Simulating MOS science on the ELT: Ly alpha forest tomography
Mapping of the large-scale structure through cosmic time has numerous applications in the studies of cosmology and galaxy evolution. At $z > 2$, the structure can be traced by the neutral intergalactic medium (IGM) by way of observing the Ly$\alpha$, forest towards densely-sampled lines-of-si...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Published: |
EDP Sciences
2019
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| _version_ | 1797061908750139392 |
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| author | Japelj, J Laigle, C Puech, M Pichon, C Rahmani, H Dubois, Y Devriendt, JEG Petitjean, P Hammer, F Gendron, E Kaper, L Morris, S Pirzkal, N Sanchez-Janssen, R Slyz, A Vergani, SD Yang, Y |
| author_facet | Japelj, J Laigle, C Puech, M Pichon, C Rahmani, H Dubois, Y Devriendt, JEG Petitjean, P Hammer, F Gendron, E Kaper, L Morris, S Pirzkal, N Sanchez-Janssen, R Slyz, A Vergani, SD Yang, Y |
| author_sort | Japelj, J |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | Mapping of the large-scale structure through cosmic time has numerous
applications in the studies of cosmology and galaxy evolution. At $z > 2$, the
structure can be traced by the neutral intergalactic medium (IGM) by way of
observing the Ly$\alpha$, forest towards densely-sampled lines-of-sight of
bright background sources, such as quasars and star forming galaxies. We
investigate the scientific potential of MOSAIC, a planned multi-object
spectrograph on the European Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), for the 3D
mapping of the IGM at $z \gtrsim 3$. We simulate a survey of $3 \lesssim z
\lesssim 4$ galaxies down to a limiting magnitude of $m_{r}\sim 25.5$ mag in an
area of 1 degree$^2$ in the sky. Galaxies and their spectra (including the
line-of-sight Ly$\alpha$ absorption) are taken from the lightcone extracted
from the Horizon-AGN cosmological hydrodynamical simulation. The quality of the
reconstruction of the original density field is studied for different spectral
resolutions and signal-to-noise ratios of the spectra. We demonstrate that the
minimum $S/N$ (per resolution element) of the faintest galaxies that such
survey has to reach is $S/N = 4$. We show that a survey with such sensitivity
enables a robust extraction of cosmic filaments and the detection of the
theoretically-predicted galaxy stellar mass and star-formation rate gradients
towards filaments. By simulating the realistic performance of MOSAIC we obtain
$S/N(T_{\rm obs}, R, m_{r})$ scaling relations. We estimate that $\lesssim
35~(65)$ nights of observation time are required to carry out the survey with
the instrument's high multiplex mode and with the spectral resolution of
$R=1000~(2000)$. A survey with a MOSAIC-concept instrument on the ELT is found
to enable the mapping of the IGM at $z > 3$ on Mpc scales, and as such will be
complementary to and competitive with other planned IGM tomography surveys.
[abridged] |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-06T20:37:54Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:333f196a-797c-4f29-ac63-77ce6ac16aca |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-06T20:37:54Z |
| publishDate | 2019 |
| publisher | EDP Sciences |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:333f196a-797c-4f29-ac63-77ce6ac16aca2022-03-26T13:19:14ZSimulating MOS science on the ELT: Ly alpha forest tomographyJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:333f196a-797c-4f29-ac63-77ce6ac16acaSymplectic ElementsEDP Sciences2019Japelj, JLaigle, CPuech, MPichon, CRahmani, HDubois, YDevriendt, JEGPetitjean, PHammer, FGendron, EKaper, LMorris, SPirzkal, NSanchez-Janssen, RSlyz, AVergani, SDYang, YMapping of the large-scale structure through cosmic time has numerous applications in the studies of cosmology and galaxy evolution. At $z > 2$, the structure can be traced by the neutral intergalactic medium (IGM) by way of observing the Ly$\alpha$, forest towards densely-sampled lines-of-sight of bright background sources, such as quasars and star forming galaxies. We investigate the scientific potential of MOSAIC, a planned multi-object spectrograph on the European Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), for the 3D mapping of the IGM at $z \gtrsim 3$. We simulate a survey of $3 \lesssim z \lesssim 4$ galaxies down to a limiting magnitude of $m_{r}\sim 25.5$ mag in an area of 1 degree$^2$ in the sky. Galaxies and their spectra (including the line-of-sight Ly$\alpha$ absorption) are taken from the lightcone extracted from the Horizon-AGN cosmological hydrodynamical simulation. The quality of the reconstruction of the original density field is studied for different spectral resolutions and signal-to-noise ratios of the spectra. We demonstrate that the minimum $S/N$ (per resolution element) of the faintest galaxies that such survey has to reach is $S/N = 4$. We show that a survey with such sensitivity enables a robust extraction of cosmic filaments and the detection of the theoretically-predicted galaxy stellar mass and star-formation rate gradients towards filaments. By simulating the realistic performance of MOSAIC we obtain $S/N(T_{\rm obs}, R, m_{r})$ scaling relations. We estimate that $\lesssim 35~(65)$ nights of observation time are required to carry out the survey with the instrument's high multiplex mode and with the spectral resolution of $R=1000~(2000)$. A survey with a MOSAIC-concept instrument on the ELT is found to enable the mapping of the IGM at $z > 3$ on Mpc scales, and as such will be complementary to and competitive with other planned IGM tomography surveys. [abridged] |
| spellingShingle | Japelj, J Laigle, C Puech, M Pichon, C Rahmani, H Dubois, Y Devriendt, JEG Petitjean, P Hammer, F Gendron, E Kaper, L Morris, S Pirzkal, N Sanchez-Janssen, R Slyz, A Vergani, SD Yang, Y Simulating MOS science on the ELT: Ly alpha forest tomography |
| title | Simulating MOS science on the ELT: Ly alpha forest tomography |
| title_full | Simulating MOS science on the ELT: Ly alpha forest tomography |
| title_fullStr | Simulating MOS science on the ELT: Ly alpha forest tomography |
| title_full_unstemmed | Simulating MOS science on the ELT: Ly alpha forest tomography |
| title_short | Simulating MOS science on the ELT: Ly alpha forest tomography |
| title_sort | simulating mos science on the elt ly alpha forest tomography |
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