The Simons Observatory: science goals and forecasts for the enhanced Large Aperture Telescope

Abstract We describe updated scientific goals for the wide-field, millimeter-wave survey that will be produced by the Simons Observatory (SO). Significant upgrades to the 6-meter SO Large Aperture Telescope (LAT) are expected to be complete by 2028, and will include a doubled mapping speed with 30,000 new detectors and an automated data reduction pipeline. In addition, a new photovoltaic array will supply most of the observatory's power. The LAT survey will cover about 60% of the sky at a regular observing cadence, with five times the angular resolution and ten times the map depth of the Planck satellite. The science goals are to: (1) determine the physical conditions in the early universe and constrain the existence of new light particles; (2) measure the integrated distribution of mass, electron pressure, and electron momentum in the late-time universe, and, in combination with optical surveys, determine the neutrino mass and the effects of dark energy via tomographic measurements of the growth of structure at redshifts z ≲ 3; (3) measure the distribution of electron density and pressure around galaxy groups and clusters, and calibrate the effects of energy input from galaxy formation on the surrounding environment; (4) produce a sample of more than 30,000 galaxy clusters, and more than 100,000 extragalactic millimeter sources, including regularly sampled AGN light-curves, to study these sources and their emission physics; (5) measure the polarized emission from magnetically aligned dust grains in our Galaxy, to study the properties of dust and the role of magnetic fields in star formation; (6) constrain asteroid regoliths, search for Trans-Neptunian Objects, and either detect or eliminate large portions of the phase space in the search for Planet 9; and (7) provide a powerful new window into the transient universe on time scales of minutes to years, concurrent with observations from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory of overlapping sky.

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Publication Details

Journal
Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Published
2025-08-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2025/08/034
Citations
43
Primary Topic
Radio Astronomy Observations and Technology
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
49.66
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article

The Simons Observatory: science goals and forecasts for the enhanced Large Aperture Telescope

Jacob Spisak, Y. Sakurai, Sam Gordon, Simon Biquard et al.
43 citations
Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Radio Astronomy Observations and Technology
49.66
article

The Simons Observatory: science goals and forecasts for the enhanced Large Aperture Telescope

