The Dark Matter Telescope

Weak gravitational lensing enables direct reconstruction of dark matter maps over cosmologically significant volumes. This research is currently telescope-limited. The Dark Matter Telescope (DMT) is a proposed 8.4 m telescope with a 3° field of view, with an etendue of 260 m2 deg2, ten times greater than any other current or planned telescope. With its large etendue and dedicated observational mode, the DMT fills a nearly unexplored region of parameter space and enables projects that would take decades on current facilities. The DMT will be able to reach 10σ limiting magnitudes of 27–28 magnitude in the wavelength range.3–1μm over a 7 deg2 field in 3 nights of dark time. Here we review its unique weak lensing cosmology capabilities and the design that enables those capabilities.