Concept integral field unit spectrometer instrument for the next-generation mm-wave cosmological surveys

TL;DR

This paper proposes a new concept for a millimeter-wave integral field spectrometer instrument capable of conducting large-scale, volumetric galaxy surveys at high redshifts, leveraging recent detector technology advances.

Contribution

It introduces a feasible instrument design for next-generation mm-wave surveys that can identify redshifts for thousands of galaxies annually on ground-based telescopes.

Findings

Can identify redshifts for up to 25,000 galaxies per year

Operable on 10-m class telescopes with current technology

Enables volumetric surveys of star-forming galaxies at z ~ 1--12

Abstract

Past millimeter-wave galaxy surveys have primarily probed the brightest starburst galaxies only and suffered heavily from confusion. The interpretation of existing surveys has also been hindered by the lack of reliable redshift indicators for measuring distances for entire samples. Thanks to recent advances in mm-wave detector technologies we can now overcome these limitations, and conduct the first truly volumetric surveys of star-forming galaxies at mm-wavelengths approaching the L* luminosities of typical galaxies, with ~1000 redshift slices spanning most of the Cosmic star-forming volume (z ~ 1--12) with nearly uniform mass and luminosity selection. We describe an instrument concept capable of delivering such surveys with the technologies available today, which can be built and operated on a ground-based mm-wave facility in the near future. Such integral field unit spectrometers can resolve and identify redshifts for up to to 25,000 star-forming galaxies per year even when operated on a 10-m class telescope. On a larger aperture it can do the same faster or probe even deeper. We propose a collaboration open-source initiative to design, build, and operate one or several such cameras through the shared contributions of leading experts and telescopes from around the globe.