SCIENCE GOALS OF EXTREMELY LARGE TELESCOPES Sandro DOdorico

SCIENCE GOALS OF EXTREMELY LARGE TELESCOPES Sandro D’Odorico European Southern Observatory RENCONTRES DE MORIOND Contents and Structures of the Universe La Thuile, Val d’Aosta, Italy; March 18 -25, 2006

TELESCOPE GROWTH SINCE GALILEO Telescope size driven by glas technology for primary surface: (lenses-->monolithic mirrors segmented mirrors) Today, advances in fabrication and control technologies allow EL segmented primary mirrors to be built for affordable costs and with competitive schedules s. d’odorico_Moriond_1

RAPID GROWTH OF GROUND-BASED ASTRONOMY IN LITTLE MORE THAN A GENERATION La. Silla Obs VLT Obs USA and European Astronomers surveying sites for 4 m telescopes on Atacama Cerro Morado, Chile, ~1962 (ESO archive photo) ALMA- a joint ESO-USA project, under construction s. d’odorico_Moriond_2

THREE ELTs PROJECTS PRESENTLY UNDERGOING CONCEPTUAL – PHASE A STUDIES: Ø TMT ( Caltech, Univ. California, AURA, CANADA) 30 m Ø European ELT 30 -60 m Ø Giant Magellan Telescope (Carnegie+ USA Univ. ) 7 x 8 m TMT European ELT Projected cost : 500 – 700 Million EUROS (~ x 1. 15 $) Start of operation: 2016 s. d’odorico_Moriond_3 GMT

CONTEXT IN THE 2 ND DECADE OF THE 3 RD MILLENNIUM: ELTs WILL WORK IN SINERGY WITH THE OTHER TWO MAJOR MULTI-SCOPE FACILITIES OF THAT DECADE, ALMA and JWST ALMA : antenna array for high angular resolution submillimeter observations s. d’odorico_moriond_4 JWST: NIR and Thermal IR cameras and spectrographs

ACTUAL COLLECTING AREA OF LARGE TELESCOPES Northern Hemisphere Southern Hemisphere s. d’odorico-moriond-5

GAIN FROM AN ELT – OBSERVING REGIMES v More photons from the larger collecting area ( fainter sources within reach, higher S/N ratios for brightest sources) For photon-noise dominated observations, the S/N gain proportional to D at fixed time and flux, the speed (1/ time required to reach given S/N ) to D 2 ). For sky limited observations of point-like sources at natural seeing (0. 7 at V, 0. 4” FWHM at K), the S/N proportional to D , the speed to D 2. v Higher angular resolution ( = 1. 22 / D ) if atmospheric turbulence can be properly corrected with Adaptive Optics putting a significant fraction of the flux of point-like sources within the Airy disk For sky limited observations of point-like, diffraction limited sources the S/N is proportional to D 2, the speed to D 4. Point-like: stars in the Galaxy and in nearby galaxies, SN, GRB Extended: even at the highest z, galaxies up to a few tens of arcsec in size All of the above provided that instruments at least as efficient as those at 10 m class telescopes can be built s. d’odorico_Moriond_6

GAIN FROM AN ELT –THE ROLE OF ADAPTIVE OPTICS v To fully realize the ELT advantage the telescopes must be equipped with efficient AO system-s ahead of the instruments. v The AO system will consist of an array of artificial laser stars, of a number of wavefront sensors for the laser stars and natural stars in the field, 1 -2 fast adaptive mirrors in the telescope optical train and/or in a separate system v Current performance predictions from extrapolation of various flavors of AOs being tested at 8 -10 m telescopes: - on small, central field (< 30”) very good correction at NIR and thermal IR - on selected regions of large fields (10’) moderate correction in NIR - at visual- red wavelengths on axis and on large fields natural seeing improvement through correction of the Ground Layer of the atmosphere s. d’odorico_Moriond_7

PRIMARY SCIENCE CASES FOR THE ELTs Ø From the original science drivers - now filtered through the instrument concept studies (OWL, TMT, ELT) Ø Mostly similar for the different projects, a few differences. With minimal personal bias 1. Detection and Characterization of Giant to Terrestrial Mass Planets 2. Stellar Populations in external galaxies up to Virgo as tracers of the star formation history though the life of the universe … … … … …. . 3. Accurate redshift and characterization of SN up to redshift ~2 4. Detailed properties of galaxies and IGM 1 < z < 5 (mass, metallicity, luminosity function, SFR, extinction, tomography and metal content of IGM) 5. Redshift and characterization of galaxies up to z ~10 (reionisation? ), GRBs to the same z as probes of IGM 6. Direct measurement of the expansion history of the Universe (EELT science case only) 7. Test of the variability of fundamental constants s. d’odorico_Moriond_8

