The Dark Energy Camera

Flaugher, B.; Diehl, H. T.; Honscheid, K.; Abbott, T. M. C.; Álvarez, O.; Angstadt, R.; Annis, J.; Antonik, M.; Ballester, O.; Beaufore, Lucas; Bernstein, G. M.; Bernstein, R. A.; Bigelow, Bruce C.; Bonati, Marco; Boprie, D.; Brooks, D.; Buckley-Geer, E.; Campa, J.; Cardiel-Sas, Laia; Castander, F. J.; Castilla, Javier; Cease, H.; Ruiz, J. M. Cela; Chappa, S.; Chi, E.; Cooper, Curt; Costa, L. N. da; Dede, Ercan M.; Derylo, G.; DePoy, D. L.; Vicente, J. De; Doel, P.; Drlica-Wagner, A.; Eiting, J.; Elliott, Ann; Emes, J.; Estrada, J.; Neto, A. Fausti; Finley, D. A.; Flores, Rubén Higueras; Frieman, Joshua A.; Gerdes, D. W.; Gladders, M. D.; Gregory, Brooke; Gutiérrez, G.; Hao, Jiangang; Holland, Steven E.; Holm, S.; Huffman, Dave; Jackson, Cheryl; James, D. J.; Jonas, M.; Karcher, A.; Karliner, I.; Kent, Stephen M.; Kessler, R.; Kozlovsky, Mark; Krön, Richard G.; Kubik, D.; Kuêhn, K.; Kuhlmann, S. E.; Kuk, K.; Lahav, O.; Lathrop, A.; Lee, J.; Levi, M. E.; Lewis, P.; Li, T. S.; Mandrichenko, I. V.; Marshall, J. L.; Martínez, G.; Merritt, K. W.; Miquel, R.; Muñoz, Freddy; Neilsen, Eric H.; Nichol, R. C.; Nord, B.; Ogando, R. L. C.; Olsen, J.; Palaio, N.P.; Patton, K.; Peoples, J.; Plazas, A. A.; Rauch, J.; Reil, K.; Rheault, J. P.; Roe, Natalie A.; Rogers, Howard; Roodman, A.; Sánchez, E.; Scarpine, V.; Schindler, R. H.; Schmidt, R.; Schmitt, R.; Schubnell, M.; Schultz, Kenneth R.; Schurter, Patricio; Scott, L. M.; Serrano, S.; Shaw, Terri; Smith, R. C.; Soares-Santos, M.; Stefanik, A.; Stuermer, W.; Suchyta, E.; Sypniewski, Adam; Tarlè, G.; Thaler, J. J.; Tighe, R.; Tran, C.; Tucker, D. L.; Walker, A. R.; Wang, G.; Watson, M. G.; Weaverdyck, Curtis; Wester, W. C.; Woods, Robert J.; Yanny, B.

doi:10.1088/0004-6256/150/5/150

Cited by 890 publications

(586 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…DES is a wide-field optical imaging survey using broad photometric bands (grizY) performed with the Dark Energy Camera (DECam; described in detail in Flaugher et al 2015). The DECam focal plane is comprised of 74 CCDs: 62 2k×4k CCDs dedicated to science imaging and 12 2k×2k CCDs for guiding, focus, and alignment.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Phoenix Stream: A Cold Stream in the Southern Hemisphere

Balbinot¹,

Yanny²,

Li³

et al. 2016

ApJ

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We report the discovery of a stellar stream in the Dark Energy Survey Year 1 (Y1A1) data. The discovery was made through simple color-magnitude filters and visual inspection of the Y1A1 data. We refer to this new object as the Phoenix stream, after its resident constellation. After subtraction of the background stellar population we detect a clear signal of a simple stellar population. By fitting the ridge line of the stream in color-magnitude space, we find that a stellar population with age τ=11.5±0.5 Gyr and [Fe/H]<−1.6, located 17.5±0.9 kpc from the Sun, gives an adequate description of the stream stellar population. The stream is detected over an extension of 8°.1 (2.5 kpc) and has a width of ∼54 pc assuming a Gaussian profile, indicating that a globular cluster (GC) is a probable progenitor. There is no known GC within 5 kpc that is compatible with being the progenitor of the stream, assuming that the stream traces its orbit. We examined overdensities (ODs) along the stream, however, no obvious counterpart-bound stellar system is visible in the coadded images. We also find ODs along the stream that appear to be symmetrically distributed-consistent with the epicyclic OD scenario for the formation of cold streams-as well as a misalignment between the northern and southern part of stream. Despite the close proximity we find no evidence that this stream and the halo cluster NGC 1261 have a common accretion origin linked to the recently found EriPhe OD.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Phoenix Stream: A Cold Stream in the Southern Hemisphere

