Proposed Next Generation GRB Mission: EXIST

A next generation Gamma Ray Burst (GRB) mission to follow the upcoming Swift mission is described. The proposed Energetic X‐ray Imaging Survey Telescope, EXIST, would yield the limiting (practical) GRB trigger sensitivity, broad‐band spectral and temporal response, and spatial resolution over a wide field. It would provide high resolution spectra and locations for GRBs detected at GeV energies with GLAST. Together with the next generation missions Constellation‐X, NGST and LISA and optical‐survey (LSST) telescopes, EXIST would enable GRBs to be used as probes of the early universe and the first generation of stars. EXIST alone would give ∼10–50″ positions (long or short GRBs), approximate redshifts from lags, and constrain physics of jets, orphan afterglows, neutrinos and SGRs.