Cosmology and telescopes

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Carlberg's research work covers cosmology, galaxies and telescopes. A full decade ago Carlberg was one of the leaders in proposing the "three tiered" design of the CFHT Legacy Survey, with his own interests focussed on the deep component with supernova cosmology as the primary scientific driver. The measurement of the dark energy parameter based on the preliminary analysis of the first year data produced the most highly cited CFHT paper ever. Much richer analyses are continuing based on the full five years of data and we have now substantially achieved the goal of a 5% statistical accuracy measurement of w. Long, thin tidal streams are now being discovered in abundance in the halos of galaxies. These streams are potentially powerful indicators of the predicted substructure in the halos of galaxies. Carlberg is doing n-body simulations with a student, extending the published test particle studies, and collaborating with the PAndAS M31 team to characterize the density variations in the astonishing 125 kpc NW stream. Carlberg is the PI for the Canadian grants for the Large Optical Telescope which is primarily engaged with Thirty Meter Telescope work, but also maintains links with the ESO E-ELT project. The current grants are expiring and new grants are likely to require a construction agreement which is likely to take some time to finalize. Funds to support ongoing management engagement are requested. At a much smaller but very exciting scale, Carlberg initiated studies of potential sites on Ellesmere Island six years ago. This effort has continued with a research assistant at Toronto, and attracted interest and support from HIA and Paul Hickson at HIA has demonstrated that the sites do have the expected qualities which would make them internationally competitive. We plan to continue testing and put a 1-2m diffraction limited telescope in place over the next five years.