The project is made possible by the development in Cambridge of CIRSI a panoramic wide field IR camera. The Cambridge Infra Red Survey Instrument(CIRSI) is based on a moisaic of 4 Rockwell 1024x1024 HyCdTe arrays and is the largest near IR camera in existence. In collaboration with the staff of Carnegie Observatoraties, CIRSI is being used to carry out a large wide field IR survey in the J, H and K wavebands. This data is being combined with optical UBVRIZ CCD data obtained at CTIO, Palomar and the WHT.

The survey is designed to detect early type galaxies 1 magnitude fainter than L* out to redshifts of 2. The near IR magnitude limits(5sigma) are:

• K_s = 21.1, J = 22.6

• 1 square degree

• U, B, V, R, I, Z

The K magnitude limitand the square degree area of the survey were chosen to allow the detection of $\sim 3000$ evolved galaxies in the range 1 < z < 2 (Cowie et al 1994, Elston et al 1997) and obtain a (5sigma) measurement of their correlation function on Mpc scales.

Survey Goals

Specific goals include:

• to use photometric redshift techniques to identify and classify galaxies at z > 1
• measuring the space density, luminosity function, and energy distributions of z>1 galaxies of various classes,
• measuring the evolution of clustering via the growth of the two-point correlation function,
• measuring the impact of reddening on galaxy spectral energy distributions and the apparent rate of star formation,
• comparison with theoretical models and semi-analytic simulations (which incorporate the observational selection effects of the survey) to obtain bounds on cosmological constants such as Lambda, Omega, and H0} and the power-spectrum of fluctuations.
• to measure the spatial correlation function of red galaxies in two distinct redshift bins between 1 < z < 2 and compare these with measurements at lower redshifts.
• to determine the luminosity function of old red galaxies at z ~1.5.
• to assemble a sample of several hundred Extremely Red Objects and derive their spectral energy and magnitude distributions.
• to dentify several hundred microJy radio sources and derive their optical and near-IR luminosity functions, spatial clustering and evolution.
• defining a large sample of candidate high redshift near-IR selected galaxies for follow-up spectroscopy with the new Gemini 8m and Magellan 6.5m telescopes, and
• to define large samples of candidate high redshift near-IR selected galaxies for follow-up spectroscopy with the Gemini 8m and the two Magellan 6.5m telescopes.

Observing Plan

Wavebands and limiting magnitudes

 band                           Nominal limiting mag
                           5sigma is 1.5 diameter aperture
  
  U   from WHT                        [24.5]
  B   from WHT                        [25.5]
  V   from CTIO BTC                    26.5
  R   from CTIO BTC                    26.0
  I   from CTIO BTC                    25.0
  z   from CTIO BTC                    24.0
  J   CIRSI on DuPont                  22.9
  H   CIRSI on DuPont                 [21.7]
  K   CIRSI on DuPont                  21.2

Priority bands are VRIzJK 
  

Survey Fields

                              J2000.0
 NOAO Deep              02 10 00.0  -04 30 00    Primary survey region
 Abell 370              02 40 00.0  +01 30 00 
 AXAF Deep Survey       03 32 22.0  -27 48 00    Primary survey region
 NTT Deep Field         12 05 26.0  -07 43 30    Primary survey region
 IOA 1511               15 23 31.0  +00 14 58    Primary survey region
 SSA22                  22 17 54.0  +00 14 34
 NICMOS 22hr            22 20 17.2  -24 43 27
 HDF South              22 32 56.2  -60 33 03    Primary survey region


Notes:

     NTT deep field is centred near the z=4.7 QSO BR J1205-0742;
     12 05 23.11 -07 42 32.5.

     The formal centre of the NTT-SUSI_SOFI Deep Field is:
     RA 12h:05m:26s and Dec-07o:43':27''
     see  NTT-SOFI Deep Field