New 50-m-class single-dish telescope: Large Submillimeter Telescope (LST)

TL;DR

The paper presents a conceptual design for a 50-meter class single-dish telescope optimized for wide-area submillimeter surveys, aiming to advance various fields in astronomy and astrophysics through its unique capabilities.

Contribution

It introduces the design and science goals of the Large Submillimeter Telescope (LST), highlighting its specifications, active surface control, and potential for new discovery spaces.

Findings

Design specifications and key science goals outlined.

Active surface control for high-frequency observations discussed.

Potential scientific applications across multiple astrophysics fields identified.

Abstract

We report on a plan to construct a 50-m-class single-dish telescope, the Large Submillimeter Telescope (LST). The conceptual design and key science behind the LST are presented, together with its tentative specifications. This telescope is optimized for wide-area imaging and spectroscopic surveys in the 70--420 GHz frequency range, which spans the main atmospheric windows at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths for good observation sites such as the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) site in Chile. We also target observations at higher frequencies of up to 1 THz, using an inner high-precision surface. Active surface control is required in order to correct gravitational and thermal deformations of the surface, and will be useful for correction of the wind-load deformation. The LST will facilitate new discovery spaces such as wide-field imaging with both continuum and spectral lines, along with new developments for time-domain science. Through exploitation of its synergy with ALMA and other telescopes, the LST will contribute to research on a wide range of topics in the fields of astronomy and astrophysics, e.g., astrochemistry, star formation in our Galaxy and galaxies, the evolution of galaxy clusters via the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect, the search for transients such as $\gamma$-ray burst reverse shocks produced during the epoch of re-ionization, electromagnetic follow up of detected gravitational wave sources, and examination of general relativity in the vicinity of super massive black holes via submillimeter very-long-baseline interferometry.