TY - JOUR
T1 - The WiggleZ Dark Energy Survey
T2 - Survey design and first data release
AU - Drinkwater, Michael J.
AU - Jurek, Russell J.
AU - Blake, Chris
AU - Woods, David
AU - Pimbblet, Kevin A.
AU - Glazebrook, Karl
AU - Sharp, Rob
AU - Pracy, Michael B.
AU - Brough, Sarah
AU - Colless, Matthew
AU - Couch, Warrick J.
AU - Croom, Scott M.
AU - Davis, Tamara M.
AU - Forbes, Duncan
AU - Forster, Karl
AU - Gilbank, David G.
AU - Gladders, Michael
AU - Jelliffe, Ben
AU - Jones, Nick
AU - Li, I. Hui
AU - Madore, Barry
AU - Martin, D. Christopher
AU - Poole, Gregory B.
AU - Small, Todd
AU - Wisnioski, Emily
AU - Wyder, Ted
AU - Yee, H. K.C.
PY - 2010/1
Y1 - 2010/1
N2 - The WiggleZ Dark Energy Survey is a survey of 240 000 emission-line galaxies in the distant Universe, measured with the AAOmega spectrograph on the 3.9-m Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT). The primary aim of the survey is to precisely measure the scale of baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) imprinted on the spatial distribution of these galaxies at look-back times of 4-8 Gyr. The target galaxies are selected using ultraviolet (UV) photometry from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer satellite, with a flux limit of NUV < 22.8 mag. We also require that the targets are detected at optical wavelengths, specifically in the range 20.0 < r < 22.5 mag. We use the Lyman break method applied to the UV colours, with additional optical colour limits, to select high-redshift galaxies. The galaxies generally have strong emission lines, permitting reliable redshift measurements in relatively short exposure times on the AAT. The median redshift of the galaxies is zmed = 0.6. The redshift range containing 90 per cent of the galaxies is 0.2 < z < 1.0. The survey will sample a volume of ∼1 Gpc3 over a projected area on the sky of 1000 deg2, with an average target density of 350 deg-2. Detailed forecasts indicate that the survey will measure the BAO scale to better than 2 per cent and the tangential and radial acoustic wave scales to approximately 3 and 5 per cent, respectively. Combining the WiggleZ constraints with existing cosmic microwave background measurements and the latest supernova data, the marginalized uncertainties in the cosmological model are expected to be σ(Ωm) = 0.02 and σ(w) = 0.07 (for a constant w model). The WiggleZ measurement of w will constitute a robust, precise and independent test of dark energy models. This paper provides a detailed description of the survey and its design, as well as the spectroscopic observations, data reduction and redshift measurement techniques employed. It also presents an analysis of the properties of the target galaxies, including emission-line diagnostics which show that they are mostly extreme starburst galaxies, and Hubble Space Telescope images, which show that they contain a high fraction of interacting or distorted systems. In conjunction with this paper, we make a public data release of data for the first 100 000 galaxies measured for the project.
AB - The WiggleZ Dark Energy Survey is a survey of 240 000 emission-line galaxies in the distant Universe, measured with the AAOmega spectrograph on the 3.9-m Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT). The primary aim of the survey is to precisely measure the scale of baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) imprinted on the spatial distribution of these galaxies at look-back times of 4-8 Gyr. The target galaxies are selected using ultraviolet (UV) photometry from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer satellite, with a flux limit of NUV < 22.8 mag. We also require that the targets are detected at optical wavelengths, specifically in the range 20.0 < r < 22.5 mag. We use the Lyman break method applied to the UV colours, with additional optical colour limits, to select high-redshift galaxies. The galaxies generally have strong emission lines, permitting reliable redshift measurements in relatively short exposure times on the AAT. The median redshift of the galaxies is zmed = 0.6. The redshift range containing 90 per cent of the galaxies is 0.2 < z < 1.0. The survey will sample a volume of ∼1 Gpc3 over a projected area on the sky of 1000 deg2, with an average target density of 350 deg-2. Detailed forecasts indicate that the survey will measure the BAO scale to better than 2 per cent and the tangential and radial acoustic wave scales to approximately 3 and 5 per cent, respectively. Combining the WiggleZ constraints with existing cosmic microwave background measurements and the latest supernova data, the marginalized uncertainties in the cosmological model are expected to be σ(Ωm) = 0.02 and σ(w) = 0.07 (for a constant w model). The WiggleZ measurement of w will constitute a robust, precise and independent test of dark energy models. This paper provides a detailed description of the survey and its design, as well as the spectroscopic observations, data reduction and redshift measurement techniques employed. It also presents an analysis of the properties of the target galaxies, including emission-line diagnostics which show that they are mostly extreme starburst galaxies, and Hubble Space Telescope images, which show that they contain a high fraction of interacting or distorted systems. In conjunction with this paper, we make a public data release of data for the first 100 000 galaxies measured for the project.
KW - Cosmology: observations
KW - Galaxies: high-redshift
KW - Galaxies: photometry
KW - Galaxies: starburst
KW - Surveys
KW - Ultraviolet: galaxies
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=73949148488&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2009.15754.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2009.15754.x
M3 - Article
SN - 0035-8711
VL - 401
SP - 1429
EP - 1452
JO - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
JF - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
IS - 3
ER -