Big BOSS Community Science with Big BOSS Arjun

Big. BOSS Community Science with Big. BOSS Arjun Dey NOAO Big. BOSS DOE Review 6, 7 Dec 2011; Berkeley, CA

Outline • • • Big. BOSS NOAO’s Role Review Baseline Concept for Big. BOSS Survey Concept for Big. BOSS Observing Modes Sample Community Science Projects Community Science Requirements Arjun Dey Big. BOSS DOE Review 12/6/2011 2

National Optical Astronomy Observatory Big. BOSS Mission: • provide the best ground-based astronomical capabilities to ALL astronomers • promote public understanding and support of US ground-based OIR astronomy Peer-review access to current OIR facilities: • KPNO, CTIO, Gemini Observatory • Keck, Magellan, MMT, Palomar, Subaru New Initiatives (future facilities): • Dark Energy Camera on CTIO Blanco • Big. BOSS on KPNO Mayall • Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (NEO, SNe, etc. ) • Extremely Large Telescopes (e. g. , 30 -m GSMT) Arjun Dey Big. BOSS DOE Review 12/6/2011 3

NOAO’s Role in Big. BOSS • Enable an unprecedented spectroscopic capability for US astronomy • Enable the Big. BOSS science program • Provide interface between BB and astronomy community (i. e. , represent the astronomy community’s interests to BB and vice versa) • Collaborate with BB to ensure hardware / software performance for maximizing science output Arjun Dey Big. BOSS DOE Review 12/6/2011 4

Baseline strategy Big. BOSS • 14000 deg 2, 20 million galaxies, 2 million QSOs • 4 to 6 deep calibration fields (~30 – 40 deg 2) – characterize instrument and survey performance – sampling / completeness / selection functions, etc. • Five passes on full survey footprint – Year 1 - Focus on the QSO selection • Roughly 20% of fibers/tile not allocated to primary targets: – Scattered randomly through Fo. V – Available for sky, standards, ancillary targets – Increasing fraction of available fibers in later passes Arjun Dey Big. BOSS Community Workshop, Tucson, AZ 9/13/2011 5

Big. BOSS Arjun Dey Big. BOSS Community Workshop, Tucson, AZ 9/13/2011 6

Observing Modes Big. BOSS • Synchronous Observing – Tied to survey strategy • Survey pointing strategy known in advance: Dt < -1 day – Good for targets distributed across survey footprint – Could influence baseline survey strategy • P. I. -driven projects – Small: folded in through the BB Survey Queue – Large: (i. e. , other surveys) – supported by proposing teams • Projects using archival data – Based on public release through NOAO or BB archives Arjun Dey Big. BOSS Community Workshop, Tucson, AZ 9/13/2011 7

Big. BOSS Community Workshop http: //www. noao. edu/meetings/bigboss/ Big. BOSS • Held in Tucson on 13, 14 Sep 2011 • Attended by ~70 participants • 4 break-out sessions: – – Arjun Dey Galactic (Marla Geha, Yale) Extragalactic (Eric Bell, U. Michigan) Transients (Mansi Kasliwal, Carnegie Obs. ) Diffuse Media (Jason Prochaska, UCSC) Community is very excited about Big. BOSS! Big. BOSS DOE Review 12/6/2011 8

Community Workshop Report (Pilachowski et al. 2011) Big. BOSS will provide unprecedented data on: – Fossil history of Local Group galaxies – Growth of galaxies in dark matter halos – Flows of matter and energy into / out of galaxies and black holes – Astrophysics of stellar death Arjun Dey Big. BOSS DOE Review 12/6/2011 9

Fossil History of Local Group Galaxies: Milky Way and M 31 • Big. BOSS Identify and map substructure in the MW and M 31 – Kinematics + Chemistry => “near-field cosmology” – Probe underlying mass distribution – Constrain models of hierarchical galaxy formation – Identify rare populations • Targeted PI science examples: – Velocity structure of M 31 halo • Synchronous science examples: – Milky Way halo / thick disk substructure using sparse tracers – Rare object spectroscopy (e. g. , coolest WDs, “first” stars) Richard Payne, Arizona Astrophotography Arjun Dey Big. BOSS DOE Review 12/6/2011 10

The Formation of Galaxies and Large Scale Structure Big. BOSS • Growth of Galaxies in DM halos • Studies of DM in Galaxy Clusters • Targeted PI Science examples: – Dense redshift surveys to understand galaxy assembly at 0. 5<z<0. 8 – Surveys of nearby clusters to trace infall + virial regions, measure mass • Synchronous Science examples: – Redshifts for BCGs of cluster candidates – Identification / surveys for rare objects (e. g. , IR-luminous starbursts, obscured AGN, Lya blobs, very luminous galaxies at z>3, very massive galaxies at 1<z<1. 5, etc. ) Arjun Dey Lacey & Cole Big. BOSS DOE Review 12/6/2011 11

The Baryon Cycle and Galaxy Formation Big. BOSS • Trace baryons from IGM to ISM – Outflows, enrichment and spatial extent of CGM (using QSOs and close galaxy pairs; and distributions of dust around nearby galaxies) • Targeted PI Science – Differential extinction maps of nearby galaxies (spectra of fg stars and bg galaxies/QSOs) • Synchronous Science – Trace gas inflow/outflow distributions around QSOs (spectra of galaxies w/in 5” of known QSOs) Millennium Simulation, Springel et al. 2005 Arjun Dey Big. BOSS DOE Review 12/6/2011 12

