3:30–5:00 pm ERC 161
Title: The Terahertz Intensity Mapper
Abstract: The Terahertz Intensity Mapper (TIM) is a balloon-borne far-infrared (FIR) imaging spectrometer designed to characterize the cosmic star formation history and unveil the forces driving galaxy assembly over cosmic time. TIM has been optimized for a new observational technique called "line intensity mapping" (LIM), which has the potential to access unexplored and unique cosmological and astrophysical phase space. TIM will map the redshifted 158micron line of ionized carbon ([CII]) over the redshift range 0.5 < z < 1.7 (lookback times of 5-10 Gyr). TIM will spectroscopically detect galaxies, determine the star formation rate history over this time interval through LIM, and measure the stacked [CII] emission from galaxies in its well-studied target field (GOODS-S). Additionally, TIM will detect [OIII]88μm and [OI]63μm in high-redshift strongly lensed galaxies between 2 < z < 7, providing crucial insights into the evolution of FIR atomic transition lines into the epoch of reionization. Combining these measurements will be an important pathfinder for the survey techniques and observables necessary to probe the astrophysics of the first galaxies that re-ionized the universe at z>6. TIM consists of a 2-meter telescope feeding two grating spectrometers that cover 240-420 microns at R~250 across a 1-degree field of view, populated with 7200 kinetic inductance detectors. TIM will serve as an important scientific instrument, accessing wavelengths that cannot easily be studied from the ground, and as a testbed for future FIR space technology. This is crucial technology development for a future flagship FIR mission as well as a pathfinder for using LIM as a viable tool for astrophysics and cosmology. TIM is planning on an Antarctic science flight in the Austral winter of 2026/27. I will provide an overview of TIM, the broader landscape for LIM and the history of cosmic star formation history, and summarize our recent test flight in Ft. Sumner, NM.
Zoom: https://uchicago.zoom.us/j/96426832251?pwd=sWlgab9U46NofRA0VMaC7Y1sLA99Te.1
