metallicities and environments.

AXIS will quantify how energy from powerful active galactic nuclei outflows impact the surrounding interstellar medium in a representative sample of nearby galaxies.

PILLAR 3:

What powers the diversity of explosive phenomena across the electromagnetic spectrum?

AXIS will determine the nature of the progenitors of 50 core-collapse supernovae through real-time discoveries of supernova shock breakouts and will alert the astronomical community within 10 minutes.

General Observer (GO) Science

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Mission

Instrumentation

Simulation Resources