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Chronos: A NIR spectroscopic galaxy survey to probe the most fundamental stages of galaxy evolution

Ferreras, I.; Cropper, M.; Sharples, R.; Bland-Hawthorn, J.; Bruzual, G.; Charlot, S.; Conselice, C.J.; Driver, S.; Dunlop, J.; Hopkins, A.M.; Kaviraj, S.; Kitching, T.; Barbera, F. La; Lahav, O.; Pasquali, A.; Serjeant, S.; Silk, J.; Windhorst, R.

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Authors

I. Ferreras

M. Cropper

J. Bland-Hawthorn

G. Bruzual

S. Charlot

C.J. Conselice

S. Driver

J. Dunlop

A.M. Hopkins

S. Kaviraj

T. Kitching

F. La Barbera

O. Lahav

A. Pasquali

S. Serjeant

J. Silk

R. Windhorst



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. The role of AGN and supernova feedback in shaping the formation histories of galaxies, with a quantitative estimate of quenching timescales. The formation of the first galaxies. The source of reionization. Evolution of the metallicity-mass relation, including [α/Fe] and individual abundances. Precision cosmology through detailed studies of the “baryon physics” of galaxy formation, probing the power spectrum over scales k∼1 Mpc− 1.

Citation

Ferreras, I., Cropper, M., Sharples, R., Bland-Hawthorn, J., Bruzual, G., Charlot, S., …Windhorst, R. (2021). Chronos: A NIR spectroscopic galaxy survey to probe the most fundamental stages of galaxy evolution. Experimental Astronomy, 51(3), https://doi.org/10.1007/s10686-021-09702-2

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jan 28, 2021
Online Publication Date Jul 18, 2021
Publication Date 2021
Deposit Date Nov 9, 2021
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Experimental Astronomy
Print ISSN 0922-6435
Electronic ISSN 1572-9508
Publisher Springer
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 51
Issue 3
DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/s10686-021-09702-2

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http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.





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