%0 Generic %1 lee2013observational %A Lee, Khee-Gan %A Hennawi, Joseph F. %A White, Martin %A Croft, Rupert %A Ozbek, Melih %D 2013 %K alpha forest lyman tomography %T Observational Requirements for Lyman-alpha Forest Tomographic Mapping of Large-Scale Structure at z ~ 2 %U http://arxiv.org/abs/1309.1477 %X The z > 2 Lyman-alpha (Lya) forest traces the underlying dark-matter distribution on large scales and, given sufficient sightlines, can be used to create 3D maps of large-scale structure. We examine the observational requirements to construct such maps and estimate the signal-to-noise as a function of exposure time and sightline density. Sightline densities at z = 2.25 are n_los = 360, 1200,3300 deg^-2 at limiting magnitudes of g =24.0, 24.5,25.0, resulting in transverse sightline separations of d_perp = 3.6, 1.9, 1.2 h^-1 Mpc, which roughly sets the reconstruction scale. We simulate these reconstructions using mock spectra with realistic noise properties, and find that spectra with S/N = 4 per angstrom can be used to generate maps that clearly trace the underlying dark-matter at overdensities of rho/<rho> ~ 1. For the VLT/VIMOS spectrograph, exposure times t_exp = 4, 6, 10 hrs are sufficient for maps with spatial resolution epsilon_3d = 5.0, 3.2, 2.3 h^-1 Mpc. Assuming ~ 250 h^-1 Mpc is probed along the line-of-sight, 1 deg^2 of survey area would cover a comoving volume of ~ 10^6 h^-3 Mpc^3 at <z>=2.3, enabling efficient mapping of large volumes with 8-10m telescopes. These maps could be used to study galaxy environments, detect proto-clusters, and study the topology of large-scale structure at high-z.

@misc{lee2013observational, abstract = {The z > 2 Lyman-alpha (Lya) forest traces the underlying dark-matter distribution on large scales and, given sufficient sightlines, can be used to create 3D maps of large-scale structure. We examine the observational requirements to construct such maps and estimate the signal-to-noise as a function of exposure time and sightline density. Sightline densities at z = 2.25 are n_los = [360, 1200,3300] deg^{-2} at limiting magnitudes of g =[24.0, 24.5,25.0], resulting in transverse sightline separations of d_perp = [3.6, 1.9, 1.2] h^{-1} Mpc, which roughly sets the reconstruction scale. We simulate these reconstructions using mock spectra with realistic noise properties, and find that spectra with S/N = 4 per angstrom can be used to generate maps that clearly trace the underlying dark-matter at overdensities of rho/<rho> ~ 1. For the VLT/VIMOS spectrograph, exposure times t_exp = [4, 6, 10] hrs are sufficient for maps with spatial resolution epsilon_3d = [5.0, 3.2, 2.3] h^{-1} Mpc. Assuming ~ 250 h^{-1} Mpc is probed along the line-of-sight, 1 deg^2 of survey area would cover a comoving volume of ~ 10^6 h^{-3} Mpc^3 at <z>=2.3, enabling efficient mapping of large volumes with 8-10m telescopes. These maps could be used to study galaxy environments, detect proto-clusters, and study the topology of large-scale structure at high-z.}, added-at = {2013-09-09T18:51:29.000+0200}, author = {Lee, Khee-Gan and Hennawi, Joseph F. and White, Martin and Croft, Rupert and Ozbek, Melih}, biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/22940969b63d420c737917cce6a1301d0/miki}, description = {[1309.1477] Observational Requirements for Lyman-alpha Forest Tomographic Mapping of Large-Scale Structure at z ~ 2}, interhash = {9af25814ac7f5340bb8e2dcb1f2a36ce}, intrahash = {2940969b63d420c737917cce6a1301d0}, keywords = {alpha forest lyman tomography}, note = {cite arxiv:1309.1477Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures. Submitted to ApJ}, timestamp = {2013-09-09T18:51:29.000+0200}, title = {Observational Requirements for Lyman-alpha Forest Tomographic Mapping of Large-Scale Structure at z ~ 2}, url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/1309.1477}, year = 2013 }