The wide-field, multiplexed, spectroscopic facility WEAVE: Survey design, overview, and simulated implementation

Jin, S, Trager, SC, Dalton, GB, L. Aguerri, JA, Drew, JE, Falcón-Barroso, J, Gänsicke, BT, Hill, V, Iovino, A, Pieri, MM, Poggianti, BM, Smith, DJB, Vallenari, A, Abrams, DC, Aguado, DS, Antoja, T, Aragón-Salamanca, A, Ascasibar, Y, Babusiaux, C, Balcells, M et al (2023) The wide-field, multiplexed, spectroscopic facility WEAVE: Survey design, overview, and simulated implementation. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 530 (3). pp. 2688-2730. ISSN 0035-8711

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Abstract

WEAVE, the new wide-field, massively multiplexed spectroscopic survey facility for the William Herschel Telescope, saw first light in late 2022. WEAVE comprises a new 2-deg field-of-view prime-focus corrector system, a nearly 1000-multiplex fibre positioner, 20 individually deployable ‘mini’ integral field units (IFUs), and a single large IFU. These fibre systems feed a dual-beam spectrograph covering the wavelength range 366–959 nm at R ∼ 5000, or two shorter ranges at R ∼ 20 000. After summarizing the design and implementation of WEAVE and its data systems, we present the organization, science drivers, and design of a five- to seven-year programme of eight individual surveys to: (i) study our Galaxy’s origins by completing Gaia’s phase-space information, providing metallicities to its limiting magnitude for ∼3 million stars and detailed abundances for ∼1.5 million brighter field and open-cluster stars; (ii) survey ∼0.4 million Galactic-plane OBA stars, young stellar objects, and nearby gas to understand the evolution of young stars and their environments; (iii) perform an extensive spectral survey of white dwarfs; (iv) survey ∼400 neutral-hydrogen-selected galaxies with the IFUs; (v) study properties and kinematics of stellar populations and ionized gas in z < 0.5 cluster galaxies; (vi) survey stellar populations and kinematics in ∼25 000 field galaxies at 0.3 ≲ z ≲ 0.7; (vii) study the cosmic evolution of accretion and star formation using >1 million spectra of LOFAR-selected radio sources; and (viii) trace structures using intergalactic/circumgalactic gas at z > 2. Finally, we describe the WEAVE Operational Rehearsals using the WEAVE Simulator.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	instrumentation: spectrographs; surveys - stars: general - Galaxy: general; galaxies: general; cosmology: observations; 0201 Astronomical and Space Sciences; Astronomy & Astrophysics
Subjects:	Q Science > QB Astronomy Q Science > QC Physics
Divisions:	Astrophysics Research Institute
Publisher:	Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date of acceptance:	4 December 2022
Date of first compliant Open Access:	9 October 2024
Date Deposited:	09 Oct 2024 11:23
Last Modified:	09 Oct 2024 11:30
DOI or ID number:	10.1093/mnras/stad557
URI:	https://ljmu-9.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/24471

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