Kavli Affiliate: Erik Shirokoff
| First 5 Authors: Joaquin Vieira, James Aguirre, C. Matt Bradford, Jeffrey Filippini, Christopher Groppi
| Summary:
Understanding the formation and evolution of galaxies over cosmic time is one
of the foremost goals of astrophysics and cosmology today. The cosmic star
formation rate has undergone a dramatic evolution over the course of the last
14 billion years, and dust obscured star forming galaxies (DSFGs) are a crucial
component of this evolution. A variety of important, bright, and unextincted
diagnostic lines are present in the far-infrared (FIR) which can provide
crucial insight into the physical conditions of galaxy evolution, including the
instantaneous star formation rate, the effect of AGN feedback on star
formation, the mass function of the stars, metallicities, and the spectrum of
their ionizing radiation. FIR spectroscopy is technically difficult but
scientifically crucial. Stratospheric balloons offer a platform which can
outperform current instrument sensitivities and are the only way to provide
large-area, wide bandwidth spatial/spectral mapping at FIR wavelengths. NASA
recently selected TIM, the Terahertz Intensity Mapper, with the goal of
demonstrating the key technical milestones necessary for FIR spectroscopy. The
TIM instrument consists of an integral-field spectrometer from 240-420 microns
with 3600 kinetic-inductance detectors (KIDs) coupled to a 2-meter
low-emissivity carbon fiber telescope. In this paper, we will summarize plans
for the TIM experiment’s development, test and deployment for a planned flight
from Antarctica.
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