Jacob Spisak, Y. Sakurai, Sam Gordon, Simon Biquard, Jon E. Gudmundsson, Naomi Robertson, P. Daniel Meerburg, Yume Nishinomiya, Bradley R. Johnson, Jonathan Sievers, Maya Mallaby-Kay, Lauren M. Saunders, M. Viña, Sigurd Næss, Renée Hložek, Kasey Wagoner, Boris Bolliet, Ian Veenendaal, P. Mauskopf, Susan E. Clark, Anna M. Kofman, Joseph Cleary, Edward Sang, Adrian K. Sinclair, C. Baccigalupi, Moritz Münchmeyer, A. Romero, Kenda Knowles, Joshiwa van Marrewijk, Nicholas Galitzki, Zeeshan Ahmed, E. Karpel, Aleksandra Kusiak, A. Challinor, Heather McCarrick, O. Tajima, Bryce Bixler, Meir Shimon, Julia Robe, C. L. Reichardt, M. Edenton, G. Hinshaw, Simone Aiola, M. McCulloch, Yoel Rephaeli, George M. Fuller, Jens Chluba, Hy Trac, Victoria Calafut, Kathleen Harrington, M. Silva-Feaver, P. A. R. Ade, Michael D. Brown, K. D. Irwin, P. Shellard, Jason S.-Y. Leung, Abhishek Maniyar, K. Cheung, Utkarsh Giri, Raphaël Kou, Tammy J. Lucas, Carlos Hervías-Caimapo, Amber Hornsby, Shreya Sutariya, Jordan E. Shroyer, R. Reeves, A. O. Bazarko, Bradley Dober, Rita Sonka, Carlo Contaldi, Kavilan Moodley, G. H. Sanders, Bhuvnesh Jain, Shannon M. Duff, Jo Dunkley, Jason E. Austermann, Tetsuya Terasaki, Cody J. Duell, Dominik A. Riechers, Josh Borrow, V. Gilles, A. Orlando, Emmanuel Schaan, Remington G. Gerras, Toshiya Namikawa, Eve J. Lee, Kyohei Yamada, L. Pagano, Ben Keller, Hamdi Mani, Hidde T. Jense, E. Pierpaoli, Michael D. Niemack, Zachary Atkins, Salima Bhimani, Erik Rosenberg, Marcel Schmittfull, Wuhyun Sohn, Rolando Dünner, E. Barry Moser, Tristan Pinsonneault-Marotte, Daniel B. Thomas, B. Schmitt, Steven Boada, Raphael Flauger, D. Poletti, M. Lattanzi, A. Carones, Jonathan Hoh, Mark Mirmelstein, Armando Manduca, Alexandre Adler, Joseph Seibert, Katherine Freese, Noah Sailer, Alex Krolewski, J. Begin, Masaaki Murata, J. J. McMahon, Vera Gluscevic, G. N. Taylor, Andrina Nicola, Brian J. Koopman, James A. Beall, Cong Yu, Patricio A. Gallardo, Jason W. Moore, Megan Gralla, M. A. Álvarez, Nicholas F. Cothard, Timothy D. Morton, Rachel Bean, C. Tucker, Brandon S. Hensley, Xue Mei Song, Kristen M. Surrao, Andrew C. Thomas, Matt Hilton, Paul La Plante, Gerrit S. Farren, A. Foster, David Nguyen, Kaiwen Zheng, Shirley Ho, N. Krachmalnicoff, Francisco Maldonado, Richard A. Battye, John Orlowski-Scherer, Tran Tsan, P. Dow, D. Dutcher, T. Matsumura, M. Peel, Lyman A. Page, José T. Gálvez Ghersi, M. Gerbino, Peter Hargrave, Samantha Walker, Liam Walters, John P. Hughes, Karen Perez Sarmiento, Zhilei Xu, O. Jeong, Valentina Fanfani, Ajay Gill, N. Gupta, Giuseppe Puglisi, A. Lee, Selim C. Hotinli, Mathew S. Madhavacheril, George Stein, Frank J. Qu, Adriaan J. Duivenvoorden, D. S. Y. Mak, Kana Sakaguri, Antón Baleato Lizancos, Suzanne T. Staggs, Anna Middleton, Íñigo Zubeldía, David Alonso, Thibaut Louis, Neelima Sehgal, Matthew Hasselfield, N. Goeckner-Wald, Eric J. Baxter, Émilie Storer, Phumlani Phakathi, Gabriele Coppi, M. Zannoni, Samuel Day-Weiss, Alexander van Engelen, D. L. Clements, Monir Morshed, Lance Corbett, Arthur Kosowsky, Rahul Datta, H. Nishino, Bryce Chiang, M. C. Chu, Joel N. Ullom, T. L. Alford, Erin Healy, T. de Haan, Shabbir Shaikh, Ningfeng Zhu, N. MacCrann, Y. Chinone, K. M. Huffenberger, M. Hasegawa, M. Remazeilles, Philip A. Clarke, Brian Keating, Mayuri Sathyanarayana Rao, F. Bianchini, Michael Vissers, Kam Arnold, Thomas L. R. Brien, L. Di Mascolo, Jeffrey Iuliano, Carlos Sierra, James Aguirre, Cristobál Sifón, Irene Abril-Cabezas, Erminia Calabrese, S. Giardiello, Aamir Ali, S. Nerval, F. Bianchini, Y. Seino, A. Takeuchi, John A. B. Mates, Anna Y. Q. Ho, J. Frisch, Sharon Sadeh, Joel Williams, Eva Hornecker, S. Adachi, William R. Coulton, Tanay Bhandarkar, Jacob Lashner, Zachary B. Huber, F. Nati, Daisuke Kaneko, Mathew Robertson, X. Garrido, S. P. Sikhosana, B. Partridge, S. Azzoni, Yilun Guan, Masayuki Nashimoto, S. Takakura, Tony Mroczkowski, Shivam Pandey, Saianeesh K. Haridas, Joel Meyers, A. Kusaka, J. R. Gao, Jeff Klein, Adam D. Hincks, Baptiste Jost, Eric Gawiser, Afshin Beheshti, Gabriela A. Marques, G. Pisano, J. Clancy, Kevin T. Crowley, Ricardo Bustos, J. Wong, Antony Lewis, Mark J. Devlin, Darcy Barron, Benjamin Beringue, D. Beck, Michele Johnson, Margaret Ikape, Nianyi Chen, Kenta Kiuchi, M. Limon, M. Ludlam, Nicholas Battaglia, L. Vacher, N. Krachmalnicoff, C. Doux, Felipe Rojas, S. Doyle, J. Colin Hill, Christopher Groppi, Edward J. Wollack, Amy Y. He, Giulio Fabbian, Prakamya Agrawal, Uroš Seljak, Yasuko Kasai, H. S. Cho, Lorenzo Scalcinati, Maria Salatino, Jack Lonergan, Fiona McCarthy, Samuel M. Rowe, Alex Laguë, Aashrita Mangu, K. Smith, Keir K. Rogers, Zhiqi Huang, Y. Li, Benjamin Westbrook, Adrien La Posta, D. Hoang, Harrison Winch, David N. Spergel, Johannes Hubmayr, Thomas P. Satterthwaite, Raagini Patki, Claire S. Lessler, Christopher Braithwaite, Lin Liu, Yanan Wang, Jia Liu, Daniel Green, K. Ganga, Sai Kit Choi, Anirban Roy, Haiying Cai, Michael J. Link, J. Suzuki, A.I. Lonappan, Daisuke SASAKI, Sean Bryan, Robert Thornton, Cristian Vargas, Kevin Wolz, J. C. Groh, Junna Sugiyama, Paul Williams, P. S. Barry, N. Katayama, Emilie Hertig, S. Ferraro, S. Gratton, S. Henderson, Blake D. Sherwin, J. Borrill, D. Boettger, M. Hazumi, Joshua Kim, Jason R. Stevens, Peter Ashton, Marius Lungu, Rui An, I. Harrison, Laura Newburgh, C. Vergès, L. Piccirillo, A. Zonca, Amanda MacInnis, R. Puddu, Sara M. Simon, R. Stompor, A. Suzuki, T. Sakuma, C. Raum, Leila R. Vale, Grant Teply, Kevin D. Crowley, P. Mauskopf, Andrew H. Jaffe, Sarah Marie Bruno, F. Perrotta, R. Keskitalo, T. Kisner, J. Fergusson, J. Van Lanen, Y. Mehta, Josquin Errard, Joseph E. Golec, J. Richard Bond, A. Rotti, M. Jones, Kevin T. Crowley, Boxiang Yu, Gene C. Hilton, M. A. Lyons, R. Sudiwala, A. Cukierman, A. Miller, M. Higuchi, P. Chanial, M. J. Randall, S. Hagstotz, J. Carron, K. Dachlythra, V. Haynes, David Kramer, J. G. Bartlett, Aaron D. Johnson, Courtney Hill, Elizabeth J. Shaw, A. Papageorgiou, S. Beckman, S. Dicker, Edward Young, M. Negrello, A. May, J. Leech, P. Natoli, P. Daniel Meerburg, M. Abitbol, Eve M. Vavagiakis, Shuay-Pwu Patty Ho, Claudio Ranucci, Yu Liu, Zhiyuan Li, E. Gleave, I. Paraskevakos, I. Tansieri, Van Winkle
article en
43 citations

