Search arXivSearch

arXiv · 0912.0201

LSST Science Book, Version 2.0

LSST Science Collaboration·Paul A. Abell·Julius Allison·Scott F. Anderson·John R. Andrew·J. Roger P. Angel·Lee Armus·David Arnett·S. J. Asztalos·Tim S. Axelrod·Stephen Bailey·D. R. Ballantyne·Justin R. Bankert·Wayne A. Barkhouse·Jeffrey D. Barr·L. Felipe Barrientos·Aaron J. Barth·James G. Bartlett·Andrew C. Becker·Jacek Becla·Timothy C. Beers·Joseph P. Bernstein·Rahul Biswas·Michael R. Blanton·Joshua S. Bloom·John J. Bochanski·Pat Boeshaar·Kirk D. Borne·Marusa Bradac·W. N. Brandt·Carrie R. Bridge·Michael E. Brown·Robert J. Brunner·James S. Bullock·Adam J. Burgasser·James H. Burge·David L. Burke·Phillip A. Cargile·Srinivasan Chandrasekharan·George Chartas·Steven R. Chesley·You-Hua Chu·David Cinabro·Mark W. Claire·Charles F. Claver·Douglas Clowe·A. J. Connolly·Kem H. Cook·Jeff Cooke·Asantha Cooray·Kevin R. Covey·Christopher S. Culliton·Roelof de Jong·Willem H. de Vries·Victor P. Debattista·Francisco Delgado·Ian P. Dell'Antonio·Saurav Dhital·Rosanne Di Stefano·Mark Dickinson·Benjamin Dilday·S. G. Djorgovski·Gregory Dobler·Ciro Donalek·Gregory Dubois-Felsmann·Josef Durech·Ardis Eliasdottir·Michael Eracleous·Laurent Eyer·Emilio E. Falco·Xiaohui Fan·Christopher D. Fassnacht·Harry C. Ferguson·Yanga R. Fernandez·Brian D. Fields·Douglas Finkbeiner·Eduardo E. Figueroa·Derek B. Fox·Harold Francke·James S. Frank·Josh Frieman·Sebastien Fromenteau·Muhammad Furqan·Gaspar Galaz·A. Gal-Yam·Peter Garnavich·Eric Gawiser·John Geary·Perry Gee·Robert R. Gibson·Kirk Gilmore·Emily A. Grace·Richard F. Green·William J. Gressler·Carl J. Grillmair·Salman Habib·J. S. Haggerty·Mario Hamuy·Alan W. Harris·Suzanne L. Hawley

Abstract

A survey that can cover the sky in optical bands over wide fields to faint magnitudes with a fast cadence will enable many of the exciting science opportunities of the next decade. The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will have an effective aperture of 6.7 meters and an imaging camera with field of view of 9.6 deg^2, and will be devoted to a ten-year imaging survey over 20,000 deg^2 south of +15 deg. Each pointing will be imaged 2000 times with fifteen second exposures in six broad bands from 0.35 to 1.1 microns, to a total point-source depth of r~27.5. The LSST Science Book describes the basic parameters of the LSST hardware, software, and observing plans. The book discusses educational and outreach opportunities, then goes on to describe a broad range of science that LSST will revolutionize: mapping the inner and outer Solar System, stellar populations in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies, the structure of the Milky Way disk and halo and other objects in the Local Volume, transient and variable objects both at low and high redshift, and the properties of normal and active galaxies at low and high redshift. It then turns to far-field cosmological topics, exploring properties of supernovae to z~1, strong and weak lensing, the large-scale distribution of galaxies and baryon oscillations, and how these different probes may be combined to constrain cosmological models and the physics of dark energy.

