Simulations of high-z galaxy observations with an ELT-MOS

Karen Disseau; Mathieu Puech; Hector Flores; François Hammer; Yanbin Yang; Laura Pentericci

doi:10.1117/12.2055161

28 July 2014 Simulations of high-z galaxy observations with an ELT-MOS

Karen Disseau, Mathieu Puech, Hector Flores, François Hammer, Yanbin Yang, Laura Pentericci

Proceedings Volume 9147, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy V; 914791 (2014) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2055161
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2014, Montréal, Quebec, Canada

Abstract

We present simulated observations of one of the major science cases for the 39m E-ELT, namely the detection of very high-z galaxies. We simulated the detection of UV interstellar lines at z = 7 and the detection of the Lyman alpha line and the Lyman break at z = 9, both with MOAO-assisted IFUs and GLAO-fed fibers. These simulations are performed with the scientific simulator we developped in the frame of the E-ELT phase A studies. First, we give a functional description of this simulator, which is coupled to a public web interface WEBSIM, and we then give an example of its practical use to constrain the high level specifications of MOSAIC, a new multi-object spectrograph concept for the E-ELT. Our simulations show that the most constraining case is the detection of UV interstellar lines. The optimal pixel size is found to be ~80 mas, which allows detecting UV lines up to J_AB ~27 in 40 hours of integration time. Lyman Alpha Emitters and Lyman Break Galaxies are detected respectively up to J_AB ~30 and J_AB ~28 with a 80 mas/pixel IFU and within only 10 hours of integration time. Detection limits are typically ~0.5-1 mag fainter using MOAO-fed IFUs than using GLAO-fed fibers, but the multiplex is one magnitude larger in the mode using GLAO-fed fibers. We explore the optimal observational strategy for each observing mode considering these observing limits as well as the expected target densities.

Citation Download Citation

Karen Disseau, Mathieu Puech, Hector Flores, François Hammer, Yanbin Yang, and Laura Pentericci "Simulations of high-z galaxy observations with an ELT-MOS", Proc. SPIE 9147, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy V, 914791 (28 July 2014); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2055161

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