The Subaru Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS) is a massively-multiplexed fiber-fed optical and near-infrared 3-arm spectrograph (N fiber =2400, 380≤ λ ≤ 1260nm, 1.3 degree diameter hexagonal field), offering unique opportunities in survey astronomy. Following a successful external design review the instrument is now under construction with first light anticipated in late 2017. Here we summarize the science case for this unique instrument in terms of provisional plans for a Subaru Strategic Program of ≃300 nights. We describe plans to constrain the nature of dark energy via a survey of emission line galaxies spanning a comoving volume of 9.3h −3 Gpc 3 in the redshift range 0.8 < z < 2.4. In each of 6 independent redshift bins, the cosmological distances will be measured to 3% precision via the baryonic acoustic oscillation scale, and redshift-space distortion measures will be used to constrain structure growth to 6% precision. In the near-field cosmology program, radial velocities and chemical abundances of stars in the Milky Way and M31 will be used to infer the past assembly histories of spiral galaxies and the structure of their dark matter halos. Data will be secured for 10 6 stars in the Galactic thick-disk, halo and tidal streams as faint as V ∼ 22, including stars with V < 20 to complement the goals of the Gaia mission. A medium-resolution mode with R = 5, 000 to be implemented in the red arm will allow the measurement of multiple α-element abundances and more precise velocities for Galactic stars, elucidating the detailed chemo-dynamical structure and evolution of each of the main stellar components of the Milky Way Galaxy and of its dwarf spheroidal galaxies. The M31 campaign will target red giant branch stars with 21.5< V <22.5, obtaining radial velocities and metallicities over an unprecedented area of 65 deg 2 . For the extragalactic program, our simulations suggest the wide wavelength range of PFS will be particularly powerful in probing the galaxy population and its clustering over a wide redshift range. We propose to conduct a color-selected survey of 1 < z < 2 galaxies and AGN over 16 deg 2 to J ≃23.4, yielding a fair sample of galaxies with stellar masses above ∼ 10 10 M ⊙ at z ≃ 2. A two-tiered survey of higher redshift Lyman break galaxies and Lyman alpha emitters will quantify the properties of early systems close to the reionization epoch. PFS will also provide unique spectroscopic opportunities beyond these currentlyenvisaged surveys, particularly in the era of Euclid, LSST and TMT.

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In recent years, millisecond-duration radio signals originating in distant galaxies appear to have been discovered in the so-called fast radio bursts. These signals are dispersed according to a precise physical law and this dispersion is a key observable quantity, which, in tandem with a redshift measurement, can be used for fundamental physical investigations. Every fast radio burst has a dispersion measurement, but none before now have had a redshift measurement, because of the difficulty in pinpointing their celestial coordinates. Here we report the discovery of a fast radio burst and the identification of a fading radio transient lasting ~6 days after the event, which we use to identify the host galaxy; we measure the galaxy's redshift to be z = 0.492 ± 0.008. The dispersion measure and redshift, in combination, provide a direct measurement of the cosmic density of ionized baryons in the intergalactic medium of ΩIGM = 4.9 ± 1.3 per cent, in agreement with the expectation from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, and including all of the so-called 'missing baryons'. The ~6-day radio transient is largely consistent with the radio afterglow of a short γ-ray burst, and its existence and timescale do not support progenitor models such as giant pulses from pulsars, and supernovae. This contrasts with the interpretation of another recently discovered fast radio burst, suggesting that there are at least two classes of bursts.