COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment

合作研究：Hobby-Eberly 望远镜暗能量实验

• 批准号: 0928636
• 负责人: Darren DePoy
• 金额: $ 392万
• 依托单位: Texas A&M Research Foundation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-09-01 至 2015-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0928636&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: COLLABORATIVE; RESEARCH; Hobby; Eberly; Telescope

AST-0926815/0926641/0928636Gebhardt/Schneider/DePoyThe Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy ExperimentThe solution to the problem of dark energy will require a fundamental shift in our understanding of the Universe, and acceptance of any model will require significant corroboration by observations. The Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) Dark Energy Experiment, HETDEX, offers a technically clean and observationally robust approach to measuring the effects of dark energy. HETDEX includes an upgrade of the HET for a wider field of view, deployment of the Visible Integral-field Replicable Unit Spectrograph (VIRUS), and completion of a wide field survey which will use 1400 hours of observation to obtain nearly a million redshifts of Lyman-alpha emitting galaxies. Significant parts of the project are already underway with support from a variety of sources, including substantial private donations.The survey will determine the local Hubble expansion at redshift 2.4 and measure the angular diameter distance out to that redshift, both to an accuracy of 0.8%, and determine the growth of structure to 2%. Nearly all other dark energy surveys target lower redshifts, while HETDEX was designed to provide high-redshift information on the evolution of dark energy, as well as being sufficiently powerful to measure dark energy effects even at late times. HETDEX further will measure the curvature of the Universe to about 0.1%, an order of magnitude better than current projects, and a strong complement to other current and planned studies. Although HETDEX is optimized for measures of the expansion history, there is significant ancillary science from the survey, such as a collection of spectra of a quarter of a million stars and 1.4 million other galaxies. Given its capabilities, VIRUS will remain a, if not the, primary instrument for HET for many years.The significant insights on dark energy, the large database with substantial ancillary science, and the unique and powerful integral field spectrograph on the HET will have a broad impact throughout the astronomical community. The attraction of the dark energy enigma enables HETDEX to include significant public outreach involving the McDonald Observatory Visitors Center and Stardate radio, including an interactive display for visitors and the involvement of K-12 teachers, as well as a popular webpage at http://www.hetdex.org.

霍比-埃伯利望远镜暗能量实验要解决暗能量问题，需要我们对宇宙的理解发生根本性的转变，而接受任何模型都需要大量的观测确证。霍比-埃伯利望远镜暗能量实验（HETDEX）提供了一种技术上干净、观测上可靠的方法来测量暗能量的影响。HETDEX包括升级HET以获得更广阔的视野，部署可见积分场可复制单元光谱仪（VIRUS），并完成一项广泛的调查，该调查将使用1400小时的观测来获得莱曼- α发射星系的近一百万红移。项目的主要部分已经在各种来源的支持下进行，包括大量的私人捐款。该调查将确定哈勃在红移2.4处的局部膨胀，并测量到该红移的角直径距离，两者的精度均为0.8%，并确定结构的增长率为2%。几乎所有其他暗能量调查都以较低的红移为目标，而HETDEX旨在提供暗能量演化的高红移信息，并且足够强大，甚至可以在后期测量暗能量的影响。HETDEX将进一步测量宇宙的曲率到0.1%左右，比目前的项目好一个数量级，是对其他当前和计划中的研究的有力补充。尽管HETDEX对膨胀历史的测量进行了优化，但调查中还有重要的辅助科学，例如收集了25万颗恒星和140万个其他星系的光谱。鉴于病毒的能力，在许多年里，病毒即使不是HET的主要工具，也仍将是HET的主要工具。关于暗能量的重要见解，庞大的辅助科学数据库，以及HET上独特而强大的积分场光谱仪，将在整个天文学界产生广泛的影响。暗能量之谜的吸引力使HETDEX包括麦当劳天文台游客中心和Stardate电台的重要公共宣传，包括为游客和K-12教师参与的互动展示，以及一个受欢迎的网页http://www.hetdex.org。