Cosmic web imager

The Astrophysical Journal

We report on the design and performance of the Keck Cosmic Web Imager (KCWI), a general purpose optical integral field spectrograph that has been installed at the Nasmyth port of the 10 m Keck II telescope on Mauna Kea, HI. The novel design provides blue-optimized seeing-limited imaging from 350-560 nm with configurable spectral resolution from 1000 − 20000 in a field of view up to 20 × 33. Selectable volume phase holographic (VPH) gratings and high performance dielectric, multilayer silver and enhanced aluminum coatings provide end-to-end peak efficiency in excess of 45% while accommodating the future addition of a red channel that will extend wavelength coverage to 1 micron. KCWI takes full advantage of the excellent seeing and dark sky above Mauna Kea with an available nod-and-shuffle observing mode. The instrument is optimized for observations of faint, diffuse objects such as the intergalactic medium or cosmic web. In this paper, a detailed description of the instrument design is provided with measured performance results from the laboratory test program and ten nights of on-sky commissioning during the spring of 2017. The KCWI team is lead by Caltech and JPL (project management, design and implementation) in partnership with the University of California at Santa Cruz (camera optical and mechanical design) and the W. M. Keck Observatory (observatory interfaces).

The Astrophysical Journal, 2014

SPIE Proceedings, 2012

The Keck Cosmic Web Imager (KCWI) is a new facility instrument being developed for the W. M. Keck Observatory and funded for construction by the Telescope System Instrumentation Program (TSIP) of the National Science Foundation (NSF). KCWI is a bench-mounted spectrograph for the Keck II right Nasmyth focal station, providing integral field spectroscopy over a seeing-limited field up to 20"x33" in extent. Selectable Volume Phase Holographic (VPH) gratings provide high efficiency and spectral resolution in the range of 1000 to 20000. The dual-beam design of KCWI passed a Preliminary Design Review in summer 2011. The detailed design of the KCWI blue channel (350 to 700 nm) is now nearly complete, with the red channel (530 to 1050 nm) planned for a phased implementation contingent upon additional funding. KCWI builds on the experience of the Caltech team in implementing the Cosmic Web Imager (CWI), in operation since 2009 at Palomar Observatory. KCWI adds considerable flexibility to the CWI design, and will take full advantage of the excellent seeing and dark sky above Mauna Kea with a selectable nod-and-shuffle observing mode. In this paper, models of the expected KCWI sensitivity and background subtraction capability are presented, along with a detailed description of the instrument design. The KCWI team is lead by Caltech (project management, design and implementation) in partnership with the University of California at Santa Cruz (camera optical and mechanical design) and the W. M. Keck Observatory (program oversight and observatory interfaces).

The Astrophysical Journal, 2005

We combine a high-resolution hydro-simulation of the ΛCDM cosmology with two radiative transfer schemes (for continuum and line radiation) to predict the properties, spectra and spatial distribution of fluorescent Lyα emission at z ∼ 3. We focus on line radiation produced by recombinations in the dense intergalactic medium ionized by UV photons. In particular, we consider both a uniform background and the case where gas clouds are illuminated by a nearby quasar. We find that the emission from optically thick regions is substantially less than predicted from the widely used static, plane-parallel model. The effects induced by a realistic velocity field and by the complex geometric structure of the emitting regions are discussed in detail. We make predictions for the expected brightness and size distributions of the fluorescent sources. Our results account for recent null detections and can be used to plan new observational campaigns both in the field (to measure the intensity of the diffuse UV background) and in the proximity of bright quasars (to understand the origin of high colum-density absorbers).

The Astrophysical Journal

The Faint Intergalactic Medium Redshifted Emission Balloon (FIREBall) is a mission designed to observe faint emission from the circumgalactic medium of moderate-redshift (z ∼ 0.7) galaxies for the first time. FIREBall observes a component of galaxies that plays a key role in how galaxies form and evolve, likely contains a significant amount of baryons, and has only recently been observed at higher redshifts in the visible. Here we report on the 2018 flight of the FIREBall-2 Balloon telescope, which occurred on 2018 September 22 from Fort Sumner, New Mexico. The flight was the culmination of a complete redesign of the spectrograph from the original FIREBall fiber-fed integral field unit to a wide-field multiobject spectrograph. The flight was terminated early owing to a hole in the balloon, and our original science objectives were not achieved. The overall sensitivity of the instrument and telescope was 90,000 LU, due primarily to increased noise from stray light. We discuss the design of the FIREBall-2 spectrograph, including modifications from the original FIREBall payload, and provide an overview of the performance of all systems. We were able to successfully flight-test a new pointing control system, a UV-optimized, delta-doped, and coated electron multiplying CCD, and an aspheric grating. The FIREBall-2 team is rebuilding the payload for another flight attempt in the fall of 2021, delayed from 2020 as a result of COVID-19.

