The wide-field, multiplexed, spectroscopic facility WEAVE: Survey design, overview, and simulated implementation : Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Jin, Shoko; Bensby, Thomas; Feltzing, Sofia; Feuillet, Diane, et al. (2024). The wide-field, multiplexed, spectroscopic facility WEAVE: Survey design, overview, and simulated implementation : Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 530, (3), 2688 - 2730
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Published
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English
Authors:
Jin, Shoko
;
Bensby, Thomas
;
Feltzing, Sofia
;
Feuillet, Diane
, et al.
Department:
Astrophysics
Department of Geology
eSSENCE: The e-Science Collaboration
Abstract:
WEAVE, the new wide-field, massively multiplexed spectroscopic survey facility for the William Herschel Telescope, saw first light in late 2022. WEAVE comprises a new 2-deg field-of-view prime-focus corrector system, a nearly 1000-multiplex fibre positioner, 20 individually deployable ‘mini’ integral field units (IFUs), and a single large IFU. These fibre systems feed a dual-beam spectrograph covering the wavelength range 366–959 nm at R ∼ 5000, or two shorter ranges at R ∼ 20 000. After summarizing the design and implementation of WEAVE and its data systems, we present the organization, science drivers, and design of a five- to seven-year programme of eight individual surveys to: (i) study our Galaxy’s origins by completing Gaia’s phase-space information, providing metallicities to its limiting magnitude for ∼3 million stars and detailed abundances for ∼1.5 million brighter field and open-cluster stars; (ii) survey ∼0.4 million Galactic-plane OBA stars, young stellar objects, and nearby gas to understand the evolution of young stars and their environments; (iii) perform an extensive spectral survey of white dwarfs; (iv) survey ∼400 neutral-hydrogen-selected galaxies with the IFUs; (v) study properties and kinematics of stellar populations and ionized gas in z < 0.5 cluster galaxies; (vi) survey stellar populations and kinematics in ∼25 000 field galaxies at 0.3 ≲ z ≲ 0.7; (vii) study the cosmic evolution of accretion and star formation using >1 million spectra of LOFAR-selected radio sources; and (viii) trace structures using intergalactic/circumgalactic gas at z > 2. Finally, we describe the WEAVE Operational Rehearsals using the WEAVE Simulator. © 2023 The Author(s).
Keywords:
cosmology: observations ;
galaxies: general ;
Galaxy: general ;
instrumentation: spectrographs ;
stars: general ;
surveys ;
Cosmology ;
Ionization of gases ;
Kinematics ;
Phase space methods ;
Radio astronomy ;
Spectrographs ;
Supernovae ;
White dwarfs ;
Cosmology observations ;
Galaxies general ;
Instrumentation:spectrographs ;
Integral Field Unit ;
Spectroscopic surveys ;
Stars: general ;
Stellar populations ;
Survey design ;
Wide-field ;
Galaxies
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