unVEil the darknesS of The gAlactic buLgE (VESTALE)

• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.1812.03124
• Publication Date: 2018-01-01
• Authors: G. Bono; M. Dall'Ora; M. Fabrizio; J. Crestani; V. F. Braga; G. Fiorentino; G. Altavilla; M. T. Botticella; A. Calamida; M. Castellani; M. Catelan; B. Chaboyer; C. Chiappini; W. Clarkson; R. Contreras Ramos; O. Creevey; R. da Silva; V. Debattista; S. Degl'Innocenti; I. Ferraro; C. K. Gilligan; O. Gonzalez; K. Hambleton; G. Iannicola; L. Inno; A. Kunder; B. Lemasle; L. Magrini; D. Magurno; M. Marconi; M. Marengo; S. Marinoni; P. M. Marrese; C. E. Martinez-Va...; N. Matsunaga; M. Monelli; P. G. Prada Moroni; I. Musella; M. G. Navarro; J. Neeley; M. Nonino; A. Pietrinferni; L. Pulone; M. R. Rich; V. Ripepi; G. Sacco; A. Saha; M. Salaris; C. Sneden; P. B. Stetson; R. A Street; R. Szabo; M. Tantalo; E. Tognelli; M. Torelli; E. Valenti; A. R. Walker; M. Zoccali
• Keywords: Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics; LSST; Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA); 0103 physical sciences; FOS: Physical sciences; Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies; 01 natural sciences; Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)

Contribution in response of the Call for White Papers on LSST Cadence Optimization<br/>The main aim of this experiment is to provide a complete census of old (t > 10 Gyr, RR Lyrae, type II Cepheids, red horizontal branch), intermediate age (red clump, Miras) and young (classical Cepheids) stellar tracers across the Galactic Bulge. To fully exploit the unique photometric quality of LSST images, we plan to perform a Shallow minisurvey (ugrizy, -20 < l < 20 deg, -15 < b < 10 deg) and a Deep minisurvey (izy, -20 < l < 20 deg, -3 < b < 3 deg). The former one is aimed at constraining the 3D structure of the galactic Bulge across the four quadrants, and in particular, the transition between inner and outer Bulge. The u,g,r,i,z,y LSST bands provide fundamental diagnostics to constrain the evolutionary properties of low and intermediate-mass stars when moving from a metal-poor to a metal-rich regime. The deep minisurvey is aimed at tracing RR Lyrae, Red Clump stars, Miras and classical Cepheids in highly reddened regions of the Galactic center. These images will allow us to investigate the role that baryonic mass and dark matter played in the early formation and evolution of the MW.<br/>