Abstract

Abstract We describe updated scientific goals for the wide-field, millimeter-wave survey that will be produced by the Simons Observatory (SO). Significant upgrades to the 6-meter SO Large Aperture Telescope (LAT) are expected to be complete by 2028, and will include a doubled mapping speed with 30,000 new detectors and an automated data reduction pipeline. In addition, a new photovoltaic array will supply most of the observatory's power. The LAT survey will cover about 60% of the sky at a regular observing cadence, with five times the angular resolution and ten times the map depth of the Planck satellite. The science goals are to: (1) determine the physical conditions in the early universe and constrain the existence of new light particles; (2) measure the integrated distribution of mass, electron pressure, and electron momentum in the late-time universe, and, in combination with optical surveys, determine the neutrino mass and the effects of dark energy via tomographic measurements of the growth of structure at redshifts z ≲ 3; (3) measure the distribution of electron density and pressure around galaxy groups and clusters, and calibrate the effects of energy input from galaxy formation on the surrounding environment; (4) produce a sample of more than 30,000 galaxy clusters, and more than 100,000 extragalactic millimeter sources, including regularly sampled AGN light-curves, to study these sources and their emission physics; (5) measure the polarized emission from magnetically aligned dust grains in our Galaxy, to study the properties of dust and the role of magnetic fields in star formation; (6) constrain asteroid regoliths, search for Trans-Neptunian Objects, and either detect or eliminate large portions of the phase space in the search for Planet 9; and (7) provide a powerful new window into the transient universe on time scales of minutes to years, concurrent with observations from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory of overlapping sky.

Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle PhysicsVol. 2025(08)
University of Oxford (GB), Campbell Collaboration (NO)
Openalex Percentile: Top 0%
Radio Astronomy Observations and Technology
49.66
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