  The Energetic X-ray Imaging Survey Telescope (EXIST) is under study for the
proposed Black Hole Finder Probe, one of the three Einstein Probe missions in
NASA's proposed Beyond Einstein Program. EXIST would have unique capabilities:
it would survey the full sky at 5-600 keV each 95min orbit with 0.9-5 arcmin,
10microsec - 45min, and ~0.5-5 keV resolution to locate sources to 10arcsec and
enable black holes to be surveyed and studied on all scales. With 5sigma survey
sensitivity (0.5-1y) Fx(40-80 keV) ~5 x 10^-13 cgs, or comparable to the ROSAT
soft X-ray (0.3-2.5 keV) sky survey, a large sample (~2-4 x 10^4) of obscured
AGN will be identified and a complete sample of accreting stellar mass BHs in
the Galaxy will be found. The all-sky/all-time coverage will allow rare events
to be measured, such as possible stellar disruption flares from dormant AGN out
to ~200 Mpc. A large sample (~2-3/day) of GRBs will be located (<~10arcsec) at
sensitivities and bandwidths much greater than previously and likely yield the
highest redshift events and constraints on Pop III BHs. An outline of the
mission design from the ongoing concept study is presented.

Astrophysics