Simulating MOS science on the ELT: Ly alpha forest tomography

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

Journal article

Simulating MOS science on the ELT: Ly alpha forest tomography

Abstract:: 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]

Publication status:: Published

Peer review status:: Peer reviewed

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APA Style

Japelj, J., Laigle, C., Puech, M., Pichon, C., Rahmani, H., Dubois, Y., Devriendt, J. E. G., Petitjean, P., Hammer, F., Gendron, E., Kaper, L., Morris, S., Pirzkal, N., Sanchez-Janssen, R., Slyz, A., Vergani, S. D., & Yang, Y. (2019). Simulating MOS science on the ELT: Ly alpha forest tomography. Astronomy and Astrophysics, 632(December 2019).

MLA Style

Japelj, J., et al. “Simulating MOS Science on the ELT: Ly Alpha Forest Tomography.” Astronomy and Astrophysics, vol. 632, no. December 2019, EDP Sciences, 2019.

Chicago Style

Japelj, J, C Laigle, M Puech, C Pichon, H Rahmani, Y Dubois, JEG Devriendt, et al. 2019. “Simulating MOS Science on the ELT: Ly Alpha Forest Tomography.” Astronomy and Astrophysics 632 (December 2019).
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