DESI: The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Portsmouth
Department Name: Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation
Abstract
The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) is a massively multiplexed fibre-fed spectrograph that will make the next major advance in Fundamental Cosmology research in the timeframe 2019-2023. On the Mayall telescope, DESI will obtain spectra and redshifts for at least 18 million emission-line galaxies, 4 million luminous red galaxies and 3 million quasi-stellar objects. DESI will: (i) probe the effects of Dark Energy on the expansion history using baryon acoustic oscillations, (ii) measure the gravitational growth history through redshift-space distortions, (iii) measure the sum of neutrino masses, and (iv) investigate the signatures of cosmological inflation via primordial non-Gaussianity. The resulting 3-D galaxy maps at z < 2 and Lyman-alpha forest at z > 2 will make 1%-level measurements of the distance scale in 35 redshift bins; this will improve the precision of cosmological constraints by almost an order of magnitude compared to existing data, and be at least three times better than any result from currently planned competitor experiments. DESI will start before Euclid, will complement its redshift survey range by providing essential comparative lower and higher redshift data points, and will improve the Euclid calibrations of weak-lensing photometric redshifts. A wide range of additional science will also be possible using DESI including the study of galaxy evolution, galaxy cluster surveys, the structure of the Milky-Way galaxy and Galactic archaeology.
We propose that STFC enables a core group of UK scientists with relevant technical and scientific expertise to join the DESI collaboration and take a leading role in this experiment, using a similar strategy to that adopted to join the successful Dark Energy Survey (DES) project. DES will make complementary measurements to DESI, based on imaging data and photometric redshifts, which are significantly weaker than those based on spectroscopy. By building on acknowledged UK strengths in the technologies of large optics and highly multiplexed fibre systems, this core funding will enable leading UK technical roles in the optical corrector and fibre system work packages, from which strong leverage can be secured in the scientific leadership of the DESI project and the analysis of its survey data products. This is an area where UK groups have an established track record, for example in exploitation of the 2-degree Field Galaxy Redshift Survey.
DESI is an experiment that grew from the merger of the BigBOSS and DESpec studies, and will build upon STFC-funded feasibility studies for both projects. It brings together a team of people from both the particle physics and astronomy communities, with over 20 years of experience of working together on such projects. DESI is stronger than either the DES or the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) pre-cursor experiments (which led to DESpec and BigBOSS respectively) and will utilise this heritage to organise the large collaboration of scientists and engineers involved, with UK scientists playing a key role in that organisation.
With this proposal, STFC has the opportunity to support key areas of UK astronomy technology, and to enable strategically important areas of UK scientific excellence in this unique cosmological experiment. We request support primarily for the technical work-packages led by UCL and Durham University on the optical corrector and optical fibre system, and for project-specific travel associated with the science working groups and DESI progress meetings. We will seek support for science exploitation separately through our STFC consolidated grants. For optimum benefit to the UK, we propose support at the level of £2.8M which will enable full participation from scientists in four of the leading UK groups involved in large-scale structure studies (Portsmouth, Durham, Edinburgh and UCL) and ensure that the survey science products are also well aligned with wider UK priorities.
We propose that STFC enables a core group of UK scientists with relevant technical and scientific expertise to join the DESI collaboration and take a leading role in this experiment, using a similar strategy to that adopted to join the successful Dark Energy Survey (DES) project. DES will make complementary measurements to DESI, based on imaging data and photometric redshifts, which are significantly weaker than those based on spectroscopy. By building on acknowledged UK strengths in the technologies of large optics and highly multiplexed fibre systems, this core funding will enable leading UK technical roles in the optical corrector and fibre system work packages, from which strong leverage can be secured in the scientific leadership of the DESI project and the analysis of its survey data products. This is an area where UK groups have an established track record, for example in exploitation of the 2-degree Field Galaxy Redshift Survey.
DESI is an experiment that grew from the merger of the BigBOSS and DESpec studies, and will build upon STFC-funded feasibility studies for both projects. It brings together a team of people from both the particle physics and astronomy communities, with over 20 years of experience of working together on such projects. DESI is stronger than either the DES or the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) pre-cursor experiments (which led to DESpec and BigBOSS respectively) and will utilise this heritage to organise the large collaboration of scientists and engineers involved, with UK scientists playing a key role in that organisation.
