Maximizing the science return of SITELLE with applications to the evolution of galaxies near and far

通过对近处和远方星系演化的应用，最大化 SITELLE 的科学回报

• 批准号: RGPIN-2014-05008
• 负责人: Drissen, Laurent
• 金额: $ 2.62万
• 依托单位: Université Laval
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2014-01-01 至 2015-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=566889
• 关键词: Maximizing; science; return; SITELLE; applications

Over the past decade, my team has developped, in collaboration with the Québec City-based company ABB, a novel type of imaging spectrometers for visible-light astronomy, Imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometers (iFTS). After having worked on SpIOMM, a prototype IFTS attached to the 1.6-m telescope of the Observatoire du Mont Mégantic, this work will culminate in 2014 with the commissioning of SITELLE as a guest instrument at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope; it will be available to the entire CFHT community in the summer of 2014. SITELLE is an iFTS designed to obtain a spectrum for every pixel (0.32'') in a 11' x 11' field of view, in selected bandpasses of the visible band (350 - 900 nm), with a spectral resolution varying between R = 10 and 20 000. This instrument will be used to determine the physical characteristics of comets, nebulae in the Milky Way, nearby galaxies, as well as to characterize the star-formation rate in the more distant Universe. In this proposal, I present a plan to optimize the science return of SITELLE, and use it to study the process of star formation and chemical evolution in galaxies.I see it as a prime objective of my work in the next five years to make sure that SITELLE is used at its full potential by a large fraction of the CFHT community. Continuous support for SITELLE and its users is of prime importance for the success of this instrument, especially given its non-conventional approach to hyperspectral imagery. Data simulation, acquisition, processing and post-processing softwares are now being developped and tested on SpIOMM and simulated SITELLE data cubes; they will however need to be tested on real SITELLE data, and constantly updated throughout the lifetime of the instrument in order to maximize its scientific output. I will also use SITELLE for three projects that oriented its design from the beginning and emphasize its full potential: - The Survey for Nebular Abundances in Galaxies with SITELLE (SNAGS) is mostly aimed at determining the abundance distribution in the disks of several dozen nearby galaxies. I intend to take advantage of SITELLE's high resolution (seeing-limited) to concentrate on evidences of local fluctuations related to the presence of massive stars and their effect on their surrounding ISM, in particular nitrogen enrichement, ionization and kinematics. SITELLE data will be supplemented with long-slit spectra from 8-m class telescopes, archival HST & Galex and UVIT data. - In collaboration with Iglesias (IAA, Spain) and Plana (LATO - Brazil), I will observe with SpIOMM and SITELLE a sample of low-redshift (z < 0.1) compact groups of galaxies, all of them with clear signs of interactions, in order to understand the phenomena at play in such groups, and in particular star formation in the tidal tails. Measurements of the most conspicuous emission lines will allow us to study the properties (density, metallicity, excitation, kinematics) of the ionized gas, and thus of the young stellar populations not only in the main bodies of the galaxies, but also in the tidal features associated to the interactions thoughout the virial region of the group. - SITELLE is an ideal instrument to detect, with relatively low biases, very distant star-forming galaxies through their [OII] (up to z ~ 1) or Lya (z ~ 2 - 5) emission. In collaboration with Simard (NRC) and Willis (Uvic) I will use SITELLE to undergo a deep survey for emission-line galaxies in a wide cosmological volume in order to study the star-formation process at different redshifts.

在过去的十年中，我的团队与魁北克市的ABB公司合作开发了一种用于可见光天文学的新型成像光谱仪，即成像傅里叶变换光谱仪（iFTS）。在完成了SpIOMM-一个连接在梅冈蒂克山天文台1.6米望远镜上的IFTS原型-的工作之后，这项工作将在2014年达到高潮，届时将委托SITELLE作为加拿大-法国-夏威夷望远镜的客座仪器;它将在2014年夏天提供给整个CFHT社区。SITELLE是一种iFTS，设计用于在11“x 11”视场中获得每个像素（0.32“）的光谱，在可见波段（350 - 900 nm）的选定带通中，光谱分辨率在R = 10和20 000之间变化。该仪器将用于确定银河系中的彗星、星云和附近星系的物理特征，以及确定更遥远宇宙中恒星形成率的特征。在这个计划中，我提出了一个优化SITELLE科学回报的计划，并利用它来研究星系中星星形成和化学演化的过程。我认为这是我在未来五年工作的主要目标，以确保SITELLE被CFHT社区的大部分人充分利用。对SITELLE及其用户的持续支持对于该仪器的成功至关重要，特别是考虑到其对高光谱图像的非传统方法。目前正在SpIOMM和模拟的SITELLE数据立方体上开发和测试数据模拟、采集、处理和后处理软件;然而，这些软件需要在真实的SITELLE数据上进行测试，并在仪器的整个使用寿命期间不断更新，以最大限度地提高其科学产出。我还将使用SITELLE的三个项目，从一开始就定位其设计，并强调其全部潜力：-银河系星云丰度调查与SITELLE（SNAGS）主要旨在确定几十个附近星系的磁盘中的丰度分布。我打算利用SITELLE的高分辨率（可见度有限），集中在与大质量恒星的存在及其对周围ISM的影响，特别是氮富集，电离和运动学的局部波动的证据。SITELLE数据将得到来自8米级望远镜的长缝光谱、HST & Galex档案和紫外线检测数据的补充。- 在与Iglesias（IAA，西班牙）和Plana（LATO -巴西）的合作中，我将用SpIOMM和SITELLE观察一个低红移（z < 0.1）紧凑星系群的样本，所有这些星系都有明显的相互作用迹象，以了解在这些星系群中起作用的现象，特别是潮汐尾中的星星形成。对最明显的发射谱线的测量将使我们能够研究电离气体的性质（密度、金属丰度、激发、运动学），从而不仅研究星系主体中的年轻恒星种群，而且研究与整个星系群维里区相互作用有关的潮汐特征。- SITELLE是一种利用[OII]（z ~ 1）或Lya（z ~ 2 - 5）辐射以相对低的偏差探测非常遥远的恒星形成星系的理想仪器。在与Simard（NRC）和Willis（Uvic）的合作中，我将使用SITELLE在广泛的宇宙学体积中对发射线星系进行深入的调查，以研究不同红移下的恒星形成过程。