Francisco Javier Castander Serentill Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (IEEC) Institut de Ciències de l’Espai (ICE/CSIC) Barcelona Exploiting the Mid-InfraRed to understand galaxies Extragalactic research from Dome C

How many photons: Flux: colours, SED, luminosity How photons are distributed spatially: Morphology: size, shape How photons are distributed in λ: SED: redshift, stellar population & gas: Z, t, SFR, IMF How photons are distributed in λ: kinematics What can we measure about galaxies?

Understanding galaxies Properties distribution functions: mass, luminosity, morphology, kinematics, colour, metallicity Correlations Environment Evolution

Surveys to unveil properties of galaxies Galaxy properties are diverse, complex and depend on many parameters => Need large number to characterize variance & evolution => Need large volumes at different z Large Surveys required

Surveys to characterize Large Scale Structure Matter difficult to trace. Galaxies (and clusters) best tracers but biased Typical distances few Mpc & cosmic variance => Need large volumes Large Surveys required

Surveys to characterize Cosmology Dark Matter and Dark Energy Dependency: expansion rate H(z) & growth rate of perturbations D(z) => Need large volumes Probes: Clustering (BAO), Weak Lensing, Cluster abundances, SNIa Large Surveys required

Extragalactic Surveys A compromise between area and depth taking into account time and facilities constraints and science goals

Low redshift SDSS 2dFGRS 2MASS, DENIS Where do we stand?

Blanton et al 2003

Brinchmann et al 04

Intermediate redshift VVDS DEEP2 COMBO-17, ALHAMBRA CFHTLS Where do we stand?

High redshift HST Spitzer (Chandra, XXM-Newton, GALEX) Where do we stand? Deep Surveys

CFHT-LS VST/VISTA/UKIDSS DES/PanStarrs What is coming next? WFMOS KMOS/EMIR LST ELT JDEM, JWST, Herschel, WISE,….

VISTA Dark Energy Survey Baryon Acoustic Oscillations

Can Dome C play a role in this game? What is needed next or what is missing currently? Spectroscopy: highly multiplexing? Imaging?

Area-depth-wavelength coverage parameter space

What would we learn if we try to fill the gap? Modeling & simulations Spitzer experience

Davoodi et al 2006

Mid-IR Band information L: stellar mass N: PAH Q: dust

Is it feasible? For a 3-m type telescope in the L band it could be possible to reach galaxies to z~0.5 M band, to z~0.1 N and Q only local strong emitters

Other possible advantages of Dome C Seeing: (Busarella’s talk yesterday) Synergies with SZ surveys Photo-z

Possibilities for extragalactic studies at Dome C Hard to compete with other observatories in wide field surveys Low thermal background: Limited gain in mid-IR Seeing: possible gains Time monitoring: strong lensed QSOs Conclusions