SIXTE Simulations of the Perseus Cluster

The SIXTE end-to-end simulator for X-ray astronomical instrument is fast and precise. SIXTE allows to model observations of X-ray sources with various instruments, including the WFI and the X-IFU, but also missions such as XMM-Newton or XRISM. With comparably little simulation time, SIXTE permits to take into account important effects such as the spatially varying point spread function, vignetting, dithering observations, and nonlinear detector effects including photon pile-up for the WFI or crosstalk for the X-IFU. The resulting output is compatible with standard X-ray astronomy data reduction pipelines.

Using the Perseus cluster as an example, we will discuss simulations focusing on Athena's capabilities to explore the hot and energetic universe by contrasting its capabilities with those of other missions, including XRISM.