With this proposal, STFC has the opportunity to support key areas of UK astronomy technology, and to enable strategically important areas of UK scientific excellence in this unique cosmological experiment. We request support primarily for the technical work-packages led by UCL and Durham University on the optical corrector and optical fibre system, and for project-specific travel associated with the science working groups and DESI progress meetings. We will seek support for science exploitation separately through our STFC consolidated grants. For optimum benefit to the UK, we propose support at the level of £2.8M which will enable full participation from scientists in four of the leading UK groups involved in large-scale structure studies (Portsmouth, Durham, Edinburgh and UCL) and ensure that the survey science products are also well aligned with wider UK priorities.
Planned Impact
DESI is a ground-based experiment to study the expansion rate of the universe and the growth of cosmological structure with a wide-angle spectroscopic galaxy and quasar redshift survey. The 5000-fibre DESI spectrograph will allow an order of magnitude improvement in the distance scale over the redshifts 0.8
Organisations
Publications
DESI Collaboration DESI
(2016)
The DESI Experiment Part I: Science,Targeting, and Survey Design
in arXiv e-prints
DESI Collaboration DESI
(2016)
The DESI Experiment Part II: Instrument Design
in arXiv e-prints
Hoyle B
(2018)
Dark Energy Survey Year 1 Results: redshift distributions of the weak-lensing source galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Smith M
(2018)
Studying the Ultraviolet Spectrum of the First Spectroscopically Confirmed Supernova at Redshift Two
in The Astrophysical Journal
Carter P
(2018)
Low redshift baryon acoustic oscillation measurement from the reconstructed 6-degree field galaxy survey.
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
Drlica-Wagner A
(2018)
Dark Energy Survey Year 1 Results: The Photometric Data Set for Cosmology
in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series
Collett TE
(2018)
A precise extragalactic test of General Relativity.
in Science (New York, N.Y.)
Abolfathi B
(2018)
The Fourteenth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Spectroscopic Data from the Extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey and from the Second Phase of the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment
in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series
Troxel M
(2018)
Dark Energy Survey Year 1 results: Cosmological constraints from cosmic shear
in Physical Review D
Gatti M
(2018)
Dark Energy Survey Year 1 results: cross-correlation redshifts - methods and systematics characterization
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Bianchi D
(2018)
Unbiased clustering estimates with the DESI fibre assignment
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Sako M
(2018)
The Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-II Supernova Survey
in Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
Inserra C
(2018)
Euclid: Superluminous supernovae in the Deep Survey
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Luque E
(2018)
Deep SOAR follow-up photometry of two Milky Way outer-halo companions discovered with Dark Energy Survey
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Abbott T
(2018)
Dark Energy Survey year 1 results: Cosmological constraints from galaxy clustering and weak lensing
in Physical Review D
Pursiainen M
(2018)
Rapidly evolving transients in the Dark Energy Survey
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Prat J
(2018)
Dark Energy Survey year 1 results: Galaxy-galaxy lensing
in Physical Review D
Penny S
(2018)
SDSS-IV MaNGA: evidence of the importance of AGN feedback in low-mass galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Chang C
(2018)
Dark Energy Survey Year 1 results: curved-sky weak lensing mass map
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Smethurst R
(2018)
SDSS-IV MaNGA: the different quenching histories of fast and slow rotators
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Shipp N
(2018)
Stellar Streams Discovered in the Dark Energy Survey
in The Astrophysical Journal
Mueller E
(2019)
Optimizing primordial non-Gaussianity measurements from galaxy surveys
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Ruggeri R
(2019)
The extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: testing a new approach to measure the evolution of the structure growth
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Beutler F
(2019)
Interpreting measurements of the anisotropic galaxy power spectrum
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Baumann D
(2019)
