Armin Karcher
Papers
2
Total Citations
182
H-Index
2
About
Armin Karcher is a leading engineer and instrument scientist whose work has been central to advancing robotic fiber positioning for massive spectroscopic sky surveys. His primary research area is the design and implementation of high-precision, multi-object focal plane systems that enable the simultaneous observation of thousands of celestial targets. Karcher’s most significant contribution is his leadership in the development of the robotic fiber positioner system for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). As detailed in his highly cited 2022 paper (175 citations), he helped create a system of 5,020 robots on the Mayall Telescope that can automatically and accurately reposition optical fibers every 10–20 minutes to a precision of several microns, a feat critical for mapping the universe’s expansion. This work builds on his earlier foundational design for the BigBOSS instrument (2012), which laid the groundwork for DESI’s transformative capability. Karcher’s engineering achievements have directly enabled DESI to survey tens of millions of galaxies and quasars, making him a key figure in modern observational cosmology and precision instrumentation.
Research Focus
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