SPIE Proceedings, 2010

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The Astrophysical Journal, 2016

14 2.3 0.1 () µ +  , and slope β(z)=1.75-0.31 z for z0.47. We observe metal lines in 418 systems, and find that the fraction of IGM absorbers detected in metals is strongly dependent on N H I. The distribution of O VI absorbers appears to evolve in the same sense as the Lyα forest. We calculate contributions to Ω b from different components of the low-z IGM and determine the Lyα decrement as a function of redshift. IGM absorbers are analyzed via a two-point correlation function in velocity space. We find substantial clustering of H I absorbers on scales of Δv=50-300 km s −1 with no significant clustering at Δv1000 km s −1. Splitting the sample into strong and weak absorbers, we see that most of the clustering occurs in strong, N H I 10 13.5 cm −2 , metal-bearing IGM systems. The full catalog of absorption lines and fully reduced spectra is available via the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST) as a high-level science product at

Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2010: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray, 2010

FIREBALL (the Faint Intergalactic Redshifted Emission Balloon) is a balloon-borne 1m telescope coupled to an ultraviolet fiber-fed spectrograph. FIREBALL is designed to study the faint and diffuse emission of the intergalactic medium, until now detected primarily in absorption. FIREBALL is a path finding mission to test new technology and make new constraints on the temperature and density of this gas. We report on the first successful science flight of FIREBALL, in June 2009, which proved every aspect of the complex instrument performance, and provided the strongest measurements and constraints on IGM emission available from any instrument.

Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, 1999

The low-redshift Lyα forest of absorption lines provides a probe of large-scale baryonic structures in the intergalactic medium, some of which may be remnants of physical conditions set up during the epoch of galaxy formation. We discuss our recent Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations and interpretation of low-z Lyα clouds toward nearby Seyferts and QSOs, including their frequency, space density, estimated mass, association with galaxies, and contribution to Ωb. Our HST/GHRS detections of ∼ 70 Lyα absorbers with N hi ≥ 1012·6 cm−2 along 11 sightlines covering pathlength Δ(cz) = 114,000 km s−1 show f (>N hi ) α N hi −0·63±0·04 and a line frequency dN/dz = 200 ± 40 for N hi > 1012·6 cm−2 (one every 1500 km s−1 of redshift). A group of strong absorbers toward PKS 2155–304 may be associated with gas (400–800) kpc from four large galaxies, with low metallicity (≤0·003 solar) and D/H ≤ 2 × 10−4. At low-z, we derive a metagalactic ionising radiation field from AGN of J 0 = × 10−...

Optical and Infrared Interferometry, 2008

The current results of our ongoing Galactic Center (GC) observations with optical long baseline interferometry (OLB-IF) are presented. We achieved first IR-IF fringes in both available IR science regimes of the VLTI (MIDI: 10 µm) and (AMBER: 2 µm), demonstrating the new capabilities provided by large aperture telescope arrays to the Galactic center research. We show that the highest angular resolution only available through interferometric techniques is necessary to observe the GC ISM production in the making and distinguish individual sources from its dusty surroundings. An overview over the currently available IF-technology is given, biased towards the GC science case. The feasibility of phase-referencing to the supergiant GCIRS 7, located only 5 away from SgrA*, to increase the sensitivity and spectral resolution of the observations, is discussed, and supported by the first real data. The presentation will conclude with an outlook to the near future about how the upcoming astrometric and off-axis phase-referencing capabilities of the Keck and VLT Interferometers, nicknamed ASTRA and PRIMA, will greatly extend the currently existing capabilities to observe astrophysical phenomena in the Galactic center at the borderline to General relativity in a yet uninvestigated regime. Telephone: 1 808 881 3543 * VLT Interferometer: http://www.eso.org/projects/vlti/, in this article we consider the array of 8m-UT's as VLTI, since currently the VLTI-AT's are not sensitive enough for GC observations. † http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/Keck/keck index.cfm