INSTRUMENTS CONCEPTS MOST RELEVANT FOR COSMOLOGY-RELATED STUDIES (TMT, E-ELT) SINGLE OR MULTI INTEGRAL FIELDS, NIR SPECTROGRAPH Science Cases: 3, 4, 5 Requirements: ~5”x 5”, 20 mas sampling [ single field]; ~20 IFU 2” x 2” over 5’ x 5’ field / Z, J, H, K bands/ R=1000 -4000 / throughput (including telescope) > 15%/ limiting magnitude Ks 2324 in a few hours integration at S/N=10 AO requirements: EE 30 -60 % within 50 mas at H. Via LTAO for the single field, via MOAO for large field Flavors: IRIS, IRMOS at TMT, WSPEC, MOMSI at E-ELT Challenges: AO performance over large field/ positionable, cryogenic IFU s s. d’odorico_moriond_9

INSTRUMENTS CONCEPTS MOST RELEVANT FOR COSMOLOGY-RELATED STUDIES (TMT, E-ELT) MULTI OBJECT VISIBLE SPECTROGRAPH Science Cases: 4, mapping of dark halos in ellipticals from GC and PN Requirements: Field>40 sqmin, Spectral range : 310 -1000 nm, Resolution = 500 -5000/ Throughput >25% including telescope AO requirements: Improvement of seeing median value by 20 -30% with GLAO Flavors: WFOS at TMT, WSPEC at E-ELT (? ) Challenges: Size and cost of instrument, performance of GLAO over large field, UV coverage HIGH RESOLUTION OPTICAL SPECTROGRAPH Science Cases: 4, 5, 6, 7 Requirements: R= 20000 -150000, throughput >15% including telescope, AO requirements: Seeing median improvement by GLAO desiderable Flavors: HROS at TMT, CODEX at E-ELT Challenges: Size of instrument and instrument components, cost, schedule, long-term calibration s. d’odorico_moriond_10 Nr of QSO from SDSS observable in 3 hrs at high resolution, for different S/N, as function of telescope diameter (credit TMT MTHR study)

CODEX ( Cosmic Dynamics Experiment ): an instrument for High Resolution Spectroscopy at the ELTs Science Case and Instrument Concept Study carried out by ESO, Io. A Cambridge, Obs. Geneve and INAF Trieste ( Pasquini et al. 2005) Legacy Science Program: To test the cosmological model by measuring the predicted drift in the redshift of distant sources as a function of time (Sandage , 1962) Magnitude of the effect: H 0= 70 km/s/Mpc t = 10 yr; at z=4 = 1 x 10 -6 A v ~ 5 cm/s redshift s. d’odorico_Moriond_11

CODEX : Cosmic Dynamics Experiment The idea and the targets: To use ELT huge collecting area and an high resolution spectrograph with a highly accurate and stable wavelength scale to measure from high S/N spectra the shifts in the Ly forest and metal systems in the direction of bright QSOs over a large time interval (>10 years). Capitalizing and expanding the expertise and methodology acquired with the successful spectroscopic planet searches (HARPS) and Ly forest studies with UVES at the VLT. The Instrument: High Resolution Spectrograph operating in the spectral range: 400 -680 nm at R = 150000 with a stability of ~1 cm / s. Improvement of a factor ~10 -20 over HARPS short term accuracy. Long term , stable calibration provided by a laser frequency comb tied to an atomic clock (prototype under study) s. d’odorico_Moriond_12

CODEX : Cosmic Dynamics Experiment Ly lines in very large number over the measurable redshift interval 2 - 4. Narrow metallic lines can be used at lower redshift. Peculiar motions expected to be 10 times smaller than Hubble flow. Sufficient number of bright QSO Experiment is unique in probing the dynamical effect of dark energy and doing so in the redshift range z = 1. 5 - 4 Lya fo rest QSO Absorption Spectrum, zem = 3 Meta l line s s. d’odorico_Moriond_18

CODEX : Cosmic Dynamics Experiment SIMULATIONS Pasquini et al 2005 Simulated result from 30 QSO randomly distributed in the range 2 < z <4. 5 S/N = 3000 per 0. 0125 Å pixel/epoch (no metal lines used) t = 20 years Green points: 0. 1 z bins, Blue: 0. 5 z bins; Red line: Model with H 0=70 Km/s/Mpc, Ωm=0. 3 Ω =0. 7 The cosmic signal is detected at >99% significance s. d’odorico_Moriond_14

CODEX : Cosmic Dynamics Experiment “Immediate” science: Testing the Variability of the Fine Structure Constant α =e 2/hc Fundamental constants supposedly universal and invariable quantities Measured variations would have far reaching consequences on current theories Astronomical observations hold the potential to probe the value in the past (high z) by a measurement of relative shift of pair. S of absortion lines with different sensitivies to the variation of α VLT/UVES 23 systems Δα/α=(+0. 6± 0. 6)× 10 -6 Chand et al 2004 Keck/Hires 143 systems Δα/α=(-0. 57± 0. 11)× 10 -5 Murphy et al 2004 CODEX accuracy of / = 10 -8 will represent an improvement by two order of magnitudes with respect to present measurements s. d’odorico_Moriond_15_