TDSS

Principal Investigators: Paul Green (SAO) and Scott Anderson (UW).

The Time-Domain Spectroscopic Survey (TDSS) will select time-variable targets for spectroscopic follow-up. These targets will include quasars and several classes of variable stars, some of which may reveal previously unidentified phenomena. By spectroscopically identifying the physical nature of 100,000 detected variables, TDSS will greatly enhance the power of these existing data sets to illuminate the physics of stars and quasars. Future photometric surveys (such as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope) will leverage TDSS observations to classify their detections more robustly.

TDSS will additionally devote a number of fiber to "few-epoch spectroscopy" to study spectroscopic variability of special classes, such as double-peaked emission line quasars, broad-absorption line quasars, and dwarf carbon stars.

The combination of TDSS with the eBOSS large-scale structure sample of quasars, and the SPIDERS X-ray selected AGN sample, will create a unique window into the full population of quasars at all epochs to redshift z = 3.