Balbinot¹,

Yanny²,

Li³

et al. 2016

ApJ

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“…The Dark Energy Survey (DES) is an opticalnear-infrared survey that is imaging 5000 deg 2 of the South Galactic Cap in the grizY bands over 525 nights spanning 5 years. The survey is being carried out using a new ∼3 deg 2 CCD camera (the DECam; see Flaugher et al 2015) mounted on the Blanco 4-m telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in Chile. DES started in 2012 with a testing period November-2013 called DES Science Verification (SV).…”

Section: Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparing Dark Energy Survey andHST–CLASH observations of the galaxy cluster RXC J2248.7−4431: implications for stellar mass versus dark matter

Palmese

Lahav

Banerji

et al. 2016

Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc.

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We derive the stellar mass fraction in the galaxy cluster RXC J2248.7−4431 observed with the Dark Energy Survey (DES) during the Science Verification period. We compare the stellar mass results from DES (five filters) with those from the Hubble Space Telescope Cluster Lensing And Supernova Survey (CLASH; 17 filters). When the cluster spectroscopic redshift is assumed, we show that stellar masses from DES can be estimated within 25 per cent of CLASH values. We compute the stellar mass contribution coming from red and blue galaxies, and study the relation between stellar mass and the underlying dark matter using weak lensing studies with DES and CLASH. An analysis of the radial profiles of the DES total and stellar mass yields a stellar-to-total fraction of f = (6.8 ± 1.7) × 10 −3 within a radius of r 200c 2 Mpc. Our analysis also includes a comparison of photometric redshifts and star/galaxy separation efficiency for both data sets. We conclude that space-based small field imaging can be used to calibrate the galaxy properties in DES for the much wider field of view. The technique developed to derive the stellar mass fraction in galaxy clusters can be applied to the ∼100 000 clusters that will be observed within this survey and yield important information about galaxy evolution.

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“…Over the last two years, we have used the Dark Energy Camera (DECam; Flaugher et al 2015), a 3 deg 2 wide-field imager on the Blanco 4 m telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), to follow up GW sources from the advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (aLIGO; Abbott et al 2009) and Virgo (Acernese et al 2015) detectors (see, e.g., Abbott et al 2016b;Dark Energy Survey Collaboration 2016). In particular, we conducted rapid follow-up observations of the black hole binary merger events GW150914 (Abbott et al 2016c) and GW151226 (Abbott et al 2016a), using DECam (Annis et al 2016;Cowperthwaite et al 2016;Soares-Santos et al 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Electromagnetic Counterpart of the Binary Neutron Star Merger LIGO/Virgo GW170817. I. Discovery of the Optical Counterpart Using the Dark Energy Camera

Soares-Santos¹,

Holz²,

Annis³

et al. 2017

ApJL

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286

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We present the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) discovery of the optical counterpart of the first binary neutron star merger detected through gravitational-wave emission, GW170817. Our observations commenced 10.5 hr post-merger, as soon as the localization region became accessible from Chile. We imaged 70 deg 2 in the i and z bands, covering 93% of the initial integrated localization probability, to a depth necessary to identify likely optical counterparts (e.g., a kilonova). At 11.4 hr post-merger we detected a bright optical transient located , in the luminosity range expected for a kilonova. We identified 1500 potential transient candidates. Applying simple selection criteria aimed at rejecting background events such as supernovae, we find the transient associated with NGC 4993 as the only remaining plausible counterpart, and reject chance coincidence at the 99.5% confidence level. We therefore conclude that the optical counterpart we have identified near NGC 4993 is associated with GW170817. This discovery ushers in the era of multi-messenger astronomy with gravitational waves and demonstrates the power of DECam to identify the optical counterparts of gravitationalwave sources.

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The Dark Energy Camera

Cited by 890 publications

References 67 publications

The Phoenix Stream: A Cold Stream in the Southern Hemisphere

The Phoenix Stream: A Cold Stream in the Southern Hemisphere

Comparing Dark Energy Survey andHST–CLASH observations of the galaxy cluster RXC J2248.7−4431: implications for stellar mass versus dark matter

The Electromagnetic Counterpart of the Binary Neutron Star Merger LIGO/Virgo GW170817. I. Discovery of the Optical Counterpart Using the Dark Energy Camera

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