Advancing the Science from The Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment

现在已经确定我们的宇宙正在加速膨胀。在20世纪90年代末，对这种膨胀的最初观测来自对遥远超新星的观测，并在今天的最新分析中得到了证实。目前尚不清楚是什么导致了这种被称为“暗能量”的加速。据信，暗物质占宇宙物质能量密度的70%。关于“暗能量”的成因有很多理论：也许是新粒子，也许是真空能把宇宙向外推，也许是修改了关于引力定律的相对论，也许是其他一些未知的过程，这些过程将使我们对宇宙从“大爆炸”起源到现在的演变有更详细的了解。霍比-埃伯利望远镜暗能量实验（HETDEX）将收集90到110亿光年之外的至少70万个星系的数据，使天文学家能够测量宇宙在其历史不同时期的膨胀速度。膨胀率的变化将揭示“暗能量”在不同时期的作用，这将用于验证/否定各种理论的预测，或提供将导致最终解决方案的新线索。HETDEX的观察项目资金充足，目前已完成约25%。这笔拨款将支持编制包含校准数据产品的详细目录，该目录将提供给科学界和公众，用于进一步的天体物理科学研究。将利用这些数据产品为公民科学项目开发一个手机应用程序。这笔拨款将通过将经过审查的目录与公共数据库相结合来扩大HETDEX的科学，该数据库将被科学界和公民科学应用用于辅助科学。用于分类星表中的星系以满足HETDEX规范的光谱提取的神经网络需要进行优化。德州高级计算中心（TACC）的一名专家将获得部分支持，他将设计公众访问数据库的方式，包括网络开发和数据库维护，并将与博士后对接，审查目录，以便将视觉分类优化到机器学习中。从分类活动的信息将被折叠回减少软件继续减少优化。这将使数据库得以维护和更新，以便随着对系统了解的更多而发布后续数据。这种支持将为HETDEX计划的内部使用建立一个真正有用的数据库，公众可以访问科学界的其他科学，以及使用将为该计划开发的手机应用程序的公民科学项目。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

It is now well established that our universe is undergoing an accelerated expansion. The initial observations in the late 1990s for this expansion come from observations of distant Supernova and have held up to latest analysis today. It is not known what causes this acceleration, named “dark energy”. It is believed to be responsible for about 70% of the matter energy density of the universe. There are many theories for the cause of “dark energy”: perhaps new particles, vacuum energy pushing the universe outward, modifying the theory of relativity concerning the laws of gravity, or some other unknown process which will lead to a more detailed understanding of the evolution of the universe from its origin in a “Big Bang” to the present day. The Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX) will collect data on at least 700,000 galaxies that are 9 to 11 billion light years away allowing astronomers to measure how fast the universe was expanding at different times in its history. Changes in the expansion rate will reveal the role of “dark energy” at different epochs which will be used to validate/negate the predictions of various theories or give new clues that will lead to a final solution. The observational program for HETDEX is fully funded, and currently about 25% complete. This grant will support the compilation of a detailed catalog containing the calibrated data products that will be available to the scientific community and the public for additional astrophysical science studies. A cell phone app will be developed for a Citizen science program using the data products.This grant will amplify the science from HETDEX by combining a vetted catalog with a public database that will be employed for ancillary science by the scientific community and citizen science applications. The neural networks used for the spectral extractions for classifying the galaxies in the catalog to meet the HETDEX specifications need to be optimized. Partial support will be for an expert at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) to design the public access to the data base including web development, and data base maintenance and will interface with the postdoctoral fellow for vetting the catalog for the optimization of the visual classification into machine learning. The information from the classification campaign will be folded back into the reduction software for continued reduction optimization. This will allow the data base to be maintained and updated for subsequent data releases as more about the system is learned. This support will build a truly useful data base for the internal use of the HETDEX program, public access for additional science the scientific community as well as Citizen science projects using the cell phone application that will be developed for this program.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.