Introducing CUBES: the Cassegrain U-band Brazil-ESO spectrograph

Bristow, Paul; Barbuy, B.; Macanhan, Vanessa Bawden de Paula; Castilho, Bruno V.; Dekker, H.; Délabre, Bernard; Díaz, M. Hernández; Gneiding, Clemens D.; Kerber, F.; Küntschner, H.; Mura, G. La; Reiss, Roland; Vernet, J.

doi:10.1117/12.2054751

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…The current project builds on previous work from a joint Brazil-ESO Phase A study of a near-UV spectrograph undertaken in 2012 [29,7,30]. Unfortunately the project did not proceed further at the time, but the science case is now stronger than ever, as demonstrated by the range of papers presented in this Special Issue.…”

Section: Consortiummentioning

confidence: 99%

CUBES Phase A design overview -- The Cassegrain U-Band Efficient Spectrograph for the Very Large Telescope

Zanutta,

Cristiani,

Atkinson

et al. 2022

Preprint

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We present the baseline conceptual design of the Cassegrain U-Band Efficient Spectrograph (CUBES) for the Very Large Telescope. CUBES will provide unprecedented sensitivity for spectroscopy on a 8 -10 m class telescope in the ground ultraviolet (UV), spanning a bandwidth of ≥100 nm that starts at 300 nm, the shortest wavelength accessible from the ground. The design has been optimized for end-to-end efficiency and provides a spectral resolving power of R ≥ 20000, that will unlock a broad range of new topics across solar system, Galactic and extraglactic astronomy. The design also features a second, lower-resolution (R ∼ 7000) mode and has the option of a fiberlink to the UVES instrument for simultaneous observations at longer wavelengths.Here we present the optical, mechanical and software design of the various subsystems of the instrument after the Phase A study of the project. We discuss the expected performances for the layout choices and highlight some of the performance trade-offs considered to best meet the instrument top-level requirements. We also introduce the model-based system engineering approach used to organize and manage the project activities and interfaces, in the context that it is increasingly necessary to integrate such tools in the development of complex astronomical projects.

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Section: Consortiummentioning

confidence: 99%

CUBES Phase A design overview -- The Cassegrain U-Band Efficient Spectrograph for the Very Large Telescope

Zanutta,

Cristiani,

Atkinson

et al. 2022

Preprint

Self Cite

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Section: Cubesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…CUBES 1 was proposed to provide UV ground-based spectroscopy. As explained in Bristow 1 et al (2014), a gain in sensitivity using CUBES over UVES 2 , is at least two magnitudes at 350nm and up to three magnitudes at 320nm and shorter wavelengths. In the same paper, three critical components were identified in order to achieve high efficiency: the detector, the grating and the image slicer.…”

Section: Cubesmentioning

confidence: 99%

CUBES: application of image slicers to reformat the field for two spectral resolving powers

Rosario¹,

Wells

O’Brien

et al. 2022

Advances in Optical and Mechanical Technologies for Telescopes and Instrumentation V

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The Cassegrain U-Band Efficient Spectrograph (CUBES) is a high-efficiency spectrograph designed for observations from 305 to 400nm. It will be integrated at a Cassegrain focus of the Very Large Telescope (VLT). The image slicer technology is applied to reformat the field of view reducing the spectrograph entrance slit etendue and minimising the spectrograph volume and weight without slit losses. Two image slicers will provide CUBES with two spectral resolving powers: R≥20,000 for high resolution (HR) and R≥5,000 for low resolution (LR). Both image slicers are composed of two arrays of six spherical mirrors. For the HR mode, a rectangular field of view of 1.5arcsec by 10arcsec is reorganised into a slit of 0.19mm × 88mm; for the LR mode, a field of view of 6arcsec by 10arcsec is reformatted into a slit of 0.77mm × 88mm, with slicer mirrors of width 0.5mm and 2mm, respectively. CUBES is currently in the Preliminary Design Phase (Phase B). This communication presents the Conceptual (Phase A) design and the main performance for the HR and LR image slicers addressing the following technological challenges: compact layout with the minimum number of optical components to optimise throughput, near diffraction limited optical quality, telecentric design with overlapped exit pupils for all slices of the field of view, distribution of the slicer mirrors to reduce shadows and selection of the best substrate for the very short wavelengths at which CUBES will operate.

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“…CUBES is planned to be installed at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), in Cerro Paranal, Chile. The CUBES instrument was first discussed in Bristow et al (2014) and Barbuy et al (2014). Future giant telescopes, like the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) of ESO, will be optimized for observations in the red/infrared.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detecting weak beryllium lines with CUBES

Smiljanic,

da Silva,

Giribaldi

2022

Preprint

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Beryllium is a light element with one single stable isotope, 9 Be, which is a pure product of cosmic-ray spallation in the interstellar medium. Beryllium abundances in latetype stars can be used in studies about evolutionary mixing, Galactic chemical evolution, planet engulfment, and the formation of globular clusters. Some of these uses of Be abundances figure among the science cases of the Cassegrain U-Band Efficient Spectrograph (CUBES), a new near-UV low-and medium-resolution spectrograph under development for the Very Large Telescope. Here, we report on a study about beryllium abundances in extremely metal-poor stars in the context of the phase A of CUBES. Our motivation is to understand the limits for the detection of weak lines in extremely metal-poor stars of low Be abundances. We analyze simulated CUBES observations, performed in medium-resolution mode, based on synthetic spectra for four mock stars with [Fe/H] ≤ −3.0. We find that detecting the Be lines is possible in certain cases, but is very challenging and requires high signal-to-noise ratio. Depending on the atmospheric parameters of the target stars, and if signal-to-noise per pixel of about 400 can be achieved, it should be possible to detect Be abundances between log(Be/H) −13.1 and −13.6, with a typical uncertainty of ± 0.15 dex. Using CUBES, the required data for such studies can be obtained for stars that are fainter by two magnitudes with respect to what is possible with current instrumentation.

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Introducing CUBES: the Cassegrain U-band Brazil-ESO spectrograph

Cited by 6 publications

References 31 publications

CUBES Phase A design overview -- The Cassegrain U-Band Efficient Spectrograph for the Very Large Telescope

CUBES Phase A design overview -- The Cassegrain U-Band Efficient Spectrograph for the Very Large Telescope

CUBES: application of image slicers to reformat the field for two spectral resolving powers

Detecting weak beryllium lines with CUBES

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