Astro2020 Project White Paper: The Cosmic Accelerometer

TL;DR

The Cosmic Accelerometer is a proposed experiment utilizing innovative low-cost telescope technology to achieve ultra-precise velocity measurements, enabling applications in exoplanet detection and cosmological redshift drift studies over extended periods.

Contribution

It introduces the PolyOculus telescope technology and a measurement approach that combines cost-effectiveness with high precision for long-term astrophysical observations.

Findings

Design concept for the Cosmic Accelerometer

Potential to detect cosmological redshift drift within 6 years

Feasibility of using commercial off-the-shelf components for high-precision measurements

Abstract

We propose an experiment, the Cosmic Accelerometer, designed to yield velocity precision of $\leq 1$ cm/s with measurement stability over years to decades. The first-phase Cosmic Accelerometer, which is at the scale of the Astro2020 Small programs, will be ideal for precision radial velocity measurements of terrestrial exoplanets in the Habitable Zone of Sun-like stars. At the same time, this experiment will serve as the technical pathfinder and facility core for a second-phase larger facility at the Medium scale, which can provide a significant detection of cosmological redshift drift on a 6-year timescale. This larger facility will naturally provide further detection/study of Earth twin planet systems as part of its external calibration process. This experiment is fundamentally enabled by a novel low-cost telescope technology called PolyOculus, which harnesses recent advances in commercial off the shelf equipment (telescopes, CCD cameras, and control computers) combined with a novel optical architecture to produce telescope collecting areas equivalent to standard telescopes with large mirror diameters. Combining a PolyOculus array with an actively-stabilized high-precision radial velocity spectrograph provides a unique facility with novel calibration features to achieve the performance requirements for the Cosmic Accelerometer.