The Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA Survey. I. Science Goals, Survey Design, and Strategy
Riccardo Giovanelli
(1)
,
Martha P. Haynes
(1)
,
Brian R. Kent
(1)
,
Philip Perillat
(2)
,
Amélie Saintonge
(1)
,
N. Brosch
(3)
,
Barbara Catinella
(2)
,
G. Lyle Hoffman
(4)
,
Sabrina Stierwalt
(1)
,
Kristine Spekkens
(1)
,
Mikael S. Lerner
(2)
,
Karen L. Masters
(1)
,
Emmanuel Momjian
(2)
,
Jessica L. Rosenberg
(5)
,
Christopher M. Springob
(1)
,
Alessandro Boselli
(6)
,
Vassilis Charmandaris
(7)
,
Jeremy K. Darling
(8)
,
Jonathan Davies
(9)
,
Diego Garcia Lambas
(10)
,
Giuseppe Gavazzi
(11)
,
Carlo Giovanardi
(12)
,
Eduardo Hardy
(13)
,
Leslie K. Hunt
(14)
,
Angela Iovino
(15)
,
Igor D. Karachentsev
(16)
,
Valentina E. Karachentseva
(17)
,
Rebecca A. Koopmann
(18)
,
Christian Marinoni
(15)
,
Robert F. Minchin
(9)
,
Erik Muller
(19)
,
Mary Putman
(20)
,
Carmen Pantoja
(21)
,
John J. Salzer
(22)
,
Marco Scodeggio
(23)
,
Evan Skillman
(24)
,
José M. Solanes
(25)
,
Carlos Valotto
(10)
,
Willem van Driel
(26, 27)
,
Liese van Zee
(28)
1
Center for Radiophysics and Space Research and National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center, Cornell University
2 NAIC - National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center / Arecibo Observatory, HC3 Box 53995, Arecibo
3 TAU - Tel Aviv University
4 Hugel Science Centre, Lafayette College, Easton
5 CfA - Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
6 LAM - Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille
7 Crete Center for Theoretical Physics, Department of Physics
8 Carnegie Observatories
9 Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Wales
10 Universidad Nacional de Córdoba [Argentina]
11 IASF-Milano - Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica
12 OAA - INAF - Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri
13 NRAO - National Radio Astronomy Observatory
14 Istituto di Radioastronomia, Firenze
15 OAB - INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera
16 Special Astrophysical Observatory, Russian Academy of Sciences
17 Department of Astronomy and Space Science, Kiev University
18 Department of Physics and Astronomy, Union College
19 ATNF - Australian Telescope National Facility
20 Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan
21 Physics Department, University of Puerto Rico
22 Department of Astronomy, Wesleyan University
23 Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Milano
24 Department of Astronomy, University of Minnesota
25 DAM - Departament d'Astronomia i Meteorologia [Barcelona]
26 GEPI - Galaxies, Etoiles, Physique, Instrumentation
27 Physique des Galaxies et Cosmologie
28 Astronomy Department, Indiana University
2 NAIC - National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center / Arecibo Observatory, HC3 Box 53995, Arecibo
3 TAU - Tel Aviv University
4 Hugel Science Centre, Lafayette College, Easton
5 CfA - Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
6 LAM - Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille
7 Crete Center for Theoretical Physics, Department of Physics
8 Carnegie Observatories
9 Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Wales
10 Universidad Nacional de Córdoba [Argentina]
11 IASF-Milano - Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica
12 OAA - INAF - Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri
13 NRAO - National Radio Astronomy Observatory
14 Istituto di Radioastronomia, Firenze
15 OAB - INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera
16 Special Astrophysical Observatory, Russian Academy of Sciences
17 Department of Astronomy and Space Science, Kiev University
18 Department of Physics and Astronomy, Union College
19 ATNF - Australian Telescope National Facility
20 Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan
21 Physics Department, University of Puerto Rico
22 Department of Astronomy, Wesleyan University
23 Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Milano
24 Department of Astronomy, University of Minnesota
25 DAM - Departament d'Astronomia i Meteorologia [Barcelona]
26 GEPI - Galaxies, Etoiles, Physique, Instrumentation
27 Physique des Galaxies et Cosmologie
28 Astronomy Department, Indiana University
Résumé
The recently initiated Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA (ALFALFA) survey aims to map ~7000 deg2 of the high Galactic latitude sky visible from Arecibo, providing a H I line spectral database covering the redshift range between -1600 and 18,000 km s-1 with ~5 km s-1 resolution. Exploiting Arecibo's large collecting area and small beam size, ALFALFA is specifically designed to probe the faint end of the H I mass function in the local universe and will provide a census of H I in the surveyed sky area to faint flux limits, making it especially useful in synergy with wide-area surveys conducted at other wavelengths. ALFALFA will also provide the basis for studies of the dynamics of galaxies within the Local Supercluster and nearby superclusters, allow measurement of the H I diameter function, and enable a first wide-area blind search for local H I tidal features, H I absorbers at z