The Science Cases for CSTAR, AST3, and KDUST Lifan Wang CCAA & TAMU
CSTAR A pathfinder telescope Sky background and transmission - See Zhou Xu s talk Time domain astronomy - Variable stars A wide area polarization map of nearby bright stars
Variable Stars from CSTAR Credit: Lingzhi Wang, TAMU/BNU
Credit: Lingzhi Wang, TAMU/BNU
An RR Lyrae Star RR Lyrae star Y Oct Uninterrupted 4.5-d light curve (representing 3.5% of the entire data). Folded light curve of the data on the left using P = 0.6466d; the photometric uncertainty is 3 mmag/bin.
d Scuti star Uninterrupted 4.5-d light curve (representing 3.5% of the entire data). Folded light curve using P = 0.2193d; the photometric uncertainty is 1.5 mmag/bin.
A Long-period (P~116.7d) Variable Using the ASAS period as a starting point, the dominant periodicity was fit using a a five-term Fourier expansion fit. Left: the original data; Right, residual light curve, showing a small-amplitude (< 0.01 mag) periodicity with P = 17.3 d.
An Exoplanet Candidate Black dots: Raw data Red dots: Data binned to 10 min interval
AST3 One of previous design 1) Adjustable tower height (preliminary designed to be about 1.5m); 2) Foldable dome; 3) Active snow removing; 4) Auto-focusing.
Transportation and assembly at Dome A Standard size container (about 2991 2591 2438mm)
AST3 Supernovae - Very early discovery - Uniform multicolor light curve coverage Planet transients - Transients - Microlensing LMC - Novae - Microlensing Variable stars
AST3 Schedule: Installation in 2011-2012 Survey Operation: 2012 2017 Data Products: SPT overlap area Tie region SDSS Southern Equatorial Stripe >2000 SNIa to z ~ 0.15 Core-collapse Sne; GRB; Orphan GRB afterglow LMC continuous monitoring variable stars/microlensing/dark matter Galactic center continuous monitoring variable stars/microlensing/transients Galactic structure RR Lyrae/Cepheids
KDUST 2.5 Observational Mode: Wide Area Survey Scientific Objectives: Dark Universe, Exoplanets Scientific Methods: Gravitational Lensing, Supernovae, and Precision Photometry Construction Period: 2011-2015 Cost: RMB 230 million
Survey Area 5000 deg 2 Cosmological Survey Overlaps with South Pole Telescope 1% photometric precision SPT overlap area Tie region SDSS Southern Equatorial Stripe
KDUST2.5 Data Products 5000 sq degree high resolution image survey 0.1-0.15 arcsec/pixel 0.3 arcsec FWHM 10,000 sq deg K-Dark (2.4 micron) survey to KAB = 27mag ~ 5,000 SNIa to z ~ 3; PPSN search to z ~ 7 LMC/SMC high cadence survey Galactic center K-Dark survey Cepheids in nearby galaxies Hubble constant
Synergistic Considerations CSTAR Kepler/Corot/Other small telescopes AST3 VLT Xshooter/Other telescope arrays/other small telescopes KDUST2.5 TMT/ELT/JWST
The Construction of the Antarctica Observatory at Dome A may become one of the most remarkable achievements of the human race
Study of the Early Universe with KDUST Xuelei Chen (NOAC) Wei Zheng (JHU) August 17, 2010, XiAn
Epoch at Redshift z>7 Reionization of the IGM First generation of black holes Rapid star formation August 17, 2010, XiAn
August 17, 2010, XiAn Kunlun Station at Dome A
Spectra of Quasar at z~6 August 17, 2010, XiAn White et al. 2003
August 17, 2010, XiAn Number of Quasars
Reionization of the IGM August 17, 2010, XiAn Fan et al. 2006
Requirements At least 5000 square degrees YJHK bands Limiting magnitude AB=24 August 17, 2010, XiAn
Supernovae of Population III Massive: 100-250 solar mass Pair-instability outburst Bright: M~-24 Metal free August 17, 2010, XiAn
SCP 06F6 August 17, 2010, XiAn Quimby et al. 2009
An Example KDUST K-Dark Science Peak brightness of 250 M PISNe as a function of redshift in the spectral region around Ly-alpha assuming both no significant extinction and the "worst case" extinction for the Ly region
Surface Density of PISN August 17, 2010, XiAn Weinmann & Lilly 2005
Requirements Repeated observations over 10 square degrees Cadence of ~1-3 months Magnitude AB>26 August 17, 2010, XiAn
Gamma Ray Bursts Detectable at very high redshift Peak magnitude AB~20 August 17, 2010, XiAn
GRB at z=8.3 August 17, 2010, XiAn Tanvir et al. 2009
Requirements Fast communication link Fast slew capability (within minutes) Low- or medium-resolution spectrograph August 17, 2010, XiAn
Summary KDUST is a powerful in high-z studies Complimentary to JWST, TMT Need both wide and deep surveys August 17, 2010, XiAn