Science case for the LAMA telescope

Aspects of the science case for the Large-Aperture Mirror Array or LAMA telescope are presented. The LAMA telescope will be a large-aperture array of 66 6.15-m diameter primary mirrors operating together to give a light-collecting ability and angular resolution comparable to those of a conventional 50-m diameter telescope. The first-generation instruments of the LAMA telescope will include a multi-band optical- and infrared-wavelength camera and a high-dispersion echelle spectrograph. The most important difference between the LAMA telescope and conventional telescopes is that the LAMA telescope will be constrained to point and track within 4 deg of the zenith, which corresponds to a maximum tracking time per night of ≈ 30 min. This implies that deep observations obtained by the LAMA telescope will be obtained gradually - over periods spanning weeks, months, or years - and so will contain a temporal dimension as a natural consequence of the design and mode of operation of the telescope. This temporal dimension makes possible some of the most interesting science to be performed with the LAMA telescope, ranging from the identification of very high redshift supernovae through observation of the acceleration of the Lyα-forest absorption systems as a direct probe of the expansion history of the universe. The LAMA telescope will be used to carry out an extremely deep, narrow-field imaging survey at optical and infrared wavelengths and a high spectral resolution spectroscopic survey of bright, high-redshift QSOs.