Abstract

IRIS (InfraRed Imaging Spectrograph) is a first light near-infrared diffraction limited imager and integral field spectrograph being designed for the future Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). IRIS is optimized to perform astronomical studies across a significant fraction of cosmic time, from our Solar System to distant newly formed galaxies (Barton et al. [1]). We present a selection of the innovative science cases that are unique to IRIS in the era of upcoming space and ground-based telescopes. We focus on integral field spectroscopy of directly imaged exoplanet atmospheres, probing fundamental physics in the Galactic Center, measuring 10^4 to 10^10 Msun supermassive black hole masses, resolved spectroscopy of young star-forming galaxies (1 < z < 5) and first light galaxies (6 < z < 12), and resolved spectroscopy of strong gravitational lensed sources to measure dark matter substructure. For each of these science cases we use the IRIS simulator (Wright et al. [2], Do et al. [3]) to explore IRIS capabilities. To highlight the unique IRIS capabilities, we also update the point and resolved source sensitivities for the integral field spectrograph (IFS) in all five broadband filters (Z, Y, J, H, K) for the finest spatial scale of 0.004" per spaxel. We briefly discuss future development plans for the data reduction pipeline and quicklook software for the IRIS instrument suite.

Highlights

  • The coming decade promises a revolution in astronomical discoveries from new instruments on upcoming telescopes like the Giant Segmented Mirror Telescopes (GSMTs), James Webb Space Telescope (JWST4), and Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST5)

  • IRIS (InfraRed Imaging Spectrograph) is one such revolutionary instrument being designed to sample the diffraction limit obtained from the multi-conjugate adaptive optics system, NFIRAOS6, on the future Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT7)

  • We have investigated a range of science cases and used the IRIS data simulator[2,3] to facilitate the conceptual design of the instrument

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Summary

INTRODUCTION

The coming decade promises a revolution in astronomical discoveries from new instruments on upcoming telescopes like the Giant Segmented Mirror Telescopes (GSMTs), James Webb Space Telescope (JWST4), and Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST5). IRIS will house a dedicated near-infrared (0.845 – 2.4 μm) imager and integral field spectrograph (IFS), as described by Moore et al [8], this conference. We have investigated a range of science cases and used the IRIS data simulator[2,3] to facilitate the conceptual design of the instrument These cases include Solar System objects, exoplanets, microlensing, star-forming regions, the Galactic Center, nearby galaxies and supermassive black holes, strong gravitational lensing, high redshift galaxies and quasars, and first-light galaxies (see Barton et al [1]). We present the following sample of science cases that are exclusive to the capabilities to IRIS and NFIRAOS: directly-imaged exoplanet atmospheres, the Galactic Center, supermassive black holes, high-redshift star-forming galaxies, first light galaxies, and strong gravitational lensed systems

DIFFRACTION LIMITED IFS
Moderate resolution spectroscopy of directly imaged exoplanets
Black hole mass measurements: probing MBH-σ and MBH-L
10 Intermediate -mass black holes
DATA REDUCTION AND QUICKLOOK
SUMMARY

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