Suggested Subaru-NAOJ/Princeton Consortium: Overview Michael Strauss, Ed Turner, Jim Gunn January 25, 2007

Large Observational Projects at Princeton We have traditionally been involved in one or two large, department-wide projects at a time (currently SDSS and WMAP, segueing to AS2 and ACT) We are not currently part of any large-telescope consortium. The opportunity has arisen to partner with Japanese astronomical community to carry out surveys on the Subaru 8.2 meter telescope.

General Character of the Collaboration MOU-based, institutional-level research consortium Long term (5-10 years, extension possible) Multiple (2+) science themes, initially –Extrasolar planets via coronagraphic imaging –High redshift universe via wide-field imaging survey Scientific collaboration (not purchase of telescope time) –Telescope systems, instruments, software, … publication –Built on large scale “SDSS-like” survey programs –Enhanced by smaller scale PI-led projects –Strengthened by scientific visits and personnel exchange Mutual benefit from complementary NAOJ and Princeton resources: Subaru, ACT, APO 3.5m, “AS2” data, funding, expertise, experience, other facilities (Spitzer, ALMA), etc.

Extrasolar Planets (to be expanded upon by Ed Turner) Princeton to provide a new coronagraphic front end to work with HiCIAO (pupil coronagraph) Additional GTO time for a dedicated survey –Planets around brown dwarfs –Study of candidate TPF targets –Young Jupiters –Debris Disks –Targets from AS2-ASEPS project (post-SDSS extrasolar planet survey with APO 2.5m) Identification of targets for ALMA study

The High Redshift Universe: Wide-field imaging with Hyper-Suprime-Cam on Subaru (see presentation by Jim Gunn) Subaru has the widest field of view of any 8- meter-class telescope; it is ideal for wide-field surveys. Second-generation wide-field imager for Subaru requires upgrades to the Subaru top-end, costing roughly $10 million. Princeton provides funds to enable this upgrade. Princeton will be deeply involved in developing survey software (photometric pipeline, calibration, quality assurance, data products, database construction, etc.), building on SDSS experience.

NAOJ/Princeton team will design a ~1000 square degree equatorial survey to study growth of structure, gravitational lensing, high redshift rich clusters, galaxy properties and evolution. The equatorial field is also the location of planned deep imaging surveys in mm (ACT), near-IR (Spitzer), and radio (VLA). Targets for ALMA? Subaru is interested in devoting ~200 nights to such a wide-field survey, over ~5 years. FMOS (400-fiber near-IR OH suppression spectrograph) and WFMOS (planned 4000-fiber optical spectrograph built by Gemini) are exciting possibilities for collaboration in the future.

Building a Partnership Before Christmas, six of us traveled to Hilo and Tokyo to discuss this collaboration. There is great interest in Japan in massive surveys: the success of SDSS has been an important influence, as has been a strong historical connection between Princeton and the Japanese astronomical community. Our ideas will be presented to the Subaru User’s Committee next week. On short time scales, we might: –develop software for, and carry out surveys with SuPrimeCam (1/4 deg 2 ) –Start initial HiCIAO projects (prior to new front end) –Get access to Subaru (a few nights/semester, in collaboration with Japanese), and give Japanese access to APO 3.5m. –Have staff exchanges & short/long-term visits –Develop a joint/shared postdoc program

Next Steps Develop science plan and goals in detail. Subaru Users Annual Meeting discussion next week. Present plan to Princeton administration for approval in the next month. Prepare and sign MOU as soon as practical. Commence consortium activities.