Astronomy

As a southern sky near-infrared time-domain survey, DREAMS will be capable of contributing to a large number of different astronomical science cases. Below are some highlights of the primary astronomy and astrophysics objectives for DREAMS, for further details click on the individual links.

Fast Radio Bursts

A new class of millisecond-duration radio transients, termed fast radio bursts (FRBs), has been discovered, but the cause of the bursts is unknown. FRB radio dispersion measures (i.e., frequency-dependent arrival time) and sky distribution strongly indicate extragalactic origins out to high redshift. FRB dispersion measures can be used as a powerful tool to probe and measure the ionised baryons in the intergalactic medium out to high redshift and to understand compact source physics producing such immense energies.

Multi-messenger astronomy

Recent discoveries of both gravitational waves and electromagnetic radiation from a neutron star merger marked the dawn of a new era in multi-messenger astrophysics. GW170817 lit up the entire electromagnetic spectrum, spanning gamma-rays to radio, and for the first time, we saw possible evidence of r-process nucleosynthesis, the process by which half the elements in the periodic table heavier than iron are synthesized.

RR Lyrae Stars

During the epoch of assembly of large disk galaxies, the turbulent velocity of the gas in the disks was falling with time, as first the thick disk formed 10 to 12 Gyr ago, and then the thin disk presumably began to form as the turbulent velocity became lower.