An Optical / IR Observatory on The Antarctic Plateau Lifan Wang George Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy Texas A&M University Cook’s Branch, April 12, 2012

The Site Dome A Elevation 4,091 m (13,422 ft) Coordinates: -80d22m, E77d 21m

The highest peak on the Plateau A team of Pioneers led by Yuanshen Li of Polar Research Institute Of China arrived at Dome Argus, Antarctica on Jan 18, 2005.

Dome A - 2008 China/Australia/USA

CSTAR 2008－2011

Kunlun Station Jan 27, 2009

Scientific Considerations Time Domain Astronomy – Requires Clear Sky High Spatial Resolution, Wide Field Astronomy – Requires Clear Sky, Good Seeing Wide Field Infrared Survey – Requires Clear Sky, Good Seeing, and Low Sky Background Terahertz Telescope – Requires Low PWV

Major Relevant Features Continuous observing time for more than 3 months Low temperature, low sky background in thermo IR Low turbulence boundary layers, good seeing Dry air, high transmission in IR Large Isoplanatic Angle Aurora High relative humidity Difficult to access Less dark time

Zou et al. 2010

Zou et al. 2010

Zou et al. 2010

OH (near IR) O2 (IR+Herzberg, Chamberlain bands) NO2 (pseudocont.) Na (seas. variation); Hg, Na lines Weak continuum

Zodiacal Light; Diffuse Milky Way light; Faint stars and galaxies [OI]6300,6364 (300km) N 5200 (258km)

Sonic Radar – SNODAR, UNSW, CCAA

Dome C Dome A Height of Turbulence Layer at Dome A & C Boner et al. 2010

Precipitable Water Vapor

Nigel at Dome A – An instrument for sky emission Black spectrum: Hill & Jones JGR 105, 9421 (2000)

IR Background It is also noteworthy that there are summer time IR background measurement at Dome C (Walden et al. 2005). The summer time 3-20 m backgrounds were found to be very stable and at levels comparable to the measurements at South Pole during the winter.

Example Science CSTAR Data An Exoplanet Candidate CSTAR – an array of 4 14.5 cm telescopes Example Science CSTAR Data An Exoplanet Candidate Black dots: Raw data Red dots: Data binned to 10 min interval

d Scuti star Uninterrupted 4.5-d light curve (representing 3.5% of the entire data). Folded light curve using P = 0.2193d; the photometric uncertainty is 1.5 mmag/bin. Lingzhi Wang, Lucas Macri et al. 2011

Survey Efficiency Define the survey efficiency k as the sky area a telescope can survey to a given S/N for a resolved source in a specific exposure time: D-Diameter of the telescope W-Field of view of the camera q-fwhm of the image (seeing or diffraction limit) B-Sky surface brightness For an unresolved diffuse source: If the background is lower by a factor of 50-100, as is the case for 2.4 micron at Dome A, a 0.5 meter telescope can survey as fast as a 3.5-5.0 meter telescope at a temperate site A single KDUST field is 2 sq degree.

Antarctica Survey Telescopes

AST3 68/50cm Diameter FoV 4.2 Sq Deg 1”/pix

Standard Candles

Sensitivity

Sensitivity

The first AST3 telescope was installed on Jan. 24, 2012. Astronomical operation began on March 15.

AST3 SN Survey/ DES Overlap SPT overlap area SDSS Southern Equatorial Stripe Tie region AST3 SN Survey/ DES Overlap Schedule: Installation in 2011-2012 Survey Operation: 2012 – 2017 Data Products: >2000 SNIa to z ~ 0.15 Core-collapse SNe; GRB; Orphan GRB afterglow LMC continuous monitoring –variable stars/microlensing/dark matter Galactic center continuous monitoring – variable stars/microlensing/transients Galactic structure – RR Lyrae/Cepheids

Supernova Cosmology More precise Hubble diagram Peculiar motion of nearby galaxies Measurement of s8 Dark matter and neutrino properties Wang, 2007

Microlensing toward the LMC

Pop III SNe

Pop III SNe KDUST2.5 KDUST4.0 AST3!!!

Survey Efficiency Define the survey efficiency k as the sky area a telescope can survey to a given S/N for a resolved source in a specific exposure time: D-Diameter of the telescope W-Field of view of the camera q-fwhm of the image (seeing or diffraction limit) B-Sky surface brightness For an unresolved diffuse source: If the background is lower by a factor of 50-100, as is the case for 2.4 micron at Dome A, a 0.5 meter telescope can survey as fast as a 3.5-5.0 meter telescope at a temperate site A single KDUST field is 2 sq degree.

z=7 Quasar and VISTA Filters SDSS bands VISTA bands May, 2010

IR Background It is also noteworthy that there are summer time IR background measurement at Dome C (Walden et al. 2005). The summer time 3-20 m backgrounds were found to be very stable and at levels comparable to the measurements at South Pole during the winter.

