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Advancing our knowledge and understanding of the stellar and diffuse int= erstellar content of the Milky Way continues to occupy a central position i= n astronomy: advances in characterising stellar and interstellar processes,= working now, locally support progress in understanding the appearance, con= tent, and evolutionary histories of galaxies in the wider, younger Universe= . Uniquely, it is in the Milky Way that we easily access individual example= s of the least well-described, short-lived phases in stellar evolution, dow= n to sub-solar-mass objects =E2=80=93 and study at maximum angular re= solution the relationship between stars and the interstellar medium (ISM). = Topics of current significance include environmental effects in the formati= on of stars, extinction and ISM mapping, the lifecycle of high-mass stars, = mass-loss phenomena across the HRD, the consequences of binary interaction,= the approach to end states of cooling white dwarfs, X-ray emitting binarie= s and gravitational wave sources.
This programme is about Galactic Plane science, favouring the higher-mas= s and young/old extremes of stellar evolution, rather than the more frequen= t older stars that are the natural focus of Galactic archaeology. It is als= o about the ISM on the large scale =E2=80=93 both ionised gas, made visible= via Halpha and other optical emission lines, and also the medium seen in a= bsorption against background starlight. The R=3D5000 mode of WEAVE will pro= vide unprecedented access to the physical and chemical properties of the ga= seous and dusty ISM, along with sufficient kinematic resolution to discern = the contributions from major cloud components lying along every sightline s= ampled. For stars, spect= roscopy at R~5000, spanning almost the entire optical range, provides many = types of information that cannot be derived from photometry alone: these in= clude systemic/orbital radial velocities, sound stellar parameters and meta= llicity, first evidence of chemical peculiarity, interstellar absorption fe= atures, a broad suite of constraints on circumstellar/nebular matter, mass = transfer/loss signatures, and signs of magnetic activity. At the high= er resolution available, R =3D 20000, observations in the Cygnus region and= Galactic Anticentre can take this further through the measurement of indiv= idual element abundances, the determination of better constraints on binari= ty, and access to enhanced precision of radial velocity measurement that ca= n expose more subtle localised velocity dispersion.
For target selection, SCIP will draw on Gaia data releases, and also the= INT Galactic Plane Surveys (IGAPS, comprising the IPHAS and UVEX surveys) = covering the northern plane, and VPHAS+ at the VST in the south (Drew et al= 2005, Groot et al 2009, Drew et al 2014, Monguio et al 2020). The gr= oundbased photometric surveys have captured more than half a billion point = sources in the Milky Way=E2=80=99s disc =E2=80=93 its main mass component = =E2=80=93 from which well-tuned samples of the target object types can be e= xtracted down to at least V~19. A defining feature of the SC= IP survey, supported by the IGAPS surveys, is that the samples studied will= correct previous bias favouring clustered environments =E2=80=93 for the f= irst time high-precision target selection across the wide field is possible= and has been undertaken (see e.g. Raddi et al 2015, Harris et al 2018, Gre= imel et al 2021).
The current SCIP footprint is shown below:
The main target groups for SCIP are, in roughly descending order of tota= l expected target numbers: massive OBA stars, including emission line stars= and red supergiants; ionised nebulae and the diffuse ISM; young stars acro= ss the wide field; white dwarfs and compact binaries.