Science with the Arcus Probe Mission

Arcus is a 2023 NASA Probe mission concept designed to revolutionize our understanding of structure formation and evolution in the Universe on scales from stars to galaxy clusters. Through high-resolution X-ray and UV grating spectroscopy, Arcus will address multiple high-priority science questions put forward by Astro2020, most notably a challenge to NASA to “link observations and modeling of the stars, galaxies, and the gas and energetic processes that couple their formation, evolution, and destinies.” Arcus will accomplish this by providing the first true constraints on the mass, energy and physical processes driving AGN wind feedback, by locating and characterizing the “missing” baryons in galactic halos, and by tracing the spectral-temporal evolution of stellar outflows and their environmental impacts. Arcus contributes a critical piece to the panchromatic, multi-messenger mission landscape of the 2030s, complementing X-ray micro-calorimeter instruments such as the newly-launched XRISM/Resolve and the forthcoming newAthena/X-IFU.