The Department of Astronomy of the University of Geneva has a long experience in space missions, in particular with high-energy astrophysics missions, such as Integral. It further participates in activities related to the ESA L-class ATHENA mission, and other future space projects (e.g., XRISM, THESEUS, SPICA, eXTP, LISA, K-EUSO, etc). Scientific activities in high-energy astrophysics are focused around active galactic nuclei, X-ray binaries, galaxy clusters, and stars. The Department of Astronomy participated in the ASTRO-H/HITOMI mission, and was hosting the HITOMI European Science Support Center, and is now in the XRISM mission, expected to be launched in 2023 (during the period covered by this project).
The Department of Astronomy started the development of a multi-purpose tool to simulate X-ray interactions with matter. The code, called RefleX is publicly available. RefleX can simulate a vast variety of geometrical configurations and physical conditions; it is able to produce spectra, images and light curves. Visitors will be able to get familiar with the RefleX tool and will receive support into applying RefleX to their science case, including in the case of advanced usage, like the generation of Xspec models.