Chronos: A NIR spectroscopic galaxy survey to probe the most fundamental stages of galaxy evolution
Abstract
We propose a dedicated, ultra-deep spectroscopic survey in the near infrared (NIR), that will target a mass-limited sample of galaxies during two of the most fundamental epochs of cosmic evolution: the formation of the first galaxies (at z ≳ 6; cosmic dawn), and at the peak of galaxy formation activity (at redshift z∼1-3; cosmic noon). By way of NIR observations (λ= 0.8-2μ m), it is possible to study the UV Lyman-α region in the former, and the optical rest-frame in the latter, allowing us to extract fundamental observables such as gas and stellar kinematics, chemical abundances, and ages, providing a unique legacy database covering these two crucial stages of cosmic evolution. The need to work in the NIR at extremely low flux levels makes a ground-based approach unfeasible due to atmospheric emission and absorption. Only with the largest facilities of the future (e.g. ELT) will be possible to observe a reduced set of targets, comprising at most of order thousands of galaxies. Likewise, from space, the small field of view of JWST and its use as a general purpose facility will yield a rather small set of high quality NIR spectra of distant galaxies (in the thousands, at best). Our project (codename Chronos) aims to produce ∼1 million high quality spectra, with a high S/N in the continuum, where information about the underlying stellar populations is encoded. The main science drivers are: The connection between the star formation history and the mass assembly history.
- Publication:
-
Experimental Astronomy
- Pub Date:
- June 2021
- DOI:
- 10.1007/s10686-021-09702-2
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1908.08795
- Bibcode:
- 2021ExA....51..729F
- Keywords:
-
- Instrumentation:spectrographs;
- Space vehicles: instruments;
- Telescopes;
- Galaxies: evolution;
- Galaxies: formation;
- Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies;
- Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 24 pages, 14 figures. Submitted to ESA's Voyage 2050 call to shape the future space science programme. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1306.6333