High Frequency Channel for CHAI

CHAI 高频通道

• 批准号: 530175728
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Universität zu Köln
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Major Research Instrumentation
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2023-12-31 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/530175728?language=en
• 关键词: Frequency; Channel; CHAI

Building on our experience with developing legacy instruments for major observing facilities like Herschel and SOFIA at University of Cologne, we are currently building the Chajnantor Heterodyne Array Instrument (CHAI), to be deployed on the Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope (FYST) of the CCAT observatory on top of Cerro Chajnantor in northern Chile at 5600 m altitude. FYST is a novel 6 m aperture telescope scheduled to see first light in 2024. It will enable highly sensitive wide field observations at submillimeter wavelengths. Its instruments will address science topics ranging from the formation of stars and the evolution of the interstellar medium in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies to galaxies in the early universe and cosmology. CHAI is of particular importance, since it will be the only instrument providing high resolution spectroscopy through its multi-pixel heterodyne spectrometer covering observing frequencies from 400 to 490 GHz in its low frequency channel (LFA) at first light. Accordingly, 25% of the available observing time will be allocated to CHAI and its science cases, as guaranteed in the CCAT consortium partner agreement. We here aim to even better exploit the excellent atmospheric conditions at the CCAT observatory site by adding a high frequency channel (HFA) to CHAI, operating in the 800 GHz atmospheric window. Through simultaneous observation of the LFA and HFA, the performance of the instrument will be doubled, on top of its already unprecedented mapping speed and sensitivity for spectroscopy at these frequencies. More importantly, the second frequency window gives access to unique new science, which is necessary to fully address the research topics defined in the CCAT observatory key program GEco, the Galactic Ecology project. This survey is designed to study the matter cycle in the interstellar medium of the Milky Way and nearby galaxies from the assembly of clouds to the formation of filaments, hubs and cores within them, and eventually stars, which in turn provide stellar feedback. The full science case requires the high frequency observations as they give invaluable information for the interpretation not only of our low frequency observations, but also other large scale surveys and our understanding of the formation of structures in the interstellar medium and their evolution. The key objectives of this proposal are to secure funding to build the CHAI HFA, and thus, to enable and harvest the science that has been envisioned when securing the funding for thr FYST telescope from the DFG and partner resources.

Building on our experience with developing legacy instruments for major observing facilities like Herschel and SOFIA at University of Cologne, we are currently building the Chajnantor Heterodyne Array Instrument (CHAI), to be deployed on the Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope (FYST) of the CCAT observatory on top of Cerro Chajnantor in northern Chile at 5600 m altitude. FYST是一种新型的6 M光圈望远镜，计划在2024年看到第一光。它将在亚毫米波长处启用高度敏感的宽场观测值。它的工具将讨论科学主题，从恒星的形成以及银河系中星际培养基的演变以及附近的星系到早期宇宙和宇宙学的星系。 CHAI尤其重要，因为它将是唯一通过其多像素杂项异基光谱仪在其低频通道（LFA）中观察到频率从400到490 GHz观察频率的唯一仪器。因此，正如CCAT联盟合作伙伴协议所保证的那样，可用观察时间的25％将分配给CHAI及其科学案例。在这里，我们的目标是通过在800 GHz大气窗口运行的CHAI中添加高频通道（HFA），以更好地利用CCAT天文台的出色大气条件。通过同时观察LFA和HFA，该仪器的性能将增加一倍，除了其在这些频率下对光谱的前所未有的映射速度和灵敏度之外。更重要的是，第二个频率窗口可以访问独特的新科学，这对于完全解决了CCAT天文台关键程序GECO GECO（银河生态学项目）中定义的研究主题是必不可少的。该调查旨在研究银河系的星际介质以及从云层组装到内部细丝，轮毂和核心的形成，最终恒星的形成，这又提供了出色的反馈。完整的科学案例需要高频观察，因为它们不仅可以解释我们的低频观察结果，而且还提供了宝贵的信息，而且还提供了其他大规模调查，以及我们对星际介质中结构形成及其演变的理解。该提案的关键目标是确保资金建立柴HFA，因此，在从DFG和合作伙伴资源中获得了Thr Fyst望远镜的资金时，可以启用和收获已经设想的科学。