Speaker
Description
Fast X-ray Transients (FXTs) are minute-to-hours long flashes of
X-rays, first discovered serendipitously in X-ray satellite data
(e.g., Chandra, XMM-Newton, and Swift). They are proven to be caused by
energetic extra-galactic phenomena. Currently, Einstein Probe is
revolutionizing the field by discovering many FXTs and, crucially, by
their low-latency announcement thereof. These extra-galactic FXTs are
ubiquitous: their density rate is several hundred per year per
Mpc^3. FXTs have been proposed to arise from double neutron star
mergers, tidal disruption events involving an intermediate-mass black
hole and a white dwarf, and from off-axis or sub-luminous gamma-ray
bursts. Brief extra-galactic FXTs also arise in supernova shock
breakouts. Contemporaneous multi-wavelength detections possible only
in the current Einstein Probe era show that FXTs originate from more
than 1 progenitor. Swift's (autonomous, level 0) follow-up of Einstein Probe-discovered events provides crucial rapid accurate localizations (XRT/UVOT) and early UVOT multi-wavelength information. We will discuss the most recent findings and provide some (potential) science questions to be answered using FXT observations.
