No Arabic abstract
The Arcminute Microkelvin Imager (AMI) is a telescope specifically designed for high sensitivity measurements of low-surface-brightness features at cm-wavelength and has unique, important capabilities. It consists of two interferometer arrays operating over 13.5-18 GHz that image structures on scales of 0.5-10 arcmin with very low systematics. The Small Array (AMI-SA; ten 3.7-m antennas) couples very well to Sunyaev-Zeldovich features from galaxy clusters and to many Galactic features. The Large Array (AMI-LA; eight 13-m antennas) has a collecting area ten times that of the AMI-SA and longer baselines, crucially allowing the removal of the effects of confusing radio point sources from regions of low surface-brightness, extended emission. Moreover AMI provides fast, deep object surveying and allows monitoring of large numbers of objects. In this White Paper we review the new science - both Galactic and extragalactic - already achieved with AMI and outline the prospects for much more.
(Abridged) The Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer (MSE) is an end-to-end science platform for the design, execution and scientific exploitation of spectroscopic surveys. It will unveil the composition and dynamics of the faint Universe and impact nearly every field of astrophysics across all spatial scales, from individual stars to the largest scale structures in the Universe. Major pillars in the science program for MSE include (i) the ultimate Gaia follow-up facility for understanding the chemistry and dynamics of the distant Milky Way, including the outer disk and faint stellar halo at high spectral resolution (ii) galaxy formation and evolution at cosmic noon, via the type of revolutionary surveys that have occurred in the nearby Universe, but now conducted at the peak of the star formation history of the Universe (iii) derivation of the mass of the neutrino and insights into inflationary physics through a cosmological redshift survey that probes a large volume of the Universe with a high galaxy density. MSE is positioned to become a critical hub in the emerging international network of front-line astronomical facilities, with scientific capabilities that naturally complement and extend the scientific power of Gaia, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, the Square Kilometer Array, Euclid, WFIRST, the 30m telescopes and many more.
We discuss the science drivers for ALMA Band 2 which spans the frequency range from 67 to 90 GHz. The key science in this frequency range are the study of the deuterated molecules in cold, dense, quiescent gas and the study of redshifted emission from galaxies in CO and other species. However, Band 2 has a range of other applications which are also presented. The science enabled by a single receiver system which would combine ALMA Bands 2 and 3 covering the frequency range 67 to 116 GHz, as well as the possible doubling of the IF bandwidth of ALMA to 16 GHz, are also considered.
Significant new opportunities for astrophysics and cosmology have been identified at low radio frequencies. The Murchison Widefield Array is the first telescope in the Southern Hemisphere designed specifically to explore the low-frequency astronomical sky between 80 and 300 MHz with arcminute angular resolution and high survey efficiency. The telescope will enable new advances along four key science themes, including searching for redshifted 21 cm emission from the epoch of reionisation in the early Universe; Galactic and extragalactic all-sky southern hemisphere surveys; time-domain astrophysics; and solar, heliospheric, and ionospheric science and space weather. The Murchison Widefield Array is located in Western Australia at the site of the planned Square Kilometre Array (SKA) low-band telescope and is the only low-frequency SKA precursor facility. In this paper, we review the performance properties of the Murchison Widefield Array and describe its primary scientific objectives.
We present the concept of BlueMUSE, a blue-optimised, medium spectral resolution, panoramic integral field spectrograph based on the MUSE concept and proposed for the Very Large Telescope. With an optimised transmission down to 350 nm, a larger FoV (1.4 x 1.4 arcmin$^2$) and a higher spectral resolution compared to MUSE, BlueMUSE will open up a new range of galactic and extragalactic science cases allowed by its specific capabilities, beyond those possible with MUSE. For example a survey of massive stars in our galaxy and the Local Group will increase the known population of massive stars by a factor $>$100, to answer key questions about their evolution. Deep field observations with BlueMUSE will also significantly increase samples of Lyman-alpha emitters, spanning the era of Cosmic Noon. This will revolutionise the study of the distant Universe: allowing the intergalactic medium to be detected unambiguously in emission, enabling the study of the exchange of baryons between galaxies and their surroundings. By 2030, at a time when the focus of most of the new large facilities (ELT, JWST) will be on the infra-red, BlueMUSE will be a unique facility, outperforming any ELT instrument in the Blue/UV. It will have a strong synergy with ELT, JWST as well as ALMA, SKA, Euclid and Athena.
OTELO is an emission-line object survey carried out with the red tunable filter of the instrument OSIRIS at the GTC, whose aim is to become the deepest emission-line object survey to date. With 100% of the data of the first pointing finally obtained in June 2014, we present here some aspects of the processing of the data and the very first results of the OTELO survey. We also explain the next steps to be followed in the near future.