AST3 NIR Synoptic Infrared Survey Telescope In KDARK, compared to 2MASS, an increase of efficiency by (2048/256)2 * (0.5/1.3)2 * 50 = 473 times Comparable to VISTA for point source 3 times faster than VISTA for diffuse source GRBs at z ~15 !?

Kunlun Dark Universe Telescope Intermediate Scale Project Supernovae Weak Lensing Strong Lensing BAO?

PILOT/KDUST Sensitivity

UltraVISTA is an Ultra Deep, near-infrared survey with the new VISTA surveys telescope of the European Southern Observatory (ESO). Over the course of 5 years, UltraVISTA will repeatedly image the COSMOS field in 5 bands resulting in three key surveys: anultra-deep broad-band (Y, J, H, Ks) survey (1408hr) covering 0.73 deg² a deep broad-band (Y, J, H, Ks) survey (212hr) covering the full 1.5deg² field a narrow-band (180hr) survey covering the same region as the ultra-deep broad-band survey.

UltraVISTA The position of the UltraVISTA ultra-deep broad band and narrow band survey overlaid on the KPNO Ks image of the COSMOS field. The x and y axes are RA and Dec respectively. The coloured outlines are as follows: Green: ACS I band Blue: CFHTLS Red: UltraVISTA ultra-deep strips Yellow: UltraVISTA ultra-deep strips with 1 arcmin trimming              (trimmed due to incomplete coverage from dithering) The coordinates of the corners of the ultra-deep field (yellow boxes) are (in decimal RA and Dec): strip4: 149.33, 2.76, 149.46, 2.76, 149.46, 1.66, 149.33, 1.66 strip3: 149.70, 2.76, 149.83, 2.76, 149.83, 1.66, 149.70, 1.66 strip2: 150.06, 2.76, 150.20, 2.76, 150.20, 1.66, 150.06, 1.66 strip1: 150.43, 2.76, 150.57, 2.76 ,150.57, 1.66, 150.43, 1.66 Column 2 (as labelled on the plot) is the location of the deep IRAC strip.

One Single KDUST Exposure For Comparison: KDUST Reaches HUDF Depth at 750nm in 83 Hours for point sources and 251 hours for diffuse source Hubble Ultra Deep Field

Supernova Survey in Antarctica 4 meter Aperture 1-3.5 micron coverage 5000 supernovae up to z ~ 2 (rest frame NIR) 2000 supernovae with z ~ 2-4 (unexplored territory) JWST target feeder for spectroscopy and photometry E-ELT/GSMT target feeder for spectroscopy (photometry?)

Zhao et al. 2010, PASP

Zhao et al. 2010, PASP

Zhao et al. 2010, PASP

10 rest frame days after explosion The exposure time required to obtain S/N = 5 five rest frame days after explosion for a canonical supernova using an 8-m telescope at Dome A. Note the change in scale between the two plots. 10 rest frame days after explosion

The exposure time required to type a canonical supernova using an 8-m telescope at Dome A, with S/N = 5 in a λ/δλ = 150 element for the restframe 0.615 μm SiII feature. The restricted redshift range corresponds to when the line is within the Kdark window.

Summary Dome A site survey is going on, so far so good The first of the AST3 triplet is installed and is in science operation A pathfinder telescope is needed before we can build a larger telescope KDUST2.5 can make a significant contribution to cosmology KDUST4.0 working primarily in the NIR will provide deep maps of the universe

Dark time zenith night sky brightness measured at various observatories Site Year S10.7cm U B V R I MJy La Silla 1978 1.5 - 22.8 21.7 20.8 19.5 Kitt Peak 1987 0.9 22.9 21.9 CTIO 1987-8 22.0 22.7 21.8 20.9 19.9 Calar Alto 1990 2.0 22.2 22.6 21.5 20.6 18.7 La Palma 1994-6 0.8 21.0 20.0 Mauna Kea 1995-6 Paranal 2000-1 1.8 22.3 21.6 19.7 mag arcsec-2 Mattila et al. 1996; Pilachowski et al. 1989; Walker 1987, 1988; Leinert et al. 1998; Krisciunas 1997.