Professor Pedro Ferreira

Abstract:

This paper presents the specification, design, and development of the Visible Camera (VIS) on the European Space Agency’s Euclid mission. VIS is a large optical-band imager with a field of view of 0.54 deg2 sampled at 000 . 1 with an array of 609 Megapixels and a spatial resolution of 000 . 18. It will be used to survey approximately 14 000 deg2 of extragalactic sky to measure the distortion of galaxies in the redshift range z = 0.1–1.5 resulting from weak gravitational lensing, one of the two principal cosmology probes leveraged by Euclid. With photometric redshifts, the distribution of dark matter can be mapped in three dimensions, and the extent to which this has changed with look-back time can be used to constrain the nature of dark energy and theories of gravity. The entire VIS focal plane will be transmitted to provide the largest images of the Universe from space to date, specified to reach mAB ≥ 24.5 with a signal-to-noise ratio S/N ≥ 10 in a single broad IE ≃ (r + i + z) band over a six-year survey. The particularly challenging aspects of the instrument are the control and calibration of observational biases, which lead to stringent performance requirements and calibration regimes. With its combination of spatial resolution, calibration knowledge, depth, and area covering most of the extra-Galactic sky, VIS will also provide a legacy data set for many other fields. This paper discusses the rationale behind the conception of VIS and describes the instrument design and development, before reporting the prelaunch performance derived from ground calibrations and brief results from the in-orbit commissioning. VIS should reach fainter than mAB = 25 with S/N ≥ 10 for galaxies with a full width at half maximum of 000 . 3 in a 100 . 3 diameter aperture over the Wide Survey, and mAB ≥ 26.4 for a Deep Survey that will cover more than 50 deg2. The paper also describes how the instrument works with the Euclid telescope and survey, and with the science data processing, to extract the cosmological information.

Abstract:

The Near-Infrared Spectrometer and Photometer (NISP) on board the Euclid satellite provides multiband photometry and R â ³ 450 slitless grism spectroscopy in the 950- 2020 nm wavelength range. In this reference article, we illuminate the background of NISP' s functional and calibration requirements, describe the instrument' s integral components, and provide all its key properties. We also sketch the processes needed to understand how NISP operates and is calibrated as well as its technical potentials and limitations. Links to articles providing more details and the technical background are included. The NISP' s 16 HAWAII-2RG (H2RG) detectors with a plate scale of 03.3 pixel-1 deliver a field of view of 0.57 deg2. In photometric mode, NISP reaches a limiting magnitude of ~24.5 AB mag in three photometric exposures of about 100 s in exposure time for point sources and with a S/N of five. For spectroscopy, NISP' s pointsource sensitivity is a signal-to-noise ratio = 3.5 detection of an emission line with flux 2 10-16 erg s-1 cm-2 integrated over two resolution elements of 13.4 in 3-560 s grism exposures at 1.6 μm (redshifted Hα). Our calibration includes on-ground and in-flight characterisation and monitoring of the pixel-based detector baseline, dark current, non-linearity, and sensitivity to guarantee a relative photometric accuracy better than 1.5% and a relative spectrophotometry better than 0.7%. The wavelength calibration must be accurate to 5 or better. The NISP is the state-of-the-art instrument in the near-infrared for all science beyond small areas available from HST and JWST - and it represents an enormous advance from any existing instrumentation due to its combination of field size and high throughput of telescope and instrument. During Euclid' s six-year survey covering 14 000 deg2 of extragalactic sky, NISP will be the backbone in determining distances of more than a billion galaxies. Its near-infrared data will become a rich reference imaging and spectroscopy data set for the coming decades.

Abstract:

We present the Flagship galaxy mock, a simulated catalogue of billions of galaxies designed to support the scientific exploitation of the Euclid mission. Euclid is a medium-class mission of the European Space Agency optimised to determine the properties of dark matter and dark energy on the largest scales of the Universe. It probes structure formation over more than 10 billion years primarily from the combination of weak gravitational lensing and galaxy clustering data. The breadth of Euclid’s data will also foster a wide variety of scientific analyses. The Flagship simulation was developed to provide a realistic approximation to the galaxies that will be observed by Euclid and used in its scientific exploitation. We ran a state-of-the-art N-body simulation with four trillion particles, producing a lightcone on the fly. From the dark matter particles, we produced a catalogue of 16 billion haloes in one octant of the sky in the lightcone up to redshift z = 3. We then populated these haloes with mock galaxies using a halo occupation distribution and abundance-matching approach, calibrating the free parameters of the galaxy mock against observed correlations and other basic galaxy properties. Modelled galaxy properties include luminosity and flux in several bands, redshifts, positions and velocities, spectral energy distributions, shapes and sizes, stellar masses, star formation rates, metallicities, emission line fluxes, and lensing properties. We selected a final sample of 3.4 billion galaxies with a magnitude cut of HE < 26, where we are complete. We have performed a comprehensive set of validation tests to check the similarity to observational data and theoretical models. In particular, our catalogue is able to closely reproduce the main characteristics of the weak lensing and galaxy clustering samples to be used in the mission main cosmological analysis. Moreover, given its depth and completeness, this new galaxy mock also provides the community with a powerful tool for developing a wide range of scientific analyses beyond the Euclid mission.

Abstract:

The near-infrared calibration unit (NI-CU) on board Euclid’s Near-Infrared Spectrometer and Photometer (NISP) is the first astronomical calibration lamp based on light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to be operated in space. Euclid is a mission in ESA’s Cosmic Vision 2015–2025 framework to explore the dark universe and provide a next-level characterisation of the nature of gravitation, dark matter, and dark energy. Calibrating photometric and spectrometric measurements of galaxies to better than 1.5% accuracy in a survey homogeneously mapping ∼14 000 deg2 of extragalactic sky requires a very detailed characterisation of near-infrared (NIR) detector properties as well as constant monitoring of them in flight. To cover two of the main contributions – relative pixel-to-pixel sensitivity and non-linearity characteristics – and to support other calibration activities, NI-CU was designed to provide spatially approximately homogeneous (<12% variations) and temporally stable illumination (0.1–0.2% over 1200 s) over the NISP detector plane with minimal power consumption and energy dissipation. NI-CU covers the spectral range ∼[900,1900] nm – at cryo-operating temperature – at five fixed independent wavelengths to capture wavelength-dependent behaviour of the detectors, with fluence over a dynamic range of ≳100 from ∼15 ph s−1 pixel−1 to >1500 ph s−1 pixel−1. For this functionality, NI-CU is based on LEDs. We describe the rationale behind the decision and design process, the challenges in sourcing the right LEDs, and the qualification process and lessons learned. We also provide a description of the completed NI-CU, its capabilities, and performance as well as its limits. NI-CU has been integrated into NISP and the Euclid satellite, and since Euclid’s launch in July 2023, it has started supporting survey operations.