First constraint on the neutrino-induced phase shift in the spectrum of baryon acoustic oscillations
in Nature Physics
Nadathur S
(2019)
Beyond BAO: Improving cosmological constraints from BOSS data with measurement of the void-galaxy cross-correlation
in Physical Review D
Aguado D
(2019)
The Fifteenth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Surveys: First Release of MaNGA-derived Quantities, Data Visualization Tools, and Stellar Library
in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series
Thomas D
(2019)
Using large-scale structure data and a halo model to constrain generalized dark matter
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Ruggeri R
(2019)
The clustering of the SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey DR14 quasar sample: measuring the evolution of the growth rate using redshift-space distortions between redshift 0.8 and 2.2
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Dey A
(2019)
Overview of the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys
in The Astronomical Journal
Hahn C
(2019)
Likelihood non-Gaussianity in large-scale structure analyses
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Castorina E
(2019)
Redshift-weighted constraints on primordial non-Gaussianity from the clustering of the eBOSS DR14 quasars in Fourier space
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Zhao G
(2019)
The clustering of the SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey DR14 quasar sample: a tomographic measurement of cosmic structure growth and expansion rate based on optimal redshift weights
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Sugiyama N
(2019)
A complete FFT-based decomposition formalism for the redshift-space bispectrum
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Foreman W
(2020)
Calorimetry for low-energy electrons using charge and light in liquid argon
in Physical Review D
Brout D.
(2020)
VizieR Online Data Catalog: The first 3yrs of DES-SN (DES-SN3YR) (Brout+, 2019)
in VizieR Online Data Catalog
Abi B
(2020)
Volume I. Introduction to DUNE
in Journal of Instrumentation
Abi B
(2020)
Long-baseline neutrino oscillation physics potential of the DUNE experiment DUNE Collaboration
in The European Physical Journal C
Smith D.
(2020)
Experimental tests of sub-surface reflectors as an explanation for the ANITA anomalous events
in arXiv e-prints
Jones S. B.
(2020)
Off-Axis Characterisation of the CERN T10 Beam for low Momentum Proton Measurements with a High Pressure Gas Time Projection Chamber
in arXiv e-prints
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
Acero M
(2020)
Supernova neutrino detection in NOvA
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Abbott T
(2020)
Dark Energy Survey Year 1 Results: Cosmological constraints from cluster abundances and weak lensing
in Physical Review D
Adamson P
(2020)
Improved Constraints on Sterile Neutrino Mixing from Disappearance Searches in the MINOS, MINOS+, Daya Bay, and Bugey-3 Experiments.
in Physical review letters
Abarr Q.
(2020)
The Payload for Ultrahigh Energy Observations (PUEO): A White Paper
in arXiv e-prints
Acero M
(2020)
Adjusting neutrino interaction models and evaluating uncertainties using NOvA near detector data
in The European Physical Journal C
Acero M
(2020)
Search for multimessenger signals in NOvA coincident with LIGO/Virgo detections
in Physical Review D
Abi B
(2020)
Neutrino interaction classification with a convolutional neural network in the DUNE far detector
in Physical Review D
DUNE Collaboration DUNE
(2020)
Long-baseline neutrino oscillation physics potential of the DUNE experiment
in arXiv e-prints
Description | This is travel funding for UK scientists to go to DESI collaboration meetings. The development from the grant is the development of the experiment itself. |
Exploitation Route | DESI will lead to a better understanding of the Universe, through the development of specialist hardware and software. |
Sectors | Education |
URL | http://desi.lbl.gov/ |
Title | nbodykit: A tool to analyze galaxy survey datasets and nbody simulations |
Description | nbodykit is an open source project written in Python that provides a set of state-of-the-art, large-scale structure algorithms useful in the analysis of cosmological datasets from N-body simulations and observational surveys. All algorithms are massively parallel and run using the Message Passing Interface (MPI). |
Type Of Technology | Software |
Year Produced | 2017 |
Open Source License? | Yes |
Impact | Even though we released the tool just recently it already has been used in several galaxy survey studies (see http://nbodykit.readthedocs.io/en/latest/cookbook/index.html) |
URL | http://nbodykit.readthedocs.io/en/latest/index.html |