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expect ATI to have a substantial pipeline of projects under way with the realization that many will fail,
but a few will succeed in dramatic fashion. In the decade from 1998-2008, ATI proposals had a somewhat
higher rate of approval for funding than the average for AST, and the committee thinks that this is
appropriate, given the great potential of new technologies for astronomy. The committee received
community input in the form of white papers on the funding needs for technology development in areas
such as adaptive optics, optical and infrared interferometry, millimeter and submillimeter detector arrays,
and high speed, large N correlators. In these areas and others, researchers from around the U.S. had come
together to plan a coherent strategy for the decade. The OIR and RMS panels made a convincing case that
the current level of ATI funding needs to be augmented in order to successfully pursue these highlyranked
technology development programs and roadmaps. In Chapter 7 the committee recommends
increased funding of the ATI program to meet the technology development needs of the future astronomy
and astrophysics program.
DOE-Funded Technology Development
DOE-supported laboratories offer capabilities for technology development that are frequently not
accessible at universities. As a result, unique technologies that could be key for astronomical advances are
developed at DOE laboratories in support of primary DOE missions, and later adapted for astronomical
applications. Examples include: 1) the very-large-format detectors that are now being applied to widearea
astronomical imaging in the Dark Energy Camera, and potentially in LSST and WFIRST; 2) the dye
lasers developed for the Atomic Vapor Laser Isotope Separation Program that were later modified and
adapted for use in laser guide star adaptive optics systems; 3) the Electron Beam Ion Traps that were used
to measure atomic physics processes for DOE’s nuclear weapons mission and subsequently used to
measure cross-sections relevant to astronomical x-ray spectroscopy; 4) the technologies from high-energy
physics that are being used very successfully in the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.
DOE has been supporting specific technology development activities for JDEM and LSST, as
well as more general technology development for TeV experiments and cosmic microwave background
polarization experiments. Continuation of these is of great importance to the committee’s recommended
program.
LABORATORY ASTROPHYSICS
The Scope and Needs of Laboratory Astrophysics
Laboratory astrophysics plays an important role in ensuring the success of current and future
missions and observatories, as highlighted in four of the five Science Frontier Panel reports (see Figure 5-
9). The field of Laboratory Astrophysics comprises experimental and theoretical studies of the underlying
physics that produces observed astrophysical processes. Astronomy is primarily an observational science,
detecting light generated by atomic, molecular, and solid state processes, many of which can be studied in
the laboratory. Our understanding of the universe also relies on knowledge of the evolution of matter
(nuclear and particle physics) and of the dynamical processes shaping it (plasma physics), substantial
parts of which can be studied in the laboratory. 23 As telescope capabilities expand in wavelength coverage
23 Specifically, Laboratory Astrophysics studies processes such as atomic and molecular transitions to obtain
wavelengths, oscillator strengths, branching ratios, and collision cross sections; nuclear reactions to obtain important
cross sections for nucleosynthesis and cosmic ray spallation; plasma dynamics, transport, and dissipation processes
to understand how gases respond to magnetic fields; and chemical reactions in the gas phase and on the surface of
dust grains.
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