DE Projects @ U Illinois

Blanco Cosmology Survey (BCS), a 100 sq deg multiband optical survey of two regions in the southern sky (23hr,-55d & 5hr30m, -52d) which are chosen because they will be observed by the leading mm-wave survey experiments (APEX-SZ, ACT and SPT). The BCS has been granted 45 Blanco 4m nights in fall '05, '06 and '07 and is an official NOAO Survey program. We will use this survey to study the cosmic acceleration using galaxy cluster surveys and the clustering of ~3 million galaxies. These data will enable photometric redshift measurements for 500 SPT selected clusters and will provide a testbed for studies of galaxy cluster selection in the optical and mm-wave (and we have proposed for a coordinated X-ray survey with XMM and are going to propose for an IR survey with Spitzer). Mohr at U Illinois is leading this project, which involves a broad collaboration of scientists with expertise in extragalactic observations in the optical, mm-wave, near-IR, IR and X-ray.

South Pole Telescope (SPT), is a 10m mm-wave telescope being constructed for operation at the South Pole. Together with a 1000 element bolometer array, this telescope will carry out the most sensitive small-angular-scale studies of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) ever. This will enable a large galaxy cluster survey, using the so-called Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect, which is the distortion that hot gas in galaxy clusters introduces into the CMB through inverse Compton scattering. This 4000 sq degree survey- in combination with the DES and the Harvard simultaneous multiband imager experiment, will deliver the largest cluster sample for studies of the dark energy. The telescope and bolometer array are already under construction and will be deployed to the pole in 2006. The survey will commence in early 2007. This project is led by John Carlstrom at the University of Chicago. Mohr at U Illinois is involved in science development, data analysis and is leading the followup for the survey.

Dark Energy Survey (DES), a 5000 sq deg multiband optical survey that will explore the nature of dark energy using four independent techniques: (1) a galaxy cluster survey- in collaboration with the SPT, (2) weak lensing cosmic shear, (3) a sample of 2000 SNe Ia distance measurements extending to z~0.8, and (4) the galaxy angular power spectrum in redshift shells to z~1.0 as a physically calibrated standard rod. Construction and software development are underway, and the survey begins in 2009. We at Illinois initiated this project. The camera construction is led by Fermilab, and the data management development is led by Mohr at U Illinois. This project was initiated by U Illinois and Fermilab, and the project now has grown into an international collaboration of top government laboratories and leading universities.

Southern Cluster Survey (SCS), an optical, X-ray and mm-wave study of the universe that relies on the multiband optical and NIR imaging of all XMM archival pointings in the SPT survey region. Mohr is leading this project.

Planck Surveyor (homepage), is a European-US space based cosmic microwave background (CMB) imaging experiment. It will push the phenomenal successes of NASA WIlkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) to new heights through improvements in angular resolution and spectral coverage. Prof. Wandelt's group at U Illinois is part of the US data analysis team.

Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), is a joint DOE and NSF project to study the dark energy using weak lensing cosmic shear, supernovae distances and a galaxy cluster survey. Illinois is involved in three ways: (1) the data acquisition software will be developed by Prof Jon Thaler (U Illinois Physics), (2) NCSA will play a major role in the survey data management, and (3) people from Physics, Astronomy and NCSA will participate in the science.

X-ray Survey Mission to study galaxy cluster and AGN populations in ways the will reveal the nature of the dark energy. An X-ray cluster survey is a well understood technique for finding clusters and extracting cosmological information. In the past people have stumbled upon the uncertain mass scale of galaxy clusters when trying to interpret X-ray surveys. Through a new technique called self-calibration, introduced here at the University of Illinois, we have shown that one can use the full survey data to solve for both cosmology and the cluster masses at all redshifts. This technique relies on the redshift distribution of clusters together with the spatial clustering of the clusters, and so we continue to look for opportunities to build a special purpose survey mission that would allow for precise cosmological studies. Big News is that Spectrum X-Gamma will fly an X-ray survey instrument e-ROSITA as part of its payload. This instrument, build under the direction of Prof. Günther Hasinger at MPE, will provide a deep imaging spectroscopic X-ray survey of the full sky.