The Wide Field Survey Telescope (WFST) is a dedicated photometric survey
facility under construction jointly by the University of Science and Technology
of China and Purple Mountain Observatory. It is equipped with a primary mirror
of 2.5m in diameter, an active optical system, and a mosaic CCD camera of 0.73
Gpix on the main focus plane to achieve high-quality imaging over a field of
view of 6.5 square degrees. The installation of WFST in the Lenghu observing
site is planned to happen in the summer of 2023, and the operation is scheduled
to commence within three months afterward. WFST will scan the northern sky in
four optical bands (u, g, r, and i) at cadences from hourly/daily to
semi-weekly in the deep high-cadence survey (DHS) and the wide field survey
(WFS) programs, respectively. WFS reaches a depth of 22.27, 23.32, 22.84, and
22.31 in AB magnitudes in a nominal 30-second exposure in the four bands during
a photometric night, respectively, enabling us to search tremendous amount of
transients in the low-z universe and systematically investigate the variability
of Galactic and extragalactic objects. Intranight 90s exposures as deep as 23
and 24 mag in u and g bands via DHS provide a unique opportunity to facilitate
explorations of energetic transients in demand for high sensitivity, including
the electromagnetic counterparts of gravitational-wave events detected by the
second/third-generation GW detectors, supernovae within a few hours of their
explosions, tidal disruption events and luminous fast optical transients even
beyond a redshift of 1. Meanwhile, the final 6-year co-added images,
anticipated to reach g about 25.5 mag in WFS or even deeper by 1.5 mag in DHS,
will be of significant value to general Galactic and extragalactic sciences.
The highly uniform legacy surveys of WFST will also serve as an indispensable
complement to those of LSST which monitors the southern sky.Comment: 46 pages, submitted to SCMP