Collaborative Research: Research and Development on the LSST Calibration System

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This award will provide funds for two groups to participate in the planning for the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). The LSST is a facility under consideration that will address the nature of Dark Matter and Dark Energy which are observed to be fundamental components of the Universe that do not fit within the otherwise stunningly successful Standard Model of particle physics. LSST will address these issues in a uniquely powerful way and is planned to be the most ambitious sky survey in the visible band. It will be a large, wide-field, ground-based system designed to obtain multiple images covering the sky. The survey will feature precision astrometry and photometry and thus will be ideal for measurements of weak lensing and the construction of transient object light curves which is ideal for Supernovae Ia cosmology. The PIs are members of the LSST project and besides their work on the LSST calibration system they are also members of the LSST Supernova and Large Scale Structure Science collaborations. They are working on a simulation of the LSST calibration to define parameters for design and construction, and during the time frame of this award this work will transition to implementation of a calibration pipeline which will be tested on both simulated LSST raw data and real sky data. There are several broader impacts of this activity. At Wayne State, undergraduates are included in research via an REU/RET program. At Cincinnati, there is an active QuarkNet program which involves K-12 teachers in research and develops content that they include in their class rooms.