Time-Domain Astronomy • Big. BOSS Astrophysics of stellar death – Identifying transients – Understanding their progenitors and environments • Archival Science – Search for WD binaries • Targeted PI Science – Spectra of known SN host galaxies (z + Z) • Synchronous Science – Requires advertising planned footprint – Different response timescales: minutes to days Arjun Dey Big. BOSS DOE Review 12/6/2011 M. Weiss, CXC, NASA 13

Community Science Needs Big. BOSS • Hardware: – – • Maintain blue response (3646 A, if possible – even w/ degraded PSF) Maintain current sensitivity / throughput Allow observations at airmass=2 Allow observations of bright targets Software – – Ensure quick-look reduction software Ensure timely public release of data in a usable archive • – • Archive useful meta data (including guider images) Enable community “plugins” to software pipeline Community Interface – – – Community fibers for synchronous mode observing will require well-defined and public astrometric reference frame & database Require a dynamic intelligent scheduler to fold in community / transient targets Clear definition of calibration requirements Enable community time with instrument from year 1 Enable proposal process for synchronous/small/medium/large projects, perhaps coupled with imaging facility (e. g. , WIYN/ODI) Insert Community into Planning Process! Arjun Dey Big. BOSS DOE Review 12/6/2011 14

Big. BOSS + NWNH Big. BOSS will have a major impact on many key science areas identified by Astro 2010 Decadal Survey (New Worlds and New Horizons) • Discovery – – • Origins – – • Origin of galaxies and large scale structure Origin of black holes Understanding the Cosmic Order – – – • Time domain astronomy Epoch of reionization Flows of baryons into/out of galaxies and BHs Mass / Energy / Chemical cycles within galaxies Astrophysics of stellar evolution (esp. massive stars) Community Science Frontiers of Knowledge – – – Arjun Dey Nature of inflation Accelerating universe Big. BOSS Key Project Nature of dark matter Nature of neutrinos Nature of compact objects and probes of relativity Chemistry of the universe Big. BOSS DOE Review 12/6/2011 15

Future Big. BOSS • Report of the BB Community Workshop by end of December 2011 • 219 AAS Meeting – Big. BOSS Session • Future NOAO+LBNL+Community Workshops to detail scheduling / software / hardware requirements • Establish a NOAO+community-based group to focus on Big. BOSS Arjun Dey Big. BOSS DOE Review 12/6/2011 16

Big. BOSS The community is very excited about Big. BOSS and is looking forward to using the capability! Arjun Dey Big. BOSS DOE Review 12/6/2011 17

Backup Slides Arjun Dey Big. BOSS DOE Review 12/6/2011 18

Delivered Image Quality at the Mayall and Blanco Telescopes (from Dey & Valdes 2012) Big. BOSS Measured from 17, 268 and 47, 266 images from MOSAIC cameras from NOAO Science Archive Arjun Dey Big. BOSS DOE Review 12/6/2011 19

Community Science Needs Big. BOSS • Clear definition of calibration requirements (shared between all science projects? ) – – • • Relative flux calibration to few % Relative velocity errors of 1 -2 km/s (over 1 night) Bright star limits clearly defined Meta data / guide camera images / seeing carefully archived Ensure timely public release of data in a usable archive Enable community “plugins” to software pipeline Enable community time with instrument from year 1 Enable proposal process for synchronous/small/medium/large projects, perhaps coupled with imaging facility (e. g. , WIYN/ODI) Arjun Dey Big. BOSS DOE Review 12/6/2011 20

Baseline Survey • 495 nights – Many are partial nights – 10 -20% of fibers available for ancillary science • 14, 000 deg 2 at (mostly) high Galactic latitude – survey footprint = SDSS+4000 deg 2 (~9800 pointings) • Primary targets: – 17 million emission-line galaxies (0. 6<z<1. 6) – 4 million luminous red galaxies (0. 6<z<1) – 2 million QSOs (1<z<5) • Exposure times designed to provide redshifts – Typically: 15 -20 min per ELG, 30 -40 min per LRG, 60 -90 min per QSO Arjun Dey Big. BOSS DOE Review 12/6/2011 21

Calibration Fields Big. BOSS • 4 to 6 deep fields (~30 – 40 deg 2) – characterize instrument and survey performance, sampling / completeness / selection functions, etc. • Targeted in Pilot Survey and also ~ 1 per run: – Denser sampling – Deeper exposures (~ 4. 5 h for some targets) – Sampling / targeting TBD • High legacy value for other science projects Arjun Dey Big. BOSS Community Workshop, Tucson, AZ 9/13/2011 22

Survey Operations • Big. BOSS Queue jointly supported by BB Team and NOAO • P. I. -programs interlaced into BBQ • Other large survey programs may need to provide their own observing resources • f/8 availability currently planned and will depend on demand (NEWFIRM, KOSMOS, +? ) Arjun Dey Big. BOSS Community Workshop, Tucson, AZ 9/13/2011 23

Break-out Sessions • Identify the most interesting science questions that Big. BOSS can address in your field – Any scale (small or large, synchronous, etc. ) • Define how Big. BOSS would be used – Exposure times, number of pointings/fields, etc. • Identify resources that are necessary for success – operational modes, reduction/analysis software, meta data, supporting capabilities, precursor capabilities Arjun Dey Big. BOSS Community Workshop, Tucson, AZ 9/13/2011 24

Break-out Sessions • Format of break-out sessions: – At discretion of session leader – Include contributions, discussion – Focus on what, if any, requirements your project would need to place on the instrument/data pipeline/data archive • Meet this afternoon (2 pm to 5: 30 pm) and tomorrow morning (9 am to 10 am) • Goal: Written Report on the Community Science Requirements – Will be drawn from the Break-out Session reports – Reports presented orally tomorrow at Plenary Session Arjun Dey Big. BOSS Community Workshop, Tucson, AZ 9/13/2011 25