LAXPC instrument onboard AstroSat: Five exciting years of new scientific results specially on X-ray binaries

Abstract

With its large effective area at hard X-rays, high time resolution and having co-aligned other instruments, AstroSat/LAXPC was designed to usher in a new era in rapid variability studies and wide spectral band measurements of the X-ray binaries. Over the last five years, the instrument has successfully achieved to a significant extent these Science goals. In the coming years, it is poised to make more important discoveries. This paper highlights the primary achievements of AstroSat/LAXPC in unraveling the behavior of black hole and neutron star systems and discusses the exciting possibility of the instrument’s contribution to future science.