DESpec: Spectroscopic upgrade of the Dark Energy Survey
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Portsmouth
Department Name: Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation
Abstract
ark Energy is one of the biggest mysteries in the whole of science. Observations over the past decade strongly favour a 'concordance' model in which the Universe is flat and contains approximately 4% ordinary atomic matter, 21% Cold Dark Matter and 75% Dark Energy. The Dark Energy paradigm and its extensions pose fundamental questions about the origins of the Universe: is Dark Energy an actual ingredient, or should Einstein's gravity theory be modified?
We propose a new initiative, the Dark Energy Spectrometer (DESpec), a 4000-fibre instrument for the Blanco 4-meter telescope in Chile that would take advantage of the infrastructure recently built for the Dark Energy Camera to achieve excellent science at low cost Starting in 2017, when the Dark Energy Survey (DES) is completed, DESpec would obtain spectroscopic redshifts for ~10 million galaxies from DES+VISTA Hemisphere Survey (VHS) and thereby improve our measurement of Dark Energy. DESpec will also constrain neutrino masses, enable new techniques such as redshift-space distortions to constrain Dark Energy vs. Modified Gravity models, and enable powerful studies of galaxy evolution. UK involvement would allow for the design to be harmonized with the needs and leadership roles of the UK astronomy community. As with DES, the UK investment would be highly leveraged by partnership with the US and other foreign partners. The total DESpec instrument cost is estimated at $40M, similar to DECam. The request funding covers both instrumentation and and preparations for target selection and survey strategy. The work described below is fully coordinated with the work for BigBOSS:UK, another proposed spectroscopic instrument.
We propose a new initiative, the Dark Energy Spectrometer (DESpec), a 4000-fibre instrument for the Blanco 4-meter telescope in Chile that would take advantage of the infrastructure recently built for the Dark Energy Camera to achieve excellent science at low cost Starting in 2017, when the Dark Energy Survey (DES) is completed, DESpec would obtain spectroscopic redshifts for ~10 million galaxies from DES+VISTA Hemisphere Survey (VHS) and thereby improve our measurement of Dark Energy. DESpec will also constrain neutrino masses, enable new techniques such as redshift-space distortions to constrain Dark Energy vs. Modified Gravity models, and enable powerful studies of galaxy evolution. UK involvement would allow for the design to be harmonized with the needs and leadership roles of the UK astronomy community. As with DES, the UK investment would be highly leveraged by partnership with the US and other foreign partners. The total DESpec instrument cost is estimated at $40M, similar to DECam. The request funding covers both instrumentation and and preparations for target selection and survey strategy. The work described below is fully coordinated with the work for BigBOSS:UK, another proposed spectroscopic instrument.
Planned Impact
The DESpec project will develop the skills of Post-docs and technical staff.
In particular, the work on simulations for target selection and survey strategy will be of use not only for DESpec, but also for a number of other planned spectroscopic surveys.
The Opto-Mechanical design and specification of the fibre imaging system will have broad implications for optical systems.
In particular, the work on simulations for target selection and survey strategy will be of use not only for DESpec, but also for a number of other planned spectroscopic surveys.
The Opto-Mechanical design and specification of the fibre imaging system will have broad implications for optical systems.
Publications
Wiseman P
(2020)
Supernova host galaxies in the dark energy survey: I. Deep coadds, photometry, and stellar masses
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Wethers C
(2018)
UV-luminous, star-forming hosts of z ~ 2 reddened quasars in the Dark Energy Survey
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Vincenzi M.
(2020)
The Dark Energy Survey Supernova Program: Modelling selection efficiency and observed core collapse supernova contamination
in arXiv e-prints
Vincenzi M.
(2021)
The Dark Energy Survey Supernova Program: Cosmological biases from supernova photometric classification
in arXiv e-prints
Tucker Douglas
(2021)
SOAR/Goodman Spectroscopic Assessment of Candidate Counterparts of the LIGO--Virgo Event GW190814
in arXiv e-prints
Troxel M
(2018)
Dark Energy Survey Year 1 results: Cosmological constraints from cosmic shear
in Physical Review D
Tamosiunas Andrius
(2020)
Investigating Cosmological GAN Emulators Using Latent Space Interpolation
in arXiv e-prints
Swann E. S.
(2018)
Classification of 18 DES supernova with OzDES
in The Astronomer's Telegram
Stephenson LJ
(2020)
High-Rate, High-Fidelity Entanglement of Qubits Across an Elementary Quantum Network.
in Physical review letters
Smith M
(2020)
First Cosmology Results using Supernovae Ia from the Dark Energy Survey: Survey Overview, Performance, and Supernova Spectroscopy
in The Astronomical Journal
Description | Research at the ICG has helped understand the formation and evolution of the universe. This information is important to advance our understand of fundamental physics as well as being of great interest and fascination by the general public. In this grant, we explore the development of a new instrument, which was later merged with another design and recently selected by STFC for construction |
Exploitation Route | This work has directly lead to the selection of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) by STFC for funding and construction in collaboration with US partners (DoE). This study helped secure UK leadership and involvement in key areas of the instrument design and science exploitation. UK are now leading two of the main components |
Sectors | Education Manufacturing including Industrial Biotechology |
Description | Research at the ICG has helped understand the formation and evolution of the universe. This information is important to advance our understand of fundamental physics as well as being of great interest and fascination by the general public. |
First Year Of Impact | 2014 |
Sector | Education,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
Impact Types | Cultural Societal |
Description | DES |
Organisation | Dark Energy Survey (DES) |
Country | Global |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | Scientific leadership and guidance, preparation of scientific simulations and preparations, organisation of meetings and events |
Collaborator Contribution | Access to proprietary data and scientific collaboration |
Impact | Scientific publications (see publication list) |
Start Year | 2006 |
Description | DESI |
Organisation | Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory |
Country | United States |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | The ICG (especially Will Percival) have been leading a UK team to work with the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) which is a merger of two previous projects, namely DESpec and BigBOSS. |
Collaborator Contribution | The UK team are helping with science design and exploitation, technical work on the fiber optics (durham) and optical corrector (UCL) |
Impact | DESI recently received STFC funding for the UK team to participate in the construction and running of this instrument |
Start Year | 2012 |
Description | Stargazing at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
Type Of Presentation | Workshop Facilitator |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | 450 people attended a Stargazing Live partner event at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, organised by the ICG. There were a variety of activities linked to our research and the opportunity for members of the public to ask our researchers questions which sparked discussion Many members of the public who attended the event were not previously aware of the ICG or that cosmology research was being carried out in their home city. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |