CARMENES. I: instrument and survey overview

CARMENES (Calar Alto high-Resolution search for M dwarfs with Exo-earths with Near-infrared and optical Echelle Spectrographs) is a next-generation instrument for the 3.5m telescope at the Calar Alto Observatory, built by a consortium of eleven Spanish and German institutions. The CARMENES instrument consists of two separate échelle spectrographs covering the wavelength range from 0.55 μm to 1.7 μm at a spectral resolution of R = 82, 000, fed by fibers from the Cassegrain focus of the telescope. Both spectrographs are housed in temperature-stabilized vacuum tanks, to enable a long-term 1 m/s radial velocity precision employing a simultaneous calibration with Th-Ne and U-Ne emission line lamps. CARMENES has been optimized for a search for terrestrial planets in the habitable zones (HZs) of low-mass stars, which may well provide our first chance to study environments capable of supporting the development of life outside the Solar System. With its unique combination of optical and near-infrared ´echelle spectrographs, CARMENES will provide better sensitivity for the detection of low-mass planets than any comparable instrument, and a powerful tool for discriminating between genuine planet detections and false positives caused by stellar activity. The CARMENES survey will target 300 M dwarfs in the 2014 to 2018 time frame.

Walter Seifert | Armin Huber | Werner Laun | Ulrich Mall | Vianak Naranjo | Enrique Herrero | Thomas Henning | Mercedes López-Morales | Ignasi Ribas | Jean-Louis Lizon | Andreas Quirrenbach | Clemens Storz | Karl Wagner | Rainer Lenzen | Rafael Morales Muñoz | Klaus Huber | Manuela Vidal-Dasilva | Martin Kürster | Santiago Becerril | Pedro J. Amado | Holger Mandel | Sabine Reffert | Peter Hauschildt | Sandra Jeffers | Ansgar Reiners | Stefan Dreizler | Hans-Walter Rix | Sebastian Schäfer | Wenli Xu | Guillem Anglada-Escude | Artie Hatzes | Heiko Anwand-Heerwart | Petra Rhode | M. Kehr | S. Lalitha | Mauro López del Fresno | M. A. Sánchez Carrasco | Rafael Rebolo | Reinhard Mundt | Viki Joergens | Carmen Feiz | Antonio Claret | Javier López-Santiago | Enrique Solano | Josep Colome | Florian Rodler | Raquel Oreiro | Jonay González Hernández | Maria Rosa Zapatero Osorio | Miguel A. Sánchez Carrasco | Jose A. Caballero | Miguel Abril | Jesus Aceituno | Javier Alonso-Floriano | Matthias Ammler-von Eiff | Regina Antona Jiménez | David Barrado y Navascués | Victor Bejar | Daniel Benitez | Concepcion Cardenas | Miriam Cortés-Contreras | Stefan Czesla | Carlos del Burgo | Michaela Doellinger | R. Dorda | Matilde Fernandez | David Galadi | Rafael Garrido | Josep Guardia | Eike Guenther | Enrique de Guindos | Juan Gutiérrez-Soto | Hans J. Hagen | Jens Helmling | Enrique de Juan | Alexis Klutsch | Ulrike Lemke | Eduardo Martin | Susana Martín-Ruiz | Eduard Mirabet | David Montes | Juan Carlos Morales | Andres Moya | David Pérez Medialdea | Michael Pluto | Ovidio Rabaza | Alejandro Ramon | Eloy Rodríguez | Cristina Rodríguez López | Emilio Rodríguez Pérez | A. Rodriguez Trinidad | Ralf-Reiner Rohloff | Ernesto Sánchez-Blanco | Jorge Sanz-Forcada | Jörg Schiller | Christof Schmidt | Jürgen Schmitt | Otmar Stahl | Julian Stürmer | Juan Carlos Suarez | Ulrich Thiele | Rainer Ulbrich | Johannes Winkler | Mathias Zechmeister | H. Rix | R. Rebolo | M. Doellinger | R. Lenzen | T. Henning | J. Lizon | P. Hauschildt | M. López-Morales | K. Huber | S. Czesla | J. Schmitt | A. Claret | S. Dreizler | A. Hatzes | I. Ribas | E. Guenther | D. Montes | J. Caballero | E. Solano | A. Quirrenbach | M. Vidal-Dasilva | W. Seifert | E. Herrero | J. Morales | G. Anglada-Escudé | O. Rabaza | M. Zechmeister | M. Kürster | M. Cortés-Contreras | A. Reiners | P. Amado | S. Jeffers | V. Béjar | M. Z. Zapatero Osorio | S. Reffert | C. Rodríguez López | O. Stahl | A. Klutsch | R. Mundt | H. Hagen | M. Abril | J. Aceituno | H. Anwand-Heerwart | S. Becerril | C. Feiz | J. Guàrdia | J. Helmling | A. Huber | W. Laun | U. Lemke | H. Mandel | E. Mirabet | A. Moya | V. Naranjo | R. Oreiro | M. Pluto | P. Rhode | F. Rodler | R. Rohloff | J. Sanz-Forcada | J. Schiller | R. Ulbrich | K. Wagner | J. Winkler | S. Lalitha | J. G. González Hernández | J. Colomé | R. Garrido | E. Martín | R. Dorda | E. Rodríguez | J. Lopez-Santiago | C. Storz | J. Suárez | U. Thiele | M. Ammler-von Eiff | R. Antona Jiménez | D. Benítez | D. Galadí | E. de Guindos | J. Gutiérrez-Soto | V. Joergens | E. de Juan | M. Kehr | M. López del Fresno | S. Martín-Ruiz | R. Morales Muñoz | D. Pérez Medialdea | A. Ramón | E. Sánchez-Blanco | S. Schäfer | C. Schmidt | J. Stürmer | C. del Burgo | A. Rodríguez Trinidad | U. Mall | Matilde Fernández | Wenli Xu | D. Barrado y Navascués | Javier Alonso-Floriano | C. Cárdenas | Emilio Rodríguez Pérez | H. Rix

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