The Spectroscopic Stage-5 Experiment
Abstract
The existence, properties, and dynamics of the dark sectors of our universe pose fundamental challenges to our current model of physics, and large-scale astronomical surveys may be our only hope to unravel these long-standing mysteries. In this white paper, we describe the science motivation, instrumentation, and survey plan for the next-generation spectroscopic observatory, the Stage-5 Spectroscopic Experiment (Spec-S5). Spec-S5 is a new all-sky spectroscopic instrument optimized to efficiently carry out cosmological surveys of unprecedented scale and precision. The baseline plan for Spec-S5 involves upgrading two existing 4-m telescopes to new 6-m wide-field facilities, each with a highly multiplexed spectroscopic instrument capable of simultaneously measuring the spectra of 13,000 astronomical targets. Spec-S5, which builds and improves on the hardware used for previous cosmology experiments, represents a cost-effective and rapid approach to realizing a more than 10 gain in spectroscopic capability compared to the current state-of-the-art represented by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument project (DESI). Spec-S5 will provide a critical scientific capability in the post-Rubin and post-DESI era for advancing cosmology, fundamental physics, and astrophysics in the 2030s.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2503.07923,
title = {The Spectroscopic Stage-5 Experiment},
author = {Robert Besuner and Arjun Dey and Alex Drlica-Wagner and Haruki Ebina and Guillermo Fernandez Moroni and Simone Ferraro and Jaime Forero-Romero and Klaus Honscheid and Pat Jelinsky and Dustin Lang and Michael Levi and Paul Martini and Adam Myers and Nathalie Palanque-Delabrouille and Swayamtrupta Panda and Claire Poppett and Noah Sailer and David Schlegel and Arman Shafieloo and Joseph Silber and Martin White and Timothy Abbott and Lori Allen and Santiago Avila and Roberto Avilés and Stephen Bailey and Abby Bault and Mohamed Bouri and Konstantina Boutsia and Eienne Burtin and Fernando Chierchie and William Coulton and Kyle Dawson and Biprateep Dey and Olivier Doré and Patrick Dunlop and Daniel Eisenstein and Castorina Emanuele and Stephanie Escoffier and Juan Estrada and Parker Fagrelius and Kevin Fanning and Timothy Fanning and Andreu Font-Ribera and Joshua Frieman and Malak Galal and Vera Gluscevic and Satya Gontcho A Gontcho and Daniel Green and Gaston Gutierrez and Julien Guy and Kevan Hashemi and Steve Heathcote and Steve Holland and Jiamin Hou and Dragan Huterer and Blas Irigoyen Gimenez and Mikhail Ivanov and Richard Joyce and Eric Jullo and Stephanie Juneau and Claire Juramy and Armin Karcher and Stephen Kent and David Kirkby and Jean-Paul Kneib and Elisabeth Krause and Alex Krolewski and Ofer Lahav and Agustin Lapi and Alexie Leauthaud and Matthew Lewandowski and Ting Li and Kenneth Lin and Marilena Loverde and Sean MacBride and Christophe Magneville and Jennifer Marshall and Patrick McDonald and Timothy Miller and John Moustakas and Moritz Münchmeyer and Joan Najita and Jeff Newman and Will Percival and Oliver Philcox and Priscila Pires and Anand Raichoor and Brandon Roach and Constance Rockosi and Maxime Rombach and Ashley Ross and Eusebio Sanchez and Luke Schmidt and Michael Schubnell and Rebekah Sebok and Uros Seljak and Eva Silverstein and Zachay Slepian and Chris Stone and Robert Stupak and Gregory Tarlé and Ting Li and Luke Tyas and Mariana Vargas-Magaña and Alistair Walker and Nicholas Wenner and Christophe Yèche and Yuanyuan Zhang and Rongpu Zhou},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2503.07923},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
27 pages, 14 figures