We propose the development of X-ray interferometry (XRI), to reveal the Universe at high energies with ultra-high spatial resolution. With baselines which can be accommodated on a single spacecraft, XRI can reach 100 μ as resolution at 10 Å (1.2 keV) and 20 μ as at 2 Å (6 keV), enabling imaging and imaging-spectroscopy of (for example) X-ray coronae of nearby accreting supermassive black holes (SMBH) and the SMBH ‘shadow’; SMBH accretion flows and outflows; X-ray binary winds and orbits; stellar coronae within \(\sim \)100 pc and many exoplanets which transit across them. For sufficiently luminous sources XRI will resolve sub-pc scales across the entire observable Universe, revealing accreting binary SMBHs and enabling trigonometric measurements of the Hubble constant with X-ray light echoes from quasars or explosive transients. A multi-spacecraft ‘constellation’ interferometer would resolve well below 1 μ as, enabling SMBH event horizons to be resolved in many active galaxies and the detailed study of the effects of strong field gravity on the dynamics and emission from accreting gas close to the black hole.

我们建议开发X射线干涉术（XRI），以高能量揭示具有超高空间分辨率的宇宙。与可以被容纳在单个的航天器的基线，XRI可以达到100 μ在10埃（1.2千电子伏）和20作为分辨率μ为在2埃（6千电子伏），使成像和成像光谱法（例如）X-附近积聚的超大质量黑洞（SMBH）和SMBH“阴影”的射线日冕；SMBH增生流量和流出；X射线双星风和轨道；\（\ sim \）中的恒星冠100颗PC和许多穿越它们的系外行星。对于足够发光的光源，XRI将解析整个可观察宇宙中的子pc比例，揭示积聚的二进制SMBH，并利用类星体或爆炸性瞬变的X射线回波对哈勃常数进行三角测量。多航天器“星座”干涉仪的分辨能力将大大低于1μ，因为它可以解决许多活跃星系中的SMBH事件视界，并详细研究了强场引力对吸积接近黑色的气体的动力学和发射的影响孔。