SPT-SLIM: A Line Intensity Mapping Pathfinder for the SPT

现代宇宙学揭示了关于宇宙性质的丰富信息。有两个未解之谜。暴胀导致了早期宇宙的快速膨胀，暗能量对今天宇宙的膨胀方式很重要。这些现象是通过测量星系之间的距离来研究的。线强度测绘是一种新技术，它将允许更灵敏的这种测量，但要进行这种测量需要一种新的仪器。该仪器由一个相机组成，其中每个像素都是光谱仪。南极望远镜线强度线映射器将展示一种新技术，该技术使用建立在硅片上的超导电路，并冷却到绝对零度以上0.1度。南极是地球上仅有的几个可以进行这种观测的地方之一。该项目将为U。芝加哥的学生在尖端仪器和薄膜制造，这在各种领域的应用实践培训。 通过连接芝加哥南区艺术社区与芝加哥大学研究实验室的设计学徒计划，当地青少年将学习和应用设计和建筑技能。测量早期宇宙的大尺度结构是理解暗能量和暴胀本质的关键。通过瞄准原子和分子发射谱线进行这些测量也探测了第一批恒星和星系的天体物理学。该项目将展示一种新技术，将毫米波长积分场单元（IFU）部署到10米南极望远镜（SPT）。SPT夏季谱线强度测绘仪将包括18个双偏振像素，每个像素与分辨率为R ~ 300的光谱仪耦合，覆盖150 GHz大气窗口，并将在南方夏季进行观测。SPT-SLIM对高红移星系（0.4 z 2.8）的一氧化碳（CO）谱线辐射很敏感。该仪器将在线强度测绘（LIM）的新领域提供独特的能力。SPT-SLIM将展示多像素片上光谱仪满足这一需求，并使用实际的天空数据开发必要的观测策略和数据分析技术。在一个月的观测中，该仪器将探测到z ~ 2星系中10 σ的CO功率谱，并将其限制在全部z ~ 2星系中。SPT-SLIM也将是未来对单个星系进行定点观测的有力工具，可以有效地识别在广泛的宇宙历史连续谱调查中发现的源的红移。该奖项致力于推动美国国家科学基金会的“宇宙之窗：多信使天体物理学时代”大构想的科学目标和目的。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。

Modern cosmology has revealed a wealth of information about nature of the Universe. Two mysteries endure. Inflation, which caused the rapid expansion of the very early Universe, and Dark Energy, which is important in the way the Universe expands today. These phenomena are studied by measuring the distance between galaxies over time. Line intensity mapping is a new technique that will allow for even more sensitive such measurements, but to make such measurement requires a new kind of instrument. This instrument consists of a camera in which every individual pixel is a spectrometer. The South Pole Telescope Line Intensity Line Mapper will demonstrate a novel technology that uses superconducting circuits built on a silicon wafer and cooled to 0.1 degrees above absolute zero. The South Pole is one of only a few places on Earth where such observations are possible. This program will provide U. Chicago students with hands-on training in cutting-edge instrumentation and thin film fabrication, which have applications in a wide variety of fields. Through Design Apprenticeship Program connecting the Chicago South Side artistic community with University of Chicago research laboratories, local teenagers will learn and apply design and construction skills. Measuring the large-scale structure of the early Universe is key to understanding the nature of dark energy and inflation. Performing these measurements by targeting atomic and molecular emission lines also probes the astrophysics of the first stars and galaxies. This project will demonstrate a new technique that will deploy a millimeter-wavelength integral field unit (IFU) to the 10-meter South Pole Telescope (SPT). The SPT Summertime Line Intensity Mapper (SPT-SLIM) will include 18 dual-polarization pixels, each coupled to a spectrometer with resolving power of R ~ 300, covering the 150 GHz atmospheric window and will observe during the Austral summer season. SPT-SLIM is sensitive to carbon monoxide (CO) line emission from high-redshift galaxies (0.4 z 2.8). This instrument will provide unique capability in the new field of line intensity mapping (LIM). SPT-SLIM will demonstrate that multi-pixel on-chip spectrometers meet this need and develop the necessary observational strategies and data analysis techniques using actual on-sky data. In one month of observation at SPT this pathfinder instrument will detect the CO power spectrum at 10-sigma and constrain the molecular gas fraction in the full population of z ~ 2 galaxies. SPT-SLIM will also be a powerful tool for future pointed observations of individual galaxies, efficiently identifying redshifts of sources identified in continuum surveys over a wide range of cosmic history. This award addresses and advances the science objectives and goals of the NSF's "Windows on the Universe: The Era of Multi-Messenger Astrophysics" Big Idea.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.