WEAVE is the new wide-field spectroscopic facility for the prime focus of the William Herschel Telescope in La Palma, Spain. Its fibre positioner is essential for the accurate placement of the spectrograph's ~960-fibre multiplex. To maximise the assignment of its optical fibres, WEAVE uses a simulated annealing algorithm called Configure, which allocates the fibres to targets in the field of view. We have conducted an analysis of the algorithm's behaviour using a subset of mid-tier WEAVE-LOFAR fields, and adjusted the priority assignment algorithm to optimise the total fibres assigned per field, and the assignment of fibres to the higher priority science targets. The output distributions have been examined, to investigate the implications for the WEAVE science teams.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2209.01145,
title = {Optimisation of the WEAVE target assignment algorithm},
author = {Sarah Hughes and Gavin Dalton and Daniel Smith and Kenneth Duncan and David Terrett and Don Carlos Abrams and J. Alfonso Aguerri and Marc Balcells and Georgia Bishop and Piercarlo Bonifacio and Esperansa Carrasco and Shoko Jin and Ian Lewis and Scott Trager and Antonella Vallenari},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2209.01145},
year = {2022}
}