The Dark Energy Survey
Abstract
We describe the Dark Energy Survey (DES), a proposed optical-near infrared survey of 5000 sq. deg of the South Galactic Cap to ~24th magnitude in SDSS griz, that would use a new 3 sq. deg CCD camera to be mounted on the Blanco 4-m telescope at Cerro Telolo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO). The survey data will allow us to measure the dark energy and dark matter densities and the dark energy equation of state through four independent methods: galaxy clusters, weak gravitational lensing tomography, galaxy angular clustering, and supernova distances. These methods are doubly complementary: they constrain different combinations of cosmological model parameters and are subject to different systematic errors. By deriving the four sets of measurements from the same data set with a common analysis framework, we will obtain important cross checks of the systematic errors and thereby make a substantial and robust advance in the precision of dark energy measurements.
- Publication:
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arXiv e-prints
- Pub Date:
- October 2005
- arXiv:
- arXiv:astro-ph/0510346
- Bibcode:
- 2005astro.ph.10346T
- Keywords:
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- Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- White Paper submitted to the Dark Energy Task Force, 42 pages