Explore related subjects

Keep this discovery

BibTeXRIS

LSST Science Collaboration, Paul A. Abell, Julius Allison, Scott F. Anderson, John R. Andrew, J. Roger P. Angel, Lee Armus, David Arnett, S. J. Asztalos, Tim S. Axelrod, Stephen Bailey, D. R. Ballantyne, Justin R. Bankert, Wayne A. Barkhouse, Jeffrey D. Barr, L. Felipe Barrientos, Aaron J. Barth, James G. Bartlett, Andrew C. Becker, Jacek Becla, Timothy C. Beers, Joseph P. Bernstein, Rahul Biswas, Michael R. Blanton, Joshua S. Bloom, John J. Bochanski, Pat Boeshaar, Kirk D. Borne, Marusa Bradac, W. N. Brandt, Carrie R. Bridge, Michael E. Brown, Robert J. Brunner, James S. Bullock, Adam J. Burgasser, James H. Burge, David L. Burke, Phillip A. Cargile, Srinivasan Chandrasekharan, George Chartas, Steven R. Chesley, You-Hua Chu, David Cinabro, Mark W. Claire, Charles F. Claver, Douglas Clowe, A. J. Connolly, Kem H. Cook, Jeff Cooke, Asantha Cooray, Kevin R. Covey, Christopher S. Culliton, Roelof de Jong, Willem H. de Vries, Victor P. Debattista, Francisco Delgado, Ian P. Dell'Antonio, Saurav Dhital, Rosanne Di Stefano, Mark Dickinson, Benjamin Dilday, S. G. Djorgovski, Gregory Dobler, Ciro Donalek, Gregory Dubois-Felsmann, Josef Durech, Ardis Eliasdottir, Michael Eracleous, Laurent Eyer, Emilio E. Falco, Xiaohui Fan, Christopher D. Fassnacht, Harry C. Ferguson, Yanga R. Fernandez, Brian D. Fields, Douglas Finkbeiner, Eduardo E. Figueroa, Derek B. Fox, Harold Francke, James S. Frank, Josh Frieman, Sebastien Fromenteau, Muhammad Furqan, Gaspar Galaz, A. Gal-Yam, Peter Garnavich, Eric Gawiser, John Geary, Perry Gee, Robert R. Gibson, Kirk Gilmore, Emily A. Grace, Richard F. Green, William J. Gressler, Carl J. Grillmair, Salman Habib, J. S. Haggerty, Mario Hamuy, Alan W. Harris, Suzanne L. Hawley. 2009-12-01. LSST Science Book, Version 2.0. https://arxiv.org/abs/0912.0201

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

The EDD Radio Astronomy Backend Framework

Modern digital radio astronomy receivers produce increasingly wide-bandwidth, high bit-rate data streams that necessitate the development of flexible, scalable, and maintainable backend processing and recording systems. Historically, such backend instrumentation has been tightly coupled to telescope observing modes, limiting reuse between observatories and science cases. We present the Effelsberg Direct Digitisation (EDD) backend framework, a software-defined architecture for constructing real-time radio astronomy backends on commodity off-the-shelf computing infrastructure. We describe its design, implementation, supported observing modes, and operational deployments. EDD separates a common core framework from plugin-provided observing capabilities. The core provides orchestration, telescope interfaces, pipeline lifecycle management, monitoring, and deployment tooling, while plugins implement processing pipelines for specific observing modes. The framework is designed to support both single-dish and interferometric instruments through site-specific configuration and plugin selection. EDD currently supports spectroscopy and spectropolarimetry, pulsar timing and searching, baseband recording, very long baseline interferometry, correlation, and beamforming. Operational deployments include the Effelsberg 100-m telescope, the SKA-MPI prototype dish, the Thai National Radio Telescope, and the ARGOS interferometric prototype array. By separating common services, observing-mode plugins, and site-specific configuration, it allows backend capabilities to be deployed across heterogeneous telescope environments and provides a community resource for broadband radio astronomy instrumentation.

astro-ph.IM

Bayesian Superiority in On/Off analysis

We present a detailed comparison of Bayesian criteria with three non-informative priors - flat, Jeffreys, and scale-invariant - for testing a signal against an unknown background and compare them with the classical frequentist Li-Ma approach in the On/Off problem. We perform Monte Carlo simulations for various background levels and evaluate the Li-Ma and Bayesian criteria by their Type I error rates. We then simulate a nonzero signal and compare the criteria in terms of Type II error rates. We find that the Bayesian criterion with the Jeffreys prior yields lower Type I and Type II error rates than the Li-Ma criterion. In addition, we show that the Bayesian criteria are more robust than the Li-Ma criterion when the background distribution is overdispersed relative to the Poisson distribution.

astro-ph.IM

An RFSoC-based Backend and Timing System for the Balloon-borne Very Long Baseline Interferometry Experiment

We present the design and performance characterization of the digital backend and precision-timing system for the Balloon-borne Very Long Baseline Interferometry Experiment (BVEX), a pathfinder for high-frequency stratospheric VLBI at 22 GHz. The backend uses one of the four 14-bit analog-to-digital converter inputs on an AMD-Xilinx RFSoC 4x2. Although the converters support sampling rates up to 5 GSPS, the flight configuration digitizes the 2-4 GHz intermediate frequency at 4.096 GSPS. CASPER firmware provides both a high-resolution spectrometer for pointing and receiver verification, and a VLBI acquisition chain with two-bit requantization that records at a rate of about 8.2 Gbps. The timestamped data packets are sent over 100 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) to a 16 TB NVMe array in a storage computer that draws approximately 70-80 W. The timing chain uses a Rakon oven-controlled crystal oscillator as a timing reference while a time-interval counter measures its drift relative to a GPS reference with approximately 60 ps resolution. This is the first deployment of an RFSoC-based VLBI backend and precision-timing system on a stratospheric balloon. Ground tests validated the backend, spectrometer, and timing chain. The August 2025 CSA STRATOS flight ended before reaching the target float altitude because of a balloon failure, and as a result no science observations were obtained. For the planned 2027 reflight, we are developing a conduction-cooled data storage computer with 24 TB of NVMe capacity and a direct data path from the 100 GbE interface to the NVMe array.

astro-ph.IM