Daksha: On Alert for High Energy Transients

• Published in: arXiv.org
• Main Authors: Bhalerao, Varun, Vadawale, Santosh, Tendulkar, Shriharsh, Bhattacharya, Dipankar, Rana, Vikram, Hitesh Kumar L Adalja, Belatikar, Hrishikesh, Bhaganagare, Mahesh, Dewangan, Gulab, Ghodgaonkar, Abhijeet, Goyal, Shiv Kumar, Gunasekaran, Suresh, Guruprasad, P J, Koyande, Jayprakash G, Kulkarni, Salil, Kutty, APK, Ladiya, Tinkal, Deepak Marla, Mate, Sujay, Mithun, N P S, Mote, Rakesh, Narang, Sanjoli, Nema, Ayush, Nimbalkar, Sudhanshu, Pai, Archana, Palit, Sourav, Patel, Arpit, Patel, Jinaykumar, Pradeep, Priya, Ramachandran, Prabhu, Bharath Saiguhan, B S, Divita Saraogi, Sawant, Disha, Shanmugam, M, Sharma, Piyush, Shetye, Amit, Singh, Shreeya, Singh, Nishant, Singhal, Akshat, Sreekumar, S, Sridhar, Srividhya, Srinivasan, Rahul, Tallur, Siddharth, Tiwari, Neeraj K, Amrutha Lakshmi Vadladi, Vaishnava, C S, Vishwakarma, Sandeep, Waratkar, Gaurav
• Format: Paper
• Language: English
• Published: Ithaca Cornell University Library, arXiv.org 27.01.2024
• Subjects: Black holes; Equatorial orbits; Gamma ray astronomy; Gamma ray bursts; Gamma rays; Gravitational waves; Ground stations; Light curve; Magnetars; Monitoring; Pulsars; Radio bursts; Satellites; Solar flares

We present Daksha, a proposed high energy transients mission for the study of electromagnetic counterparts of gravitational wave sources, and gamma ray bursts. Daksha will comprise of two satellites in low earth equatorial orbits, on opposite sides of earth. Each satellite will carry three types of detectors to cover the entire sky in an energy range from 1 keV to >1 MeV. Any transients detected on-board will be announced publicly within minutes of discovery. All photon data will be downloaded in ground station passes to obtain source positions, spectra, and light curves. In addition, Daksha will address a wide range of science cases including monitoring X-ray pulsars, studies of magnetars, solar flares, searches for fast radio burst counterparts, routine monitoring of bright persistent high energy sources, terrestrial gamma-ray flashes, and probing primordial black hole abundances through lensing. In this paper, we discuss the technical capabilities of Daksha, while the detailed science case is discussed in a separate paper.