A Spitzer Warm Mission Ultra‐Wide Survey As A Target Finder For The James Webb Space Telescope

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is the successor to the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes. It has a broad scientific mission which includes spectroscopic studies of the epoch of reionization through observations of $z>8$ quasars. The Spitzer warm mission provides a unique opportunity to conduct an infrared survey of several hundred square degrees to a depth of several micro‐Janskys, capable of finding quasars out to $z = 10.$ Deep JWST continuum spectroscopy of these quasars will establish the epoch and history of the Universe through detection of the Gunn‐Peterson trough and/or Lyman‐α damping wings. The statistics and luminosity function of high‐z quasars will reveal the early history of accretion in the most extreme systems, providing insights in the role of black holes in galaxy evolution. Data obtained from an ultra‐wide warm Spitzer survey will also be useful for other science, including studies of high‐redshift galaxy clusters.