The Dark Energy Survey: more than dark energy - an overview
Abstract
This overview article describes the legacy prospect and discovery potential of the Dark Energy Survey (DES) beyond cosmological studies, illustrating it with examples from the DES early data. DES is using a wide-field camera (DECam) on the 4m Blanco Telescope in Chile to image 5000 sq deg of the sky in five filters (grizY). By its completion the survey is expected to have generated a catalogue of 300 million galaxies with photometric redshifts and 100 million stars. In addition, a time-domain survey search over 27 sq deg is expected to yield a sample of thousands of Type Ia supernovae and other transients. The main goals of DES are to characterise dark energy and dark matter, and to test alternative models of gravity; these goals will be pursued by studying large scale structure, cluster counts, weak gravitational lensing and Type Ia supernovae. However, DES also provides a rich data set which allows us to study many other aspects of astrophysics. In this paper we focus on additional science with DES, emphasizing areas where the survey makes a difference with respect to other current surveys. The paper illustrates, using early data (from `Science Verification', and from the first, second and third seasons of observations), what DES can tell us about the solar system, the Milky Way, galaxy evolution, quasars, and other topics. In addition, we show that if the cosmological model is assumed to be Lambda+ Cold Dark Matter (LCDM) then important astrophysics can be deduced from the primary DES probes. Highlights from DES early data include the discovery of 34 Trans Neptunian Objects, 17 dwarf satellites of the Milky Way, one published z > 6 quasar (and more confirmed) and two published superluminous supernovae (and more confirmed).
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1601.00329,
title = {The Dark Energy Survey: more than dark energy - an overview},
author = {Dark Energy Survey Collaboration and T. Abbott and F. B. Abdalla and J. Aleksic and S. Allam and A. Amara and D. Bacon and E. Balbinot and M. Banerji and K. Bechtol and A. Benoit-Levy and G. M. Bernstein and E. Bertin and J. Blazek and C. Bonnett and S. Bridle and D. Brooks and R. J. Brunner and E. Buckley-Geer and D. L. Burke and G. B. Caminha and D. Capozzi and J. Carlsen and A. Carnero-Rosell and M. Carollo and M. Carrasco-Kind and J. Carretero and F. J. Castander and L. Clerkin and T. Collett and C. Conselice and M. Crocce and C. E. Cunha and C. B. D'Andrea and L. N. da Costa and T. M. Davis and S. Desai and H. T. Diehl and J. P. Dietrich and S. Dodelson and P. Doel and A. Drlica-Wagner and J. Estrada and J. Etherington and A. E. Evrard and J. Fabbri and D. A. Finley and B. Flaugher and R. J. Foley and P. Rosalba and J. Frieman and J. Garcia-Bellido and E. Gaztanaga and D. W. Gerdes and T. Giannantonio and D. A. Goldstein and D. Gruen and R. A. Gruendl and P. Guarnieri and G. Gutierrez and W. Hartley and K. Honscheid and B. Jain and D. J. James and T. Jeltema and S. Jouvel and R. Kessler and A. King and D. Kirk and R. Kron and K. Kuehn and N. Kuropatkin and O. Lahav and T. S. Li and M. Lima and H. Lin and M. A. G. Maia and M. Makler and M. Manera and C. Maraston and J. L. Marshall and P. Martini and R. G. McMahon and P. Melchior and A. Merson and C. J. Miller and R. Miquel and J. J. Mohr and X. Morice-Atkinson and K. Naidoo and E. Neilsen and R. C. Nichol and B. Nord and R. Ogando and F. Ostrovski and A. Palmese and A. Papadopoulos and H. Peiris and J. Peoples and W. J. Percival and A. A. Plazas and S. L. Reed and A. Refregier and A. K. Romer and A. Roodman and A. Ross and E. Rozo and E. S. Rykoff and I. Sadeh and M. Sako and C. Sanchez and E. Sanchez and B. Santiago and V. Scarpine and M. Schubnell and I. Sevilla-Noarbe and E. Sheldon and M. Smith and R. C. Smith and M. Soares-Santos and F. Sobreira and M. Soumagnac and E. Suchyta and M. Sullivan and M. Swanson and G. Tarle and J. Thaler and D. Thomas and R. C. Thomas and D. Tucker and J. D. Vieira and V. Vikram and A. R. Walker and R. H. Wechsler and J. Weller and W. Wester and L. Whiteway and H. Wilcox and B. Yanny and Y. Zhang and J. Zuntz},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1601.00329},
year = {2016}
}
Comments
32 pages, 15 figures; a revised Figure 1 and minor changes, to match the published MNRAS version