Illuminating the Physics of Cosmic Origin and Evolution: A UK Space Frontiers 2035 White Paper
Abstract
Understanding the Universe's origins and evolution remains one of the most fundamental challenges in modern cosmology. This white paper explores three key science priorities in this field: unravelling the physics of cosmic inflation, investigating the accelerating expansion of the Universe, and precisely measuring the sum of the neutrino masses. Achieving these goals requires a dedicated survey to map the large-scale structure at high redshift in unprecedented detail. We describe how this can be achieved through a mission concept called SIRMOS, providing a high-throughput, highly multiplexed spectroscopic capability to obtain accurate redshifts for over 100 million galaxies over a wide sky area. Such a survey would leverage the deepest existing wide-area photometric catalogues for targeting, with spectra offering continuous 1.25-2.5~m wavelength coverage at moderate resolution, allowing precise redshift measurements in the range with minimal bias. We outline the scientific opportunities this presents. Recent years have seen significant advances in instrumentation, including digital micromirror devices, complex telescope mirrors, large detector arrays, and data processing pipelines. While these technologies have been demonstrated in terrestrial applications, such a survey is a unique opportunity to apply these proven capabilities in space to address fundamental questions in cosmology. Participation in such a mission will simultaneously deliver a compelling science case, help align UK Space Agency and STFC strategies, demonstrate the UK's growing capability in end-to-end space missions, and strengthen the national space economy through high-value industrial participation.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2601.16761,
title = {Illuminating the Physics of Cosmic Origin and Evolution: A UK Space Frontiers 2035 White Paper},
author = {Florian Beutler and Eva-Maria Mueller and Seshadri Nadathur and Yun Wang and David Alonso and Tessa Baker and Sownak Bose and Rebecca Canning and Shaun Cole and Fergus Cullen and Willem Elbers and Pedro Ferreira and Carlos Frenk and Oscar Gonzalez and Or Graur and Boryana Hadzhiyska and Alex Hall and Catherine Heymans and Sergey Koposov and Kazuya Koyama and Ofer Lahav and Baojiu Li and Avery Meiksin and Johannes Noller and John Peacock and Alkistis Pourtsidou and Giorgio Savini and Andy Taylor and Rita Tojeiro and David Wands and Massimo Robberto and Gregory Wirth and Mark Dickinson and Thomas Greene and Jeffrey Kruk and Will Percival and Andreas Faisst and Lynne Hillenbrand and Jeyhan Kartaltepe and Nikhil Padmanabhan and Lado Samushia and Lee Armus and Andrew Benson and Micol Bolzonella and Samuel Brieden and Jarle Brinchmann and Robert Content and Emanuele Daddi and Kyle Finner and Andrew Hearin and Cullan Howlett and Jon Lawrence and Gregory Mosby and Zoran Ninkov and Ken Osato and Casey Papovich and Jack Piotrowski and Lucia Pozzetti and Alvise Raccanelli and Jason Rhodes and Shun Saito and Hee-Jong Seo and Zachary Slepian and Steve Smee},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2601.16761},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
White paper submitted to the UK Space Agency's initiative "UK Space Frontiers 2035" https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-space-frontiers-2035-astro-planetary-and-helio