Project overview and update on WEAVE: the next generation wide-field spectroscopy facility for the William Herschel Telescope

Abstract

We present an overview of and status report on the WEAVE next-generation spectroscopy facility for the William Herschel Telescope (WHT). WEAVE principally targets optical ground-based follow up of upcoming ground-based (LOFAR) and space-based (Gaia) surveys. WEAVE is a multi-object and multi-IFU facility utilizing a new 2-degree prime focus field of view at the WHT, with a buffered pick-and-place positioner system hosting 1000 multi-object (MOS) fibres, 20 integral field units, or a single large IFU for each observation. The fibres are fed to a single spectrograph, with a pair of 8k(spectral) x 6k (spatial) pixel cameras, located within the WHT GHRIL enclosure on the telescope Nasmyth platform, supporting observations at R~5000 over the full 370-1000nm wavelength range in a single exposure, or a high resolution mode with limited coverage in each arm at R~20000. The project is now in the final design and early procurement phase, with commissioning at the telescope expected in 2017.

SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey Data Release 12: galaxy target selection and large-scale structure catalogues

“…Next generation spectroscopic experiments, such as eBOSS (Dawson et al 2015), DESI (Levi et al 2013), HETDEX (Hill et al 2008), 4MOST (de Jong et al 2014), WEAVE (Dalton et al 2014) PFS (Takada et al 2014), Euclid (Laureijs et al 2011) and WFIRST (Spergel et al 2015), are expected to make cosmological measurements with precision either comparable or higher by up to an order of magnitude compared to that of BOSS, requiring a thorough understanding and extremely careful treatment of potential systematic effects. Although each of these future experiments have different observing strategies, they will encounter challenges in the process of catalogue creation similar to those of BOSS (e.g.…”

“…Thus the results themselves are not precise and are designed to simply demonstrate the evolution rather than provide a quantitative comparison between experiments. The best fit line shows the growth in the impact of past surveys, following the development of Multi-Object Spectrographs (MOS) on the Anglo-Australian telescope (Lewis et al 1998) and the Sloan telescope (Gunn et al 2006), which continues to the next generation with a new MOS being developed for the Hobby-Eberly telescope (HETDEX; Hill et al 2008), the Mayall telescope (DESI; Levi et al 2013), the VISTA telescope (4MOST; de Jong et al 2014), the William Herschel Telescope (WEAVE; Dalton et al 2014), the Subaru telescope (PFS; Takada et al 2014) and the satellite experiments Euclid (Laureijs et al 2011) and WFIRST (Spergel et al 2015) . For clarity we only plot approximate DESI and Euclid predictions in Fig.…”

Unbiased constraints on ultralight axion mass from dwarf spheroidal galaxies

“…Extending our present analysis (chemodynamical modelling of multiple stellar populations combined with the σ 2 los -fit) to other dwarfs beyond Fornax and Sculptor can be achieved by multi-object spectrographs attached to several-metre telescopes. On a short time scale we have WEAVE (Dalton et al 2014), MOONS (Cirasuolo et al 2012) and 4MOST (de Jong et al 2012). Using these data and our methodology could significantly improve our ability to test models of DM using stellar dynamics.…”

Star Formation in the Local Universe from the CALIFA Sample. II. Activation and Quenching Mechanisms in Bulges, Bars, and Disks

“…In addition, for this particular aim, the CALIFA spectral resolution is at the limit of what is needed to perform such multicomponent kinematical fitting. Future highefficiency IFS facilities working at R > 5000, such as MEGARA (at GTC; Gil de Paz et al 2016) or WEAVE (at WHT; Dalton et al 2014), will help in that regard.…”