BigBOSS: The Ground-Based Stage IV Dark Energy Experiment
  The BigBOSS experiment is a proposed DOE-NSF Stage IV ground-based dark
energy experiment to study baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) and the growth of
structure with an all-sky galaxy redshift survey. The project is designed to
unlock the mystery of dark energy using existing ground-based facilities
operated by NOAO. A new 4000-fiber R=5000 spectrograph covering a 3-degree
diameter field will measure BAO and redshift space distortions in the
distribution of galaxies and hydrogen gas spanning redshifts from 0.2<z<3.5.
The Dark Energy Task Force figure of merit (DETF FoM) for this experiment is
expected to be equal to that of a JDEM mission for BAO with the lower risk and
cost typical of a ground-based experiment.
  This project will enable an unprecedented multi-object spectroscopic
capability for the U.S. community through an existing NOAO facility. The U.S.
community would have access directly to this instrument/telescope combination,
as well as access to the legacy archives that will be created by the BAO key
project.
