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arXiv · 1806.00554

The Science Advantage of a Redder Filter for WFIRST

John Stauffer·George Helou·Robert A. Benjamin·Massimo Marengo·J. Davy Kirkpatrick·Peter Capak·Mansi Kasliwal·James M. Bauer·Dante Minniti·John Bally·Nicolas Lodieu·Brendan Bowler·ZengHua Zhang·Sean J. Carey·Stefanie Milam·Bryan Holler
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Abstract

WFIRST will be capable of providing Hubble-quality imaging performance over several thousand square degrees of the sky. The wide-area, high spatial resolution survey data from WFIRST will be unsurpassed for many decades into the future. With the current baseline design, the WFIRST filter complement will extend from the bluest wavelength allowed by the optical design to a reddest filter (F184W) that has a red cutoff at 2.0 microns. In this white paper, we outline some of the science advantages for adding a Ks filter with a 2.15 micron central wavelength in order to extend the wavelength coverage for WFIRST as far to the red as the possible given the thermal performance of the observatory and the sensitivity of the detectors.

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John Stauffer, George Helou, Robert A. Benjamin, Massimo Marengo, J. Davy Kirkpatrick, Peter Capak, Mansi Kasliwal, James M. Bauer, Dante Minniti, John Bally, Nicolas Lodieu, Brendan Bowler, ZengHua Zhang, Sean J. Carey, Stefanie Milam, Bryan Holler. 2018-06-01. The Science Advantage of a Redder Filter for WFIRST. https://arxiv.org/abs/1806.00554

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