Scientific workshop on the eXTP mission

31 Aug 2026, 08:00 → 2 Sept 2026, 18:50 Europe/Helsinki

Radisson Blu Marina Palace Hotel

We are delighted to announce the upcoming Conference on the science at the core of the enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry Mission (eXTP), dedicated to the rapidly advancing spectral-timing-polarimetry in X-ray astronomy and to discuss about the scientific vision of the eXTP mission.
The eXTP mission is an ambitious international space mission designed to explore the most extreme environments in the Universe - probing matter under ultra-dense conditions, testing the limits of gravity, and unveiling the physics of strongly magnetized systems. Now fully approved and entering its implementation phase, eXTP is scheduled for launch in the early 2030.
This conference will highlight the scientific opportunities of eXTP as presented in the newly released series of six updated white papers, including the overall mission overview (WP1) and five key science areas (WPs 2–6) (Science China special issue). 

The sessions will explore eXTP’s capabilities to:
    • Constrain the equation of state of ultra-dense matter in neutron stars.
    • Probe strong gravity and the inner accretion regions around black holes through combined spectral, timing, and polarimetric observations.
    • Investigate quantum electrodynamics effects and radiative processes in extreme magnetic fields.
    • Enable time-domain and multi-messenger astrophysics, in synergy with future observatories across the electromagnetic and gravitational-wave spectrum.
    • Serve as a world-class observatory, providing groundbreaking data on a wide range of galactic and extragalactic sources.

The conference will also include discussions on other science aspects relevant to eXTP and to other missions concepts developed to advance X-ray spectral-timing-polarimetry in the next decade. It will also be an occasion to define the framework for community participation in the mission’s scientific operations.
The program will consist of invited, contributed, and 3-minute flash talks. We warmly invite scientists from all areas of high-energy astrophysics, space instrumentation, and theoretical modeling to join us in this pivotal meeting as we look ahead to the eXTP era.

The conference will take place from 31 August to 2 September 2026 at the Radisson Blu Marina Palace Hotel, in Turku, Finland. We kindly invite you to mark this event in your calendar. Further details regarding the venue, travel, registration, abstract submission, and fees can be found on the conference webpage at https://indico.global/e/extp_workshop. 

Have questions? Feel free to contact us at   extp2026@gmail.com

We very much look forward to welcoming you to Turku.

Scientific Organizing Committee:

• Cosimo Bambi

• Enrico Bozzo

• Qingcui Bu

• Simone Dall’Osso

• Alessandra De Rosa

• Hua Feng (co-chair)

• Marco Feroci

• Mingyu Ge

• Sebastien Guillot

• Margarita Hernanz

• Long Ji

• Ang Li

• Jirong Mao

• Kirpal Nandra (co-chair)

• Alessandro Patruno

• Juri Poutanen

• Andrea Santangelo (co-chair)

• Giulia Stratta

• Roberto Taverna

• Sergey Tsygankov 

• Phil Uttley

• Anna Watts

• Renxin Xu

• Shuxu Yi

• Shuang-Nan Zhang (co-chair)

• Liang Zhang

• Wen Zhao

• Ping Zhou

Local Organizing Committee:

• Anna Bobrikova

• Sofia Forsblom

• Vadim Kravtsov

• Hongwei Liu (co-chair)

• Alexander Mushtukov

• Juri Poutanen 

• Alexander Salganik 

• Sergey Tsygankov (co-chair)

• Alexandra Veledina 

• Hua Xiao 

 

agenda_extp_workshop.pdf

extp_program_04.08.2026.pdf

Monday 31 August

08:00 → 09:00 Registration

09:00 → 09:15 Opening

09:00 Welcome

Speaker: Shuang-Nan Zhang

09:10 Practical information

Speaker: Sergey Tsygankov

09:15 → 10:35 eXTP and its era

09:15 Update on the eXTP Mission for Launch in 2030

Speaker: Shuang-Nan Zhang

09:30 eXTP as a global mission: payload, science and organization

Speaker: Feng Hua

09:50 Overall Design and Development Progress of eXTP platform

Speaker: Yonghe Zhang

10:05 eXTP Mission Overview: Architecture and Development Status

Speaker: Jianhua Zheng

10:20 International collaboration of the eXTP mission

Speaker: Hongwei Liu

10:35 → 11:05 Coffee break

11:05 → 11:55 eXTP and its era

11:05 W2C and CXBe on eXTP: new design, performance and science questions

Speaker: Roland Walter

11:20 The Globe Orbiting Soft X-ray Polarimeter (GOSoX)

Speaker: Herman Marshall

11:35 All Sky Monitoring at X-rays: what comes next?

