Speaker
Description
The Magellanic Clouds (MCs) and local group dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSphs) are invaluable laboratories for studying compact object populations and galactic evolution. While previous X-ray missions have provided foundational insights with instruments such as Chandra, XMM, and eROSITA, their sensitivity and spectral resolution have limited comprehensive population studies, especially at the faint end of the X-ray luminosity function (XLF).
The upcoming NewAthena mission, equipped with its Wide Field Imager (WFI) and X-ray Integral Field Unit (XIFU), is ideal to overcome these challenges. For the Magellanic system, NewAthena WFI will achieve 2-3 orders of magnitude improvement in sensitivity for High-Mass X-ray Binaries and Super Soft Sources, enabling quantitative comparisons with population synthesis models and probing alternative accretion mechanisms. The XIFU will be crucial for detecting and characterising the hot phase of the MCs' Circumgalactic Medium, and precisely constraining energy budgets in Supernova Remnants and 30 Doradus.
For dSphs, NewAthena WFI will facilitate the first comprehensive population studies of accreting white dwarfs and old compact binaries, constructing XLFs down to $L_X∼10^{32}$ erg/s. Simulations demonstrate that even short exposures will allow robust spectral modelling and timing analysis to distinguish source classes such as Cataclysmic Variables and identify rare population classes, such as WD/BeXRBs and BH/BeXRBs, which are inherently fainter than BeXRBs hosting NSs.
During my presentation, I will illustrate these feasibility studies and show how NewAthena will revolutionise our understanding of compact objects and their environments in the local universe.
