Newton RCUK-CONACYT MUSCAT - a new technology large-format camera for the Large Millimeter Telescope

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The scientific potential of any telescope, and the opportunity to make important new discoveries, is based not only the size of the primary mirror or the reflecting surface, but also on the performance of its scientific instruments. The Large Millimeter Telescope (LMT) is the world's largest telescope, with a diameter of 50-m, designed to operate at a wavelength of 1mm. The LMT has recently started scientific operations on the summit of Volcan Sierra Negra at an altitude of 4600m, in central Mexico. The LMT is Mexico's largest scientific project, however, in order to maintain its unique position in world astronomy in the future, the and effort made in the construction of this world-class facility must now be matched with an equally ambitious instrumentation development program to support the scientific objectives of the LMT. The RCUK-CONACYT Research Partnership offers an exciting new opportunity to build a sustainable scientific collaboration between students and researchers in the UK and Mexico. This will result in a significant contribution to the development of the LMT scientific user-community in Mexico, and to the creation of an independent capability in Mexico to design and fabricate new-technology detectors operating at (sub-)mm (THz) wavelengths with applications both in astronomy and other areas of science and industry. This proposal will fund the construction of MUSCAT (Mexico-UK Sub-mm Camera for Astronomy), a next-generation large-format camera for the LMT, as a collaborative project between the University of Cardiff and the Instituto Nacional de Astrofisica y Electronica. This state-of-the-art instrument will exploit the previous Mexican investment in the construction and operation of the Large Millimeter Telescope, and enable this new scientific infrastructure to conduct high-impact "Big Science" which will serve as an inspiration towards the formation of new generations of scientists, technicians and engineers in Mexico. Our research partnership will transfer and exchange a wealth of scientific knowledge and experience in (sub-)mm astronomy between the UK and Mexico through a joint scientific-program that we hope to expand in the future beyond the completion of the RCUK-CONACYT Research Partnership. An element of this "Big Science" program will address fundamental questions related to the formation and evolution of structure over the full history of the Universe that are central to the LMT, as well as the ground-based James Clerk Maxwell sub-mm telescope and the satellite-borne SPIRE camera on the Herschel telescope. The data-products and research papers that will result from the combination of MUSCAT observations on the LMT with the archival data from the JCMT and Herschel will enhance the legacy-value of both the latter facilities and provide a greater scientific-return on the UK investment in these two transformative telescopes. The RCUK-CONACYT project will also transfer skills and expertise in THz technologies and instrumentation that currently does not exist in Mexico. With a wide range of commercial applications in industry and applied sciences, this technology transfer from the UK to Mexico can enable long-term economic development and provide additional social benefits in priority sectors of the CONACYT strategic special programme for science, technology and innovation such as health, telecommunications, space-sciences, and national security.