The wide-field, multiplexed, spectroscopic facility WEAVE: Survey design, overview, and simulated implementation

WEAVE Collaboration, Shoko Jin*, Scott C. Trager*, Gavin B. Dalton*, J. Alfonso L. Aguerri, J. E. Drew, Jesús Falcón-Barroso, Boris T. Gänsicke, Vanessa Hill, Angela Iovino, Matthew M. Pieri, Bianca M. Poggianti, D. J. B. Smith, Antonella Vallenari, Don Carlos Abrams, David S. Aguado, Teresa Antoja, Alfonso Aragón-Salamanca, Yago Ascasibar, Carine BabusiauxMarc Balcells, R. Barrena, Giuseppina Battaglia, Vasily Belokurov, Thomas Bensby, Piercarlo Bonifacio, Angela Bragaglia, Esperanza Carrasco, Ricardo Carrera, Daniel J. Cornwell, Lilian Domínguez-Palmero, Kenneth J. Duncan, Benoit Famaey, Cecilia Fariña, Oscar A. Gonzalez, Steve Guest, Nina A. Hatch, Kelley M. Hess, Matthew J. Hoskin, Mike Irwin, Johan H. Knapen, Sergey E. Koposov, Ulrike Kuchner, Clotilde Laigle, Jim Lewis, Marcella Longhett, Sara Lucatello, Jairo Méndez-Abreu, Amata Mercurio, Alireza Molaeinezhad, Maria Monguió, Sean Morrison, David N. A. Murphy, Luis Peralta de Arriba, Isabel Pérez, Ignasi Pérez-Ràfols, Sergio Picó, Roberto Raddi, Mercè Romero-Gómez, Frédéric Royer, Arnaud Siebert, George M. Seabroke, Debopam Som, David Terrett, Guillaume Thomas, Roger Wesson, C. Clare Worley, Emilio J. Alfaro, Carlos Allende Prieto, Javier Alonso-Santiago, Nicholas J. Amos, Richard P. Ashley, Lola Balaguer-Núñez, Eduardo Balbinot, Michele Bellazzini, Chris R. Benn, Sara R. Berlanas, Edouard J. Bernard, Philip Best, Daniela Bettoni, Andrea Bianco, Georgia Bishop, Michael Blomqvist, Corrado Boeche, Micol Bolzonella, Silvia Bonoli, Albert Bosma, Nikolay Britavskiy, Gianni Busarello, Elisabetta Caffau, Tristan Cantat-Gaudin, Alfred Castro-Ginard, Guilherme Couto, Juan Carbajo-Hijarrubia, David Carter, Laia Casamiquela, Ana M. Conrado, Pablo Corcho-Caballero, Luca Costantin, Alis Deason, Abel de Burgos, Sabrina De Grandi, Paola Di Matteo, Jesús Domínguez-Gómez, Ricardo Dorda, Alyssa Drake, Rajeshwari Dutta, Denis Erkal, Sofia Feltzing, Anna Ferré-Mateu, Diane Feuillet, Francesca Figueras, Matteo Fossat, Elena Franciosin, Antonio Frasca, Michele Fumagalli, Anna Gallazzi, Rubén García-Benito, Nicola Gentile Fusillo, Marwan Gebran, James Gilbert, T. M. Gledhill, Rosa M. González Delgado, Robert Greimel, Mario Giuseppe Guarcello, Jose Guerra, Marco Gullieuszik, Christopher P. Haines, Martin J. Hardcastle, Amy Harris, Misha Haywood, Amina Helmi, Nauzet Hernandez, Artemio Herrero, Sarah Hughes, Vid Irsic, Pascale Jablonka, Matt J. Jarvis, Carme Jordi, Rohit Kondapally, Georges Kordopatis, Jens-Kristian Krogager, Francesco La Barbera, Man I Lam, Søren S. Larsen, Bertrand Lemasle, Ian J. Lewis, Emilie Lhomé, Karin Lind, Marcello Lodi, Alessia Longobardi, Ilaria Lonoce, Laura Magrin, Jesús Maíz Apellániz, Olivier Marchal, Amparo Marco, Nicolas F. Martin, Tadafumi Matsuno, Sophie Maurogordato, Paola Merluzzi, Jordi Miralda-Escudé, Emilio Molinari, Giacomo Monari, Lorenzo Morelli, Christopher J. Mottram, Tim Naylor, Ignacio Negueruela, Jose Oñorbe, Elena Pancino, Sébastien Peirani, Reynier F. Peletier, Lucia Pozzetti, Monica Rainer, Pau Ramos, Shaun C. Read, Elena Maria Rossi, Huub J. A. Röttgering, Jose Alberto Rubiño-Martín, Jose Sabater Montes, José San Juan, Nicoletta Sanna, Ellen Schallig, Ricardo P. Schiavon, Mathias Schultheis, Paolo Serra, Timothy W. Shimwell, Sergio Simón-Díaz, Russell J. Smith, Rosanna Sordo, Daniele Sorini, Caroline Soubiran, Else Starkenburg, Iain A. Steele, John Stott, Remko Stuik, Eline Tolstoy, Crescenzo Tortora, Maria Tsantaki, Mathieu Van der Swaelmen, Reinout J. van Weeren, Daniela Vergani, Marc A. W. Verheijen, Kristiina Verro, Jorick S. Vink, Miguel Vioque, C. Jakob Walcher, Nicholas A. Walton, Christopher Wegg, Anne-Marie Weijmans, Wendy L. Williams, Andrew J. Wilson, Nicholas J. Wright, Theodora Xylakis-Dornbusch, Kris Youakim, Stefano Zibetti, Cristina Zurita

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract / Description of output

WEAVE, the new wide-field, massively multiplexed spectroscopic survey facility for the William Herschel Telescope, will see first light in late 2022. WEAVE comprises a new 2-degree field-of-view prime-focus corrector system, a nearly 1000-multiplex fibre positioner, 20 individually deployable 'mini' integral field units (IFUs), and a single large IFU. These fibre systems feed a dual-beam spectrograph covering the wavelength range 366−959\,nm at R∼5000, or two shorter ranges at R∼20000. After summarising the design and implementation of WEAVE and its data systems, we present the organisation, science drivers and design of a five- to seven-year programme of eight individual surveys to: (i) study our Galaxy's origins by completing Gaia's phase-space information, providing metallicities to its limiting magnitude for ∼3 million stars and detailed abundances for ∼1.5 million brighter field and open-cluster stars; (ii) survey ∼0.4 million Galactic-plane OBA stars, young stellar objects and nearby gas to understand the evolution of young stars and their environments; (iii) perform an extensive spectral survey of white dwarfs; (iv) survey ∼400 neutral-hydrogen-selected galaxies with the IFUs; (v) study properties and kinematics of stellar populations and ionised gas in z<0.5 cluster galaxies; (vi) survey stellar populations and kinematics in ∼25000 field galaxies at 0.3≲z≲0.7; (vii) study the cosmic evolution of accretion and star formation using >1 million spectra of LOFAR-selected radio sources; (viii) trace structures using intergalactic/circumgalactic gas at z>2. Finally, we describe the WEAVE Operational Rehearsals using the WEAVE Simulator.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2688-2730
Number of pages13
JournalMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume530
Issue number3
Early online date11 Mar 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 May 2024

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • instrumentation: spectrographs
  • surveys - stars: general
  • Galaxy: feneral
  • galaxies: general
  • cosmology: observations

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