The Simons Observatory: Science Goals and Forecasts for the Enhanced Large Aperture Telescope
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 Planck. 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 $z < 3$; (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 Rubin of overlapping sky.
Publication Details
- Journal
- OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information)
- Published
- 2025-01-01
- Primary Topic
- Diverse Scientific and Economic Studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- U.S. Department of Energy
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
- Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
- California Institute of Technology
- UK Research and Innovation
- European Commission
- National Research Foundation
- University of Toronto
- China Scholarship Council
- Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo
- Office of Science
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- Science and Technology Facilities Council
- High Energy Physics
- Nuclear Physics
- Fermilab
- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory