Department of Physics & Astronomy
University of New Mexico

Physics and Astronomy Colloquium

Mapping the Cosmos with DESI: Targeting and First Spectra

Presented by Adam Myers, Associate Professor, University of Wyoming

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) is a fiber-fed robotic multi-object spectrograph on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. DESI can obtain spectra of ~5000 objects over a ~3 degree field in a single exposure, which will enable a five-year spectroscopic survey of over a third of the sky. DESI dark- and gray-time observations will obtain redshifts for ~30 million galaxies and quasars, allowing new constraints on the expansion history of the Universe over a large dynamic range of cosmic time. During bright-time, DESI will observe an additional ~20M nearby galaxies and stars. The main DESI survey is about to commence, and I will outline the properties of the galaxies, quasars and stars that DESI will target, and display some of the first science spectra from DESI's Survey Validation phase. I will also discuss the results expected from DESI, with a focus on how the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) method can be used to constrain the evolution of the distance-redshift relation.

3:30 pm, Friday, April 10, 2020

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A schedule of talks within the Department of Physics and Astronomy is available on the P&A web site at http://physics.unm.edu/pandaweb/events/index.php