We are proposing a 5-year public, wide-field, optical survey using an upgraded 20 square degree QUEST Camera on the ESO Schmidt Telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile - The La Silla Schmidt Southern Survey (LS4). We will use LBNL fully-depleted CCDs to maximize the sensitivity in the optical up to 1 micron. This survey will complement the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) being conducted at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in two ways. First, it will provide a higher cadence than the LSST over several thousand square degrees of sky each night, allowing a more accurate characterization of brighter and faster evolving transients to 21st magnitude. Second, it will open up a new phase-space for discovery when coupled with the LSST by probing the sky between 12-16th magnitude - a region where the Rubin Observatory saturates. In addition, a Target of Opportunity (ToO) program will be able to trigger on Multi-Messenger Astronomy (MMA) events with localization uncertainties up to several hundred sq. deg. in multiple colors very quickly. This project has direct relevance to several cosmology and fundamental physics efforts including: peculiar velocity measurements, and hence fundamental constraints on general relativity, with supernova as standardized candles; gravitational wave standard sirens as probes of the expansion of the Universe and gravity; measurements of the Hubble constant through Type Ia and II-P supernovae; and probes of dark matter through low surface brightness galaxies and intra-cluster light.
The seminar will be broadcasted via web. Room will be available 15 minutes before the talk, when you can click WATCH WEBINAR to attend it or https://zoom.us/j/596761139. System requirements are here.