Speaker: Marco Feroci

11:55 → 13:00 Ultra dense matter

11:55 Introducing the science case for the WG1 (Ultra dense matter)

Speaker: Sebastien Guillot

12:10 Neutron Star Interiors in the eXTP Era: From Macroscopic Observables to Microphysics

Speaker: Ang Li

12:35 Constraining the equation of state of ultra-dense matter in neutron stars

Speaker: Tuomo Salmi

13:00 → 14:10 Lunch break

14:10 → 15:10 Ultra dense matter

14:10 Pulse profile modelling of accreting millisecond pulsars: disk occultation and parameter inference

Speaker: Yinghan Mao

14:25 Equation-of-state-informed pulse profile modeling

Speaker: Mariska Hoogkamer

14:40 Polarised X-ray emission from accreting millisecond pulsars

Speaker: Alessandro Papitto

14:55 Accreting Millisecond X-ray Pulsars as Laboratories for eXTP-era Spectral and Timing Studies

Speaker: Andrea Sanna

15:10 → 15:25 Flash talks: WG1

15:10 Pulse profile modelling of accreting millisecond pulsars before and during the eXTP era

Speaker: Bas Dorsman

15:13 Evidence for distinct evolutionary channels in neutron star LMXBs: prospects for eXTP

Speaker: Alessandro Patruno

15:16 Neutron star thermal evolution and inner structure

Speaker: Xia Zhou

15:25 → 15:55 Coffee break

15:55 → 17:20 Toward innovative spectral-timing-polarization analysis

15:55 The power of spectral-timing-polarimetry analysis

Speaker: Adam Ingram

16:20 X-ray spectral-timing of accreting black holes: current challenges and prospects for the eXTP era

Speaker: Guglielmo Mastroserio

16:40 Phase-Resolved Spectroscopy and Polarimetry of Black-Hole QPOs via Mode Decomposition: Evidence for Precession and Prospects with eXTP

Speaker: Qingcang Shui

17:00 nDspec: a new Python-based modelling software for multi-dimensional model fitting

Speaker: Matteo Lucchini

18:00 → 22:00 Reception at the Tuorla observatory

Bus leaves at 18:00

Tuesday 1 September

09:00 → 10:40 Strong field gravity

09:00 Introducing the science case for the WG2 (Strong field gravity)

Speaker: Qingcui Bu

09:15 Probe the inner accretion regions around stellar-mass black holes

Speaker: Bei You

09:40 Probing the inner regions around black holes with spectroscopy, timing and polarimetry

Speaker: Giorgio Matt

10:05 Accretion geometry of black hole X-ray binaries revealed by X-ray data

Speaker: Honghui Liu

10:25 Variability from accreting black holes across the full X-ray band

Speaker: Niek Bollemeijer

10:40 → 11:10 Coffee break

11:10 → 11:55 Strong field gravity

11:10 The Promise of eXTP for mapping the evolution of accretion flows in X-ray Binaries

Speaker: Lian Tao

11:25 Bridging simulations and observations: advancing X-ray spectral models with GRMHD

Speaker: Swarnim Shashank

11:40 X-ray polarimetry as a tool to study compact objects

Speaker: Juri Poutanen

11:55 → 12:15 Flash talks: WG2

11:55 A remarkable anti-correlation between optical/hard X-rays in Swift J1727.8-1613 revealed by Insight-HXMT

Speaker: Ruican Ma

11:58 Understanding the evolution of the coronal geometry through exploiting QPO characteristics

Speaker: Biki Ram

12:01 A Hidden Pulse: Uncovering a New Timing Signal in Cygnus X-1 with AstroSat

Speaker: Sandeep Rout

12:15 → 12:55 Magnetism

12:15 Introducing the science case for the WG3 (Magnetism)

Speaker: Mingyu Ge

12:30 Radiative Processes and QED Effects in strong magnetic fields: Implications for X-ray Pulsars

Speaker: Alexander Mushtukov

12:55 → 14:00 Lunch break

14:00 → 15:30 Magnetism

14:00 Highly magnetised isolated neutron star observations - the smoking gun of QED vacuum birefringence?

Speaker: Ruth Kelly

14:25 Can we see the shape of the magnetic field?

