Characterizing Dust-Enshrouded Activity at the Peak of the Galaxy Formation Epoch with MUSIC

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This project represents the first major effort to realize the astronomical potential of a new technology in millimeter-wave detectors. With previous support from NSF, this team has built the Multicolor Sub/millimeter Inductance Camera (MUSIC), a 576-pixel imaging camera based on microwave kinetic inductance detectors (MKIDs), being commissioned at the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO) on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. The Principal Investigator and the collaborating team will conduct a wide-field survey of at least 4 square degrees, at wavelengths of 850 microns, 1.1, 1.3, and 2.0 millimeters, using CSO and MUSIC. This survey will increase the amount of sky mapped at these wavelengths by a factor of 10. The primary science goal of the survey is to detect and characterize a large sample of submillimeter galaxies (SMGs). These dust-enshrouded galaxies are the brightest objects in the sky at submillimeter wavelengths, and are a major contributor to the cosmological density of infrared radiation. Using ancillary data from other observatories, notably the Herschel Space Telescope, the team will derive spectral energy distributions and luminosity distribution functions for an estimated 1,000 or more SMGs. Additionally the instrument will be used for measurements of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect, the distortion in the cosmic background radiation produced by hot intergalactic plasma in galaxy clusters. The calibrated maps and source catalogs derived from the survey will be made public via a web interface, and will be designed to enable important follow-up observations when the ALMA facility begins operation.