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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
earth and planetary sciences
The WiggleZ Dark Energy Survey: Survey design and first data release
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 401, No. 3, Year 2010
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Description
The WiggleZ Dark Energy Survey is a survey of 240 000 emission-line galaxies in the distant Universe, measured with the AAOmega spectrograph on the 3.9-m Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT). The primary aim of the survey is to precisely measure the scale of baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) imprinted on the spatial distribution of these galaxies at look-back times of 4-8 Gyr. The target galaxies are selected using ultraviolet (UV) photometry from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer satellite, with a flux limit of NUV < 22.8 mag. We also require that the targets are detected at optical wavelengths, specifically in the range 20.0 < r < 22.5 mag. We use the Lyman break method applied to the UV colours, with additional optical colour limits, to select high-redshift galaxies. The galaxies generally have strong emission lines, permitting reliable redshift measurements in relatively short exposure times on the AAT. The median redshift of the galaxies is zmed = 0.6. The redshift range containing 90 per cent of the galaxies is 0.2 < z < 1.0. The survey will sample a volume of ∼1 Gpc3 over a projected area on the sky of 1000 deg2, with an average target density of 350 deg-2. Detailed forecasts indicate that the survey will measure the BAO scale to better than 2 per cent and the tangential and radial acoustic wave scales to approximately 3 and 5 per cent, respectively. Combining the WiggleZ constraints with existing cosmic microwave background measurements and the latest supernova data, the marginalized uncertainties in the cosmological model are expected to be σ(Ωm) = 0.02 and σ(w) = 0.07 (for a constant w model). The WiggleZ measurement of w will constitute a robust, precise and independent test of dark energy models. This paper provides a detailed description of the survey and its design, as well as the spectroscopic observations, data reduction and redshift measurement techniques employed. It also presents an analysis of the properties of the target galaxies, including emission-line diagnostics which show that they are mostly extreme starburst galaxies, and Hubble Space Telescope images, which show that they contain a high fraction of interacting or distorted systems. In conjunction with this paper, we make a public data release of data for the first 100 000 galaxies measured for the project. © 2009 RAS.
Authors & Co-Authors
Drinkwater, Michael J.
Australia, Brisbane
The University of Queensland
Jurek, Russell J.
Australia, Brisbane
The University of Queensland
Blake, Chris A.
Australia, Hawthorn
Swinburne University of Technology
Woods, David
Canada, Vancouver
The University of British Columbia
Australia, Sydney
Unsw Sydney
Pimbblet, Kevin A.
Australia, Brisbane
The University of Queensland
Glazebrook, Karl G.
Australia, Hawthorn
Swinburne University of Technology
Sharp, Rob G.
Australia, Eastwood
Anglo Australian Observatory
Pracy, Michael B.
Australia, Hawthorn
Swinburne University of Technology
Australia, Canberra
The Australian National University
Brough, Sarah
Australia, Hawthorn
Swinburne University of Technology
Colless, Matthew
Australia, Eastwood
Anglo Australian Observatory
Couch, Warrick J.
Australia, Hawthorn
Swinburne University of Technology
Croom, Scott M.
Australia, Sydney
The University of Sydney
Davis, Tamara M.
Australia, Brisbane
The University of Queensland
Denmark, Copenhagen
Københavns Universitet
Forbes, Duncan A.
Australia, Hawthorn
Swinburne University of Technology
Forster, Karl G.
United States, Pasadena
California Institute of Technology
Gilbank, David G.
Canada, Waterloo
University of Waterloo
Gladders, Michael D.
United States, Chicago
The University of Chicago
Jelliffe, Ben
Australia, Sydney
The University of Sydney
Li, I. Hui
Australia, Hawthorn
Swinburne University of Technology
Madore, Barry F.
United States, Washington, D.c.
Carnegie Institution of Washington
Martin, Dirk Christopher
United States, Pasadena
California Institute of Technology
Poole, Gregory B.
Australia, Hawthorn
Swinburne University of Technology
Wisnioski, Emily
Australia, Hawthorn
Swinburne University of Technology
Wyder, Ted K.
United States, Pasadena
California Institute of Technology
Yee, Howard K.C.
Canada, Toronto
University of Toronto
Statistics
Citations: 404
Authors: 25
Affiliations: 13
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1111/j.1365-2966.2009.15754.x
ISSN:
00358711
Research Areas
Environmental
Study Design
Cross Sectional Study
Study Approach
Quantitative