Speaker: Nabil Brice

14:40 Polarimetric views of X-ray Pulsars: From IXPE to eXTP

Speaker: Sofia Forsblom

14:55 Study the low accretion rate regime of accreting X-ray pulsars with eXTP

Speaker: Long Ji

15:15 Phase-Resolved Polarimetry of 1E 2259+586 in an Active State: IXPE Results and Prospects for eXTP

Speaker: Lorenzo Marra

15:30 → 16:00 Coffee break

16:00 → 16:20 Magnetism

16:00 Signatures of thermal resonant Comptonization as geometry tracers in accreting neutron stars

Speaker: Ekaterina Sokolova-Lapa

16:20 → 16:35 Flash talks: WG3

16:20 Application of Decentred Rotating Vector Model to Polarization Data of X-ray Pulsars

Speaker: Sofia Forsblom

16:23 Testing Pulsar Geometry Constraint Methods with Simulated Polarization Data

Speaker: Alexander Salganik

16:26 Propeller effect in action: Unveiling quenched accretion in the transient X-ray pulsar 4U 0115+63

Speaker: Hua Xiao

16:40 → 17:30 Working group coordinators meeting

18:00 → 21:00 Conference dinner

Wednesday 2 September

09:00 → 10:30 Multimessenger

09:00 Introducing the science case for the WG4 (Multimessenger)

Speaker: Simone Dall'Osso

09:15 Enable time-domain and multi-messenger astrophysics, in synergy with future observatories across the electromagnetic and gravitational-wave spectrum

Speaker: Eleonora Troja

09:30 Fast X-ray Transients: From EP Breakthroughs to eXTP Prospects

Speaker: He Gao

09:45 Observing Electromagnetic Counterparts of Gravitational-Wave Event

Speaker: Shu-Xu Yi

10:00 The observational properties of magnetar bursts and outbursts

Speaker: Lin Lin

10:15 Detection prospects of the emissions from gamma-ray burst by eXTP/PFA

Speaker: Mi-Xiang Lan

10:30 → 11:00 Coffee break

11:00 → 11:30 Multimessenger

11:00 LISA and eXTP: overlap and synergy?

Speaker: Alessandra De Rosa

11:15 eXTP perspectives on Dark Matter searches

Speaker: Denys Malyshev

11:30 → 13:00 Observatory science

11:30 Introducing the science case for the WG5 (Observatory science)

Speaker: Ping Zhou

11:45 Exploring X-ray binaries with eXTP

Speaker: Liang Zhang

12:00 Constraining the geometry of the outer disk region studying the polarization in the X-Ray dips

Speaker: Alessandro Di Marco

12:15 IXPE view of not pulsating accreting neutron stars in X-ray binaries

Speaker: Fabio La Monaca

12:30 The efficiency of geometric beaming in super-Eddington X-ray sources

Speaker: Varpu Ahlberg

12:45 X-ray Polarimetry of Pulsar Wind Nebulae: Insights from IXPE and the Path to eXTP

Speaker: Kuan Liu

13:00 → 14:00 Lunch break

14:00 → 14:45 Observatory science

14:00 AGN research expected in the observatory science of eXTP

Speaker: Jirong Mao

14:15 Changing-State AGN as Laboratories for SMBH Accretion Physics

Speaker: Claudio Ricci

14:30 Testing particle acceleration and jet composition models in supermassive black hole jets with IXPE

Speaker: Ioannis Liodakis

14:45 → 15:15 Flash talks: WG4 and WG5

14:45 Fast Radio Bursts from Young Magnetars: High-Energy Tests with eXTP

Speaker: Marcio G B de Avellar

14:48 TDE Observations with Einstein Probe and Prospects in the eXTP Era

Speaker: Chichuan Jin

14:51 Galactic X-ray Binaries in the Multi-Wavelength Sky

Speaker: Artur Avakyan

14:54 Probing jet physics with X-ray polarization: from IXPE to eXTP

Speaker: Athira M Bharathan

14:57 An angle-dependent synchrotron and SSC polarization model for blazars

Speaker: Motseothata Tisang

15:00 X-Ray Polarization Properties of High-Synchrotron-Peaked Blazars

Speaker: Jin Zhang

15:03 How would eXTP contribute to the study of burst-accretion interactions?

Speaker: Chuanyu Wei

15:15 → 15:35 Future missions

15:15 Building on SVOM: the CATCH-PM constellation for astrophysical transients hunting

Speaker: Stephan Schanne

15:35 → 16:05 Coffee break

16:05 → 17:20 Future missions

16:05 The POLAR-2 mission

Speaker: Hancheng Li

16:20 The EXPO Mission

Speaker: Lorenzo Marra

16:35 The Herd Mission

Speaker: Shuang-Nan Zhang

16:50 Combining microarcsec images of accretion disks with eXTP observations

Speaker: Gilles Koziol

17:05 X-ray interferometric space telescope (XRIstel) mission concept

Speaker: Phil Uttley

17:20 → 17:30 Concluding remarks