Roberto Mignani (MSSL-UCL, United Kingdom)

Optical follow-ups of X-ray sources observed by LOFT

In the next decade, new optical survey facilities will become operational, like the LSST and Pan-STARRS,
which will scan large regions of the sky in deep, multii-epoch surveys. This will make it possible to search for
variable sources on the day-to-years time scales and will provide a huge and unique observational data base
to correlate with transient X-ray sources detected by the WFM aboard LOFT. On the other hand, the advent
of the new generation of 30-40m class optical telescopes like the E-ELT, coupled with instruments for hightime
resolution observations, will make it possible to search for variability on the ms time scales and will
match the discovery potentials offered by the LAD. In this talk, I describe the future optical/infrared survey
facilities and their synergy with LOFT.