Blake

First Results from the WiggleZ Galaxy Redshift Survey
Chris Blake (Swinburne University of Technology)

The WiggleZ project at the Anglo-Australian Telescope is a large-scale redshift survey of UV-selected emission-line galaxies. The survey is mapping a co-moving volume of approximately 1 Gpc^3 at a significantly higher redshift (0.5 < z < 1.0) than has been previously achieved by projects such as the 2dFGRS and SDSS. The main science goal is to use baryon acoustic oscillations in the galaxy clustering pattern as a standard ruler to measure the cosmic distance scale and expansion rate to z=1 and hence perform a robust test of the cosmological constant model. The survey is approximately 50% complete and is scheduled to finish in 2009. I will introduce the project and present initial results on the clustering, environments and luminosity function of high-redshift star-forming galaxies. I will also discuss forecasts for testing dark energy models with WiggleZ in the context of current and future cosmological datasets.