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WFMOS Feasibility Study

WFMOS Feasibility Study. Value-added Science Bob Nichol, ICG Portsmouth. Science Productivity. Big spectroscopic surveys produce big scientific results Many of the major results of WFMOS surveys are hard to predict today

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WFMOS Feasibility Study

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  1. WFMOS Feasibility Study Value-added Science Bob Nichol, ICG Portsmouth

  2. Science Productivity • Big spectroscopic surveys produce big scientific results • Many of the major results of WFMOS surveys are hard to predict today • Datasets will have vast legacy benefits (e.g. more data going out of the HST archive than coming in)

  3. Science Productivity – 2dFGRS • Focused collaboration (~30) with specific science goals • Since 2001, 2dFGRS has 17th most cited paper in Astronomy. Also plays major role in most cited paper in this period (Spergel et al. 2003) • Has 10 of the top 150 cited papers in this period

  4. Science Productivity - SDSS Large collaboration (~200) with diverse science goals. 684 SDSS papers (so far) with 17745 citations 23 papers with >100 citations 1st & 4th most cited paper in 2004 “Breakthrough of the Year” Science 2003

  5. WFMOS Legacy WFMOS is like both 2dFGRS and SDSS: Has focused science objectives, but will be significant archival science and new community observations Need to provide support to the community to maximise return: analysis tools, easy access to data and instrument, and useful measured quantities

  6. Archival Science with DE Survey • Constrain dark energy from cluster counts (Newman et al. 2002) and Alcock-Paczsynki test (Yamamoto et al. 2004) • Spectroscopically identify thousands of SNe Ia • Constrain the distance-duality relation [dA/dL = (1+z)2] which tests the nature of gravity and photon conservation (axion-photon interactions) • Accurately measure luminosity functions and star-formation rate densities with redshift and environment (SDSS @ z~1) • Constrain the shape of primordial power spectrum to 2% and thus measure mass of the neutrino (to 0.1eV)

  7. Archival Science with SA Survey • Elemental abundance patterns of Pop III enrichment. • Signature in floor of chemical abundances, place limit on metallicity of gas accreted onto Milky Way • Extract radial velocities of faint distant giants and determine total mass of Milky Way. We will have targets out as far as stars exist!

  8. Community Science - examples of new observational programs • Detailed studies of local low luminosity galaxies e.g. Mr~-11 (r~24) in the Coma Cluster (Bernstein et al. 1995) • High redshift (z>4) studies of galaxies and QSOs from multi-color photometry • Simultaneously observing QSOs and galaxies (in the same fields) to quantify the relation between the IGM and the large-scale structures as traced by galaxies.

  9. Summary • WFMOS is a unique survey instrument and therefore there will be substantial interest in archival data and new observations • Tens of extra science projects outlined in Feasibility Study and KAOS Purple Book • Follow in the footsteps of SDSS and 2dFGRS in terms of size and therefore, legacy value

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