Notes (and proposal assignments) from Thursday's phone conf. Next phone conf is this coming Thursday.

From: Saul Perlmutter (saul@lbl.gov)
Date: Mon Jan 09 2006 - 00:58:32 PST

  • Next message: Tony Spadafora: "Reminder: Cluster Call Thurs Jan 12"

    Here are notes from Thursday's HST Cluster SN search conference call.
    The topic was work on the upcoming HST proposal. We identified the
    following sections/topics that needed to be either written from scratch
    or updated, or woven in to existing text -- and various people
    volunteered to work on them (I think there was only one topic for which
    somebody "was volunteered.") Please send email if you remember an
    item I forget to write down.

    We will meet on the phone again next week at the same time, i.e.
    Thursday Jan 12 at 10 AM PST.
    Toll Free: 1-866-801-6995, Toll (for International callers):
    1-517-466-6421
    Participant Pass code: 112316

    If at all possible, for these identified topics please send in text
    and/or figures (to Tony Spadafora at ALSpadafora@lbl.gov) to be
    incorporated into the proposal by Thursday so we can see where we stand
    then. See the TWiki page
    http://hstclustersn.lbl.gov:8081/twiki/bin/view/Main/WebHome
    for the working draft. Also, please read last year's draft (i.e. the
    current draft as it stands) to see what other new topics/updates have to
    be incorporated, besides the following ones that were identified in
    today's phone call.

    (Your TWiki login name is likely to be your first and last names put
    together --e.g. SaulPerlmutter -- and your passwrd is likely to be
    "hstclustersn" if you followed the original instructions. If you can't
    get logged in, you can also find the proposal on the
    http://hstclustersn.lbl.gov/ webpage where the name and passwrd are both
    "hstclustersn." )

    1. Find place(s) in proposal to say how our current search is going
    and what the results look like. [KYLE DAWSON]

    2. Address the low SN rate in clusters claimed by Gal-Yam paper,
    perhaps partly by using evidence from what we see so far. (Also explain
    what interesting would be learned if a somewhat lower rate turns out to
    be true.) [KYLE DAWSON & KYLE BARBARY]

    3. The dramatic new science goals that we can obtain from Weak Lensing
    if we now can add significant I band observation time to the clusters.
     Also, if the amount that we can obtain is near optimal (before the
    point of diminishing returns) then say so. [HENK HOEKSTRA]

    4. The new evidence from SNLS that allows us to do the SN searching in
    I band (particularly for z < ~ 1.15 or 1.25). [MAREK KOWALSKI]

    5. What is the scientific return from obtaining another year's worth of
    this SN Ia data? Why is this still worth another 220 orbits? [MAREK
    KOWALSKI and SAUL PERLMUTTER]

    6. Prepare plots showing large peak in number of ellipticals
    (morphologically selected in our data) at a given color (where the
    cluster is), and estimate the ratio of the number in that peak to the
    number in the tail with colors red enough to be above z = 1. [MIKE
    GLADDERS & Co. and PETER EISENHARDT & Co. & MARC POSTMAN]

    7. Color-mag diagrams of z > 1 clusters from space are much better than
    from ground, so a second band (i.e., I band) data added to this year's
    data would be a big deal. What are the major science returns expected
    here? [LORI LUBIN and MARC POSTMAN and ??]

    8. Address concerns that might be raised by evidence for dust in
    clusters, seen in Spitzer data. [PETER EISENHARDT]

    9. Address why using a Grism to get SN spectrum is not a scientifically
    productive use of the orbits (and/or add Grism orbits for the one or
    two SNe where it would be helpful??). [NOT YET ASSIGNED??]

    10. Perhaps we should say that we will weed out the clusters from this
    cycle that were seen to have particularly low numbers of ellipticals (or
    particularly low ratio of ellipticals to non-ellipticals)?

    11. Explain (briefly!) why the AO photometry from the ground will not
    supplant the HST photometry for the SNe -- and how we will get some of
    it anyway. [VITALIY FADEYEV]

    12. Review NICMOS grism mode, confirm that we don't want to use it.
    [GREG ALDERING]



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