We demonstrate a conceptual design for a high-resolution infrared spectrograph, the Dark Matter Quest Spectrograph: DMQS, dedicated to detecting dark matter. A crucial standout of the DMQS is it is not optimized for typical astronomical observations but for searching for dark matter. Although it is a relatively simple setup compared to some other competitive instruments and facilities, some of which have billion-dollar budgets, only a few nights’ observation with the DMQS and a small telescope with F/10 will enable to detect the faintest signal from dark matter to date for its observable mass range of dark matter. The DMQS’s compatibility with small telescopes also increases the chance of long-term observations, further improving its sensitivity to search for dark matter.
Compact refractive adaptive optics (CRAO) is a visible compact adaptive optics (AO) system optimized for small telescopes. It was mounted on the 1.3 m Araki telescope of Koyama Astronomical Observatory (KAO) in Kyoto Sangyo University, Japan. CRAO aims to improve the natural seeing 3” to 0.8” at 500 nm at the KAO site. Thus, it needs a large format and highly frequent camera for wide field survey (WFS) and a largely segmented depth map (DM) because the natural seeing ∼3” at the KAO site is especially poor for astronomical observations. To improve the performance of CRAO with a new WFS and DM, we searched for the optimal AO parameters (the number of WFS subapertures (NWFS), the number of DM actuators (NDM), and the loop frequency (fL) with two AO simulators using yao and COMPASS. Consequently, we found that NWFS > 12×12, NDM > 80, and fL > 800 Hz are necessary to achieve the full width at half maximum (FWHM) < 0.8” for point spread function (PSF) under the KAO site’s atmospheric conditions. Finally, we calculated the limiting magnitude (Vlim) with commercially available sensors for WFS and DMs. By combining ORCA-Lightning (Hamamatsu Photonics) and DM97-15 (ALPAO), a deeper limiting magnitude (Vlim ∼ 4.4) can be achieved, even with a 